Does anyone have experience with the low whistles made by A Karavaev? I've listened to a couple of sound clips from Karavaev himself and I watched the youtube videos of a another man giving his review of the E, Eb, D and C whistles.

Just wondering if any of you all have played one and what you think about them. I've been eyeing his low E whistle.

Thanks in advance.

I havent played them but I've heard very good things about them. My favorite band, and the group that actually got me into playing whistle, uses them now. Heres their little review https://www.facebook.com/eluveitie/vide ... 1236348801

Heres the one on the left in that video playing one of them
https://www.facebook.com/eluveitie/post ... 3457196284

Also the guy in a few of Alina Gingertails newer videos has been playing a Karavaev whistle.

I also think he can charge less for these than a lot of other makers because economics, USA and EU money converts well to Russian (I could be totally wrong on this one though, I'm not an economics expert haha). So these seem to be a very good deal.

Thanks Narzog, I had not seen those videos.

I think (but I'm not sure) that Ali Levack also plays them in some of his videos. If that is true then he is using the older, all metal, model of them.

Not sure about this. I don't know Ali, but in any video I've ever seen of him he's playing a Goldie.

You are probably correct. That is the reason I said I wasn't sure. I read it in a comment somewhere (I don't remember where) that he was playing a Karavaev in that video. But they could have been wrong.

Have you seen this video? It's nice because this guy is obviously a good player and he looks at many aspects of the Karavaev whistles, the tuning of the octaves, the responsiveness of high notes, clogging, C natural fingerings, etc. He doesn't hesitate to say when something doesn't seem optimal to him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8m5FHTyw4ZM&t=14s

One thing to be aware of is that, according to what Karavaev states on his Ebay listings, he uses the same tubing size (22mm ID) for his Low C, Low D, Low Eb, Low E, and Low F.

I know it's common for makers to use their Low D tubing for the adjacent keys Low C and Low Eb, but once you get up to F the bore is getting too big.

For comparison Goldie uses a tad over 18mm ID for his F, and Alba uses around 18.5mm.

Even Burke, who uses larger bores for all their sizes than most, uses around 20mm for his F.

Given that Karavaev uses the same tubing for all his whistles I expect Low C, Low D, and Low Eb to play fine but Low E to feel a tad big and Low F to feel quite big.

_________________
Richard Cook
1978 Quinn uilleann pipes
1945 Starck Highland pipes
Goldie Low D whistle

Thank you pancelticpiper. That is good to know. Correct me if I'm wrong. That would mean the E and F whistles are very wide bore whistles and am I correct that would make the lower octave very nice but the upper half of the 2nd octave would be "stiff" as you like to put it? Harder to hit and maintain the notes???

(I just measured my MK D is 22mm and my MK F is 19mm.)

Yes all things being equal (and I think Karavaev is using the same plastic top on the various sizes) as the bore gets wider the low octave gets stronger and the 2nd octave becomes stiffer.

Burke is a bit of an outlier in that he likes to maintain, for his full range of sizes, a bigger bore than most makers think optimal.

The exception of course being Burke's "narrow bore" models which from what I've seen have the normal bores most makers use.

The opposite is my Alba Low E for which the maker used the tubing ordinary used for F whistles. It has a super sweet 2nd octave and the low octave is a tad quiet, a tad soft. I actually love playing that whistle, though it took some getting used to.

It's a balancing act, and most makers have arrived at around the same length-to-bore ratio which ends up having around 21.5mm to 22mm for Low D, which gives acceptably strong low notes and acceptably sweet high notes.

At the extremes, if the bore is wide enough you loose the 2nd octave altogether, and if the bore is narrow enough you loose the low octave altogether.

_________________
Richard Cook
1978 Quinn uilleann pipes
1945 Starck Highland pipes
Goldie Low D whistle