If you’re interested, please P M me your name and address. Lower 48 and C & F members only at this time. I’m impressed with the tone and am looking forward to trying them. I suspect they will start they’re journey in mid February.
Hello,
The Open Whistle tour is an idea of "retired". If someone wants to organize an Open Whistle tour in Europe, this is possible.
If you have questions about the Open Whistle, I can answer you.
Good day.
The 2 Open Whistles have arrived from France and are now on their way to the first member that signed up for the tour. Looking forward to feedback about them.
From what I can tell from the photos and description, the sounding mechanism is similar - at least in general concept - to a shakuhachi (or a quena or several of the rim-blown Native American flutes) but the tuning is like a penny/tin/ITM whistle. So it manufacturer provides it with a new name…
I expect that, like the instruments above, it should provide some very interesting tones. It will be interesting to see how folks get along with it on some of the dance music.
So, I think that I am the first one on the US tour. I received two open whistles in the mail about a week ago. I looked at these whistles because I have a quena, a xio(sp), a shakuhachi (well more than a few), and anasazi (rim blown flutes). So, the open part of the whistle intrigued me.
First, the gauge of the metal (not sure what metal it is) is very nice and solid. I was worried about the part that sticks between your chin and bottom lip (you have to make a seal) would irritate or even cut your skin. Well, that isn’t an issue.
The flutes were well finished. No tool marks. There were rings that were cut into the flutes. Like burn rings in NAF flutes. Very nicely done.
I did some measurements as well. The emb is U shaped. More like the xio that I have. Certainly not shak or rim blown. Quena’s that I have seen are V or some U shaped. I measured one at 11mm wide and 10 mm long. The other was larger and made the total length longer and the hole spacing different and the holes larger especially in r1,r2,and r3.
The sounding length was 540 mm with an ID of 20 mm and 2mm thick walls.
As for the holes and spacing, you would need piper’s grip or pinky for r3. r2-r3 was 42 mm. The other whistle appear much more. Thus, with my small hands, I did not do much with it.
I put the whistle on the tuner and it was in tune and with itself. As with the flute, emb is crutial. In addition, the seal and techniques with rim blown,shack, and quena techniques are critical.
The hole sizes.
L1 11mm
L2 9mm
L3 9 mm
R1 8mm
R2 11mm
R3 8mm
I will be sending the flutes to the next person in the next few days.
Thanks for the report. Since you also play quena, I’m curious how long you think it’d take for someone who has never played flute or quena to learn the embouchure and get a good sound out of it?
You are welcome. The key for the emb will be the seal first. Then, the emb is crutial. It took me about 3 months. I bet with a teacher. It would take less. I learned alot from a teacher about a flute. But, my work with shak, rim blown and quena helped me with the flute. With the flute, I did not have to make the same kind of seal as with the quena, etal.
Hard to compare with my quena. My quena is a higher key. I think a lower key is a different term. My spelling is horrible. So, I won’t even try. My quena has a thumb hole. Makes the upper register easier. With this whistle, the challenge in the second register is the same as with a flute (my humble opinion). But, the tone of this whistle is very nice. I did not push into the second register. I think others will be a better judge for that than me.