Chiff and Fipple Forums

I just ordered a Susato S series Kildare whistle in the key of C.
I notice that the head will also fit the key of B S series body.
Quick question is the intonation on the B pretty good?
Ive owned a D which was very good
I don't play in a group or do sessions these days, I'll just be playing around the House.
The C whistle will be more mellow than the D and I'm guessing the B even more so

I used to have Susatos in every key ranging all the way down to Low C.

While a few had well-tuned scales (the Low D and Mezzo A were perfect) the tuning of many of those Susatos was all over the map.

It's understandable I suppose, because some of the keys like Mezzo Ab and Mezzo Gb are unusual and they probably made very few of them, probably didn't have much R&D under their belt.

Except for the Low D and Mezzo A, each size had a unique out-of-tune scale. One might have a couple notes super sharp, another a couple notes super flat.

The worst one (I think it was the Low E natural) had the combination of some notes super sharp and some super flat, on the same whistle.

Happily the plastic they use is easy to carve, and since I used the whistles for professional gigs every size whistle had to be exactly in tune so I carved out all the flat notes and put tape on the sharp notes. One whistle, I think it was the Low E natural, had a super flat bellnote so I had to chop the whistle.

Anyhow that was my experience owning 20 or 30 Susatos over the years, so who can say what your whistle will be like. Maybe now they've fixed everything, I wouldn't know, I haven't purchased a Susato in quite a few years now.

I should mention especially the Susato Mezzo A whistles. I owned them in three different bore sizes, and interestingly the best of all was a very narrow-bore one, it was the same tubing they used on their High D whistles at the time. The tuning and voicing on that one was perfection, that Mezzo A and the Low C were the best-playing Susatos I owned.