Greetings,I’ve been a lurker for sometime and thought it was time to dip in. Anyway,I have the Susato 3 piece set which is overall ok. However, the D body has a hard time hitting the high G without squeak/crack/squack,etc. Has anyone had this problem? The other bodies are fine, and I esp. like the C. Is there any fix for this?
Don’t have any solutions for you but I wanted to validate your findings–I have the same problem with the D . . . and the Bb–my set is the original more narrow bore DCBb.
Alas, same story here with my Eb. I never play it anymore. I guess what I’m saying is that it’s up for grabs to anyone who wants to pay the postage.
I have a Susato D–someone gave it to me–and it’s absolutely awful. Terrible squawk on G or above. I just don’t play it ever.
It’s incredible that a company that makes a reasonably good C whistle has turned out such a piece of junk with their D. And, in case you guys aren’t already aware of it, the D Susato has a bad reputation and has been the subject of many comments like your own on this board. It takes the lungs of an Olympic marathon runner to play the top of the second octave and results in a screech heard for several miles! On the other hand the C whistle with its mellow flute like sound was one of my favorite whistles for a long time. Go figure! I guess like Generation they have the ability to make a consistently good product but just don’t bother.
No, Susato cares about its whistles.
I’ve talked to them several times over
the years, they are definitely wanting to make good whistles and believe in their
product. I like the C whistle best, too,
and the D I find a bit shrill upstairs, but
I’ve never experienced the squawking
mentioned in these posts or serious air
demands–I’ve played a fair number
of Susato Ds (as well as everything
else they make). So, either people are
needing to develop their chops or you
have defective whistles. If, finally,
you believe it’s the latter, I recommend
you call or write Susato and tell
them about it. A good whistle maker
will do something about such a whistle.
Check Dale’s review of Susatos–I believe
you can find contact info there.
On 2002-02-16 15:47, Tom_Gaul wrote:
It’s incredible that a company that makes a reasonably good C whistle has turned out such a piece of junk with their D. And, in case you guys aren’t already aware of it, the D Susato has a bad reputation and has been the subject of many comments like your own on this board. It takes the lungs of an Olympic marathon runner to play the top of the second octave and results in a screech heard for several miles! On the other hand the C whistle with its mellow flute like sound was one of my favorite whistles for a long time. Go figure! I guess like Generation they have the ability to make a consistently good product but just don’t bother.
Am I the only person here who likes Susatos? I think not, because they WON the inexpensive whistles poll a couple of years ago. They don’t have a bad reputation, they have a mixed reputation.
I have owned a half-dozen Susatos, and I think they’re a great whistle for the price. I agree with you that the C is a much better whistle than the D (the low-F also is much better than the low-D), but I’ve owned two D’s and played quite a few more and have had none of the problems people have been citing in several threads recently. I really haven’t seen much variation between them, either. Maybe I’m lucky.
I agree with some of the main complaints about Susatos: they do have a pure sound, though I wouldn’t call them recordery. And they’re LOUD, but not as loud as my Thin Weasel. They take a lot of breath, but again nowhere near the breath that my TW takes. Nor the breath that a Clarke, Shaw, etc. takes.
I’ve never had the octave breaking problem that many people complain about. I suspect that people who are not used to playing them just don’t blow hard enough.
I’m not in love with Susatos or anything, and play them seldom since I’ve got a lot of nicer (and more expensive) whistles. When I was learning and wanted something better sounding and more playable than cheapies, but still didn’t want to shell out a hundred bucks or more, I bought a few and played them quite a bit. I think they strike a good balance between a cheapie whistle and a high-end whistle.
Charlie
I recommend the Sweetone D, I think the cheapest priced whistle out there, to anyone who doesn’t like the sound they produce on Susato D. It may or may not be a matter of fine breath control. When I first started playing, I had only Susatos. I got pretty good on the D, but when I got my Sweetone and some other higher grade whistles, I noticed all sorts of problems with the Susato that I had missed before. I still like my Susato C.
Charlie, I agree with everything you wrote above!
Mick
Jim and Charlie,
I didn’t mean to imply that the company itself has a bad reputation. I was referring only to the D whistle and the many negative comments I have seen on the board about it and always for the same reasons. I also remember my own disappointment some time back when I got the Bb, C, D combination package. After getting reasonable sounds on the Bb, wonderful sounds on the C, I tried the most important D. Again I got very nice sounds in the first octave. When I reached the upper part of the second octave I felt shocked and cheated! What was wrong with the darn thing! I had been playing a Generation off and on for several years so I wasn’t a total beginner. I just couldn’t play those upper notes without practically blowing my head off! I won’t question your own experiences. You may be blessed with good whistles or great lungs. When I read about other people running into the same problems I had it draws me out of my cage! I am now quite happy with my Sindt and Burke whistles so whistles with bad second octaves are a thing of the past. I wouldn’t want new whistles players to assume that the problem might be with their playing when it could very well be with the whistle.
My best wishes to you all, Tom
Susatos were my second whistle (If it wasn’t for you, Pegritz, I’d be much richer and a lot less happy! CURSES!). Bob gave me an Oak with my first class with him. Then I ordered the 3 Susatos. After a few months, I played the Oak over the Susatos. I found a gap in the wind between octaves that neither note sounded. I had some squeek problems. I now feel those squeek problems were my wind not matching the instrument. I should have played those notes more agressively. It increases the volume, but the notes live where they live.
They stayed in my glove box for a few years. They are still there, but I like to play them more often. After hearing several expert musicians play them (Jerry O and Tony Cuffe {R.I.P.]) with great skill, I questioned my reservations of the whistle. My D is not that bad at all, now that my playing has improved. I feel that playing many different whistles has given me a much better sensitivity as to how hard to blow into the whistles and get the sounds I want. I can now push the lower envelope of wind to still hit the second octave. I even sometimes play Sean Sa Cheo in the Car with closed windows on my Susato D. Practice will get you there. That’s my thought, at least.
