Chiff and Fipple Forums

I received it today, two months after the purchase date due to the slow down in shipping and delivery times caused by the corona virus. It is well made, silver aluminum body and black glossy plastic mouthpiece. The sound it's good, a bit chiffy/breathy (which I like) but not too much like a Chieftain V5. I could say that it reminds me the sound of a Kerry Optima. It has a stable and quite bold low D, and as far as I can judge from a first impression, intonation is good. The switch from low to high register is easy, still when you play the lower octave notes are stable and do not break easily, which is good. The tone holes are unusually stretched compared to most other low D whistles, in fact I have to use the piper grip also with my left hand, which I do not need to do with my Chieftain, Optima, Thunderbird and Howard. So if you are interested in this whistle take into account that you will probably have to adjust a bit your grip.
In summary, considering that it costs around $120.00 shipped to the United States (mine is the non tunable version) it is a good buy. You may consider, though, that currently a non tunable Kerry Optima costs less than $100.00 shipped to the United States, and in my personal view it offers excellent features and tone, and a friendlier tone holes placement. But if you decide to go with the Nightingale, I believe that you will not be disappointed.

Thanks for the review!

I get what you're saying about the widely-spaced holes for the upper hand, I had to do the same thing, start using piper's grip on the upper hand due to that issue with Low C and Bass A whistles.

On Ebay Karavaev has whistles at four different price-points

$344 (appears to be Overton style all alloy)
$162 black plastic top on anodized alloy tube with metal tuning slide
$142 black plastic top on plain alloy tube with metal tuning slide
$118 black plastic top on plain alloy tube, no tuning slide, tuning is done by moving the head

I don't know what the practical difference would be between having a tuning slide machined into the alloy tube, and just moving the plastic head up and down on the alloy tube.

This review is very interesting, this guy plays E, Eb, D, and C of the model with black plastic top and plain alloy tube body with tuning slide.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8m5FHTyw4ZM

The way he describes the whistles playing seems similar to my Goldie with a wider windway, more freeblowing, easy 2nd octave, and a bit higher air consumption. I get the impression that guy is used to playing whistles with tighter windways.

Seems that Karavaev uses the same head and tubing from Low C up to mezzo F. That would make for a rather big-bore F favouring the low octave I would think.

BTW he states a 22mm bore which is about what Goldie uses for his Low D and what Burke uses for his Low Eb.

Update: after a week playing this whistle, I have a criticism. The intonation on the second register is not perfect, some notes are flat and need to be compensated blowing hard.

I think this is problem have all whistles

I have six low Ds from six different makers and in my opinion this one has more intonation problems on the second register than the others. I still like its sound, though. But between the unusual streched tone holes placement and the intonation issues on the second register, I find that this low D requires a longer period of adjustment compared to others.

neviditsin wrote:I think this is problem have all whistles

In my experience a flat 2nd octave is a common problem with whistles but by no means universal.

Some are the other way, too sharp in the 2nd octave.

It's a complicated issue.

Part of it is that no matter what you have to blow differently in the 2nd octave. Because if you blew, say, G in the low octave the same you would still be sitting on that note in the low octave. Blowing harder to play in the 2nd octave is a must. The question is, how much harder?

The following will be concerning Low D whistles, one because I have more experience with those, and two because they amplify quirks found in high whistles.

You can have three Low D whistles, all very good, that have their 2nd octaves tuned in three different places. All can be played in tune once you get used to them. The tuning of the 2nd octave does dictate what you can do, if the 2nd octave is on the sharp side you have to underblow it so if you back off it just falls to the low octave. But if the 2nd octave is tuned a bit flat you have to give it more support to make it sharp enough to be in tune. That means you can back off quite a bit on notes, let them fall in pitch, yet they stay in the 2nd octave. I call this having "room" underneath the notes, so that you can do expressive things with your breath.

In playing dozens of Low D whistles from every maker I could get I found that some of them had rather flat 2nd octaves, a few had sharp 2nd octaves, and most were right in the middle, where I prefer them to be. Low Ds with that middle tuning, which coming from flute feels most natural to me, include Goldie, Reyburn, Reviol, Susato, Burke, and Alba.

MK is an example of a Low D with a slightly sharp 2nd octave. It's easy to get used to, and the advantage is that the low octave and 2nd octave are voiced close together giving you a very nimble flexible instrument. Another advantage of a slightly sharp 2nd octave is that you have to strongly blow the low octave and be a bit more gentle with the 2nd octave which helps even out the disparity in volume between the octaves that all Low Whistles have.

gerardo1000 wrote:I have six low Ds from six different makers and in my opinion this one has more intonation problems on the second register than the others.

Is the 2nd octave flat overall or is it more with certain notes?

It seems like a flat 2nd octave E is a fairly common problem. Other times it's the B.

Like you, I find an overly large finger-spread with the upper hand very annoying.

I tend to gravitate towards Low Ds with a more ergonomic upper hand. The lower hand I'm more flexible with, for some reason.

Only certain notes (two) are flat on the second octave. I find this a bit more annoying than having all notes flat. I played several times the same scale with my Optima, my Howard, my Thunderbird, my Dixon and my Chieftain V5, and I found that the Nightingale is less in tune compared to the others (others that by no means are perfect, although I found the whistles from Phil Hardy to b the best as far as tuning is concerned). Still, I like this low D and I am happy to have it, it has a beautiful sound and quite a bold low register.