Hello, I have a Burke session D whistle which I love. However, I want to get a narrow bore D and am confused by a review on Mr. Burke’s site that says that someone sent their narrow bore back to get the thumbhole drilled in because the half-hole C was nearly impossible to do.
Is this true? I want to be able to do half-hole C’s on my new baby and don’t necessarily want to get a thumbhole unless it’s absolutely necessary.
Could anyone who has a Burke D narrow bore please give me some feedback?
I have a wide variety of whistles and flutes. none of them are difficult to half-hole. (well, maybe the first octave Eb on my M&E flute is a bit of a challenge…) i have dixons, o-briens, feadogs, waltons, generations, parks, an oz, and susatos for whistles. all half hole very well.
i have dixon, M&E, cooperman, t.d. o’conner and a lot of home-made flutes and fifes. all half hole well.
half holing is a pretty widely accepted method of fingering, so i would be surprised if there were any kind of half holing problem with any of Mr. Burke’s whistles given their popularity in the whistle community.
Welcome to C&F. I play Burke high D’s in all three materials and in both session and narrow bores. I have C natural thumb holes drilled in a brass session bore and an aluminum narrow bore. The extra hole is not necessary,IMO. I keep the C natural hole on both of those whistles taped closed. Half-holing on the Burke is no different than on any other high D whistle, again IMO. For dance tunes I half-hole or cross-finger the C naturals depending on the phrase being played. And I have no issues with the results. Both whistles with the C natural thumb holes were purchased from other players and they had the holes drilled by Mike as their preference. I will add that the C natural hole does give a very nice solid note when I do use it. Maybe I would use it if I played more slow tunes.
Thanks much, Jiminos and Feadoggie. This is good advice and sets my mind at ease - no thumbhole it will be. I really liked reading the extra posts with Michael Burke too. Lots of good info and he seems to be a really nice guy, which to me makes his whistles that much more special.
I wish you both the best - see you around the forum.
Followup: I went ahead and bought a Burke brass narrow-bore. Now I’m wondering why I waited so long! It’s an incredible instrument - sweet, easy to play, and beautiful! I’m very happy with it and consider Mr. Burke a true artist.
Thanks again Feadoggie and Jiminos - no problem at all with half-holing