That was my first whistle. I also found it squeaky and the dog did me a favour by chewing it. My favourite is the Tony Dixon Soprano D. It’s very carefully hidden from the dog.
I was going to edit my message, but there have been some substantive responses, so I wanted to clarify one thing and add something that I just thought of.
First, although I quoted Tom’s message, I wasn’t responding to him specifically, but to a lot of negative messages about Susatos with very little positive said about them. I suspect that there are quite a few people out there who hate them for their own reasons, but I don’t think that there are a lot who love them passionately, so there wasn’t anybody jumping up to defend them. I don’t love them, but I like them and wanted to point out that not everybody hates them.
The thing that had occurred to me since my post is that it’s not the volume of wind that makes the Susatos difficult for some people to play in the upper octave. There are a lot of people saying that Susatos take too much wind, then recommending SweeTones, which take a lot more wind. The difficult thing about Susatos is they take a substantial amount of wind, but at the same time a lot of pressure. That combination of wind and pressure means that, as MarkJ pointed out, you really have to attack the music on these whistles. The back pressure also gives the player feedback that’s not there in something like a Clarke.
I certainly don’t expect these whistles to be everybody’s cup of tea, but they’re not crap, either. Heck, I have a SweeTone that I bought because so many people here rave about them, and I can’t stand it. But rather than calling it a piece of crap, I just say it’s not my kind of whistle.
Cheers, Charlie
A couple of years ago Glen Schultz made
me a water weasel Bb with an additional
A tube. I couldn’t play the thing far into
the second octave and was
disappointed. Thought something was
the matter with the whistles. Well,
it turned out that I simply had never
met wind demands like that before, you
see. I had been playing a Sindt and so
on, which needed little air. Once I
got stronger, by playing these and
other more demanding whistles, I found
the weasel Bb and A were excellent
whistles.
I honestly think people might be
running into that sort of problem with
the Susato D. Because these are injection
molded plastic, these are about as
consistent as whistles get. I’ve
played many of em and never run into
one that didn’t play upstairs. So my
opinion, for what it’s worth, is that
people may need to take the whistle
out somewhere rural and wail on it for
awhile. Play from the diaphragm.
Similarly (but more so) it took me months to control a Copeland low D.
To echo some of the comments above,
Susatos aren’t my favorite whistles,
though I think the C is remarkably
good for the price–as does everybody
else on this thread, it seems.
The D is shrill above
the high G–well, the traditional response
is to staccotto the high notes, cause
D whistles are often shrill
upstairs. The Copeland nickel D
is also shrill. Similar materials and design
can have different tonal properties
in different keys; unfortunately the
D may not be Susato’s strong suit; the
design and material work better in c.
But playable they are, IMHO.
The original post asked what might
be done about the squawking upstairs.
Here’s a practical answer: find a place
without other sentient beings and blow
on the thing. You may need to get
stronger. And if that doesn’t work,
call Susato and ask for a replacement.
Hope this helps, Best wishes
P.S. I think Charlie’s point about
back pressure is spot on.
I have my friend’s Susato C D Eb set with me and sometimes I’m just reluctant to give it back. These are well made whistles that give lotsa volume. They sound pretty good when miked as well (if required). These are not timid whistles however, and like Charlie said, if you’ve got these you can’t play with low/wavering breath pressure. I use them exclusively in occassions where my Gens are not loud enough.
Kari’s S-U-S-A-T-O was and still is a very good whistle.Yeah..It takes a bit of pressure
to play it well..My one and only complaint was its volume. We sit close to each other while practicing,(Not by choice,its the constaints of where we practice)everytime she popped that second octave my ears would begin to ring, With the Dixon high “D” and the Silkstone high “D” its non existent
Dan
I too had a difficult time with the second octave; I recognized quickly it was my playing. Not the whistle. I think part of my major problem was that I was already aware that this whistle was a lot more louder than any whislte in the house playing at that time, and was self conscience (bad spelling) of making it any louder! Once I was determined I could hit those second octave notes, but could tell that Dan (graphics guy) was not exactly comfortable. 
All in all, it’s a very nice whistle for the price and I’m glad I’ve had the opportunity to play one for long periods of time.
I certainly won’t be gifting it away any time soon!
When I first got my Bb-C-D set, I really hadn’t played much whistle, outside of occasionally on a twenty year old Generation C. The D definitely has been more particular about breath control than the C, which is almost easy to play. On the D, B and up were quite difficult. If this makes sense, I find that the direction of the wind flow is at least as important as the breath support and blowing harder. As I have used it more, I find that the B is not nearly as loud or shrill as it was previously (or maybe I now have hearing loss at that frequency .) As an aside - I notice that Susato now has higher whistles, up to high G; wonder how the family dog would like those?
I think you are on the right track that the higher notes of the second octave is shrill, but mine doesn’t squeek any more. I’ve been playing whistle for upwards of 15 years and Susatos in particular for most of that. I needed to loose some of that shrillness out of the D whistle I’m using at the moment cause I’m using it for some classical stuff. Anyone who knows the Pachabells Cannon in D will know there is alot of stuff in the higher levels and when played with a new susato it sounded real bad… and I mean REAL bad. This is the problem you are talking about. I took the said whistle away and blew the shite (excuse the language) out of it in the upper register. I thought I could find a compromise between the required amount of blowing and the correct tuning at that level. I don’t know is that what happened but it doesn’t squeek anymore. Not even when playing the high C# or when my 10 yr old brother gets his hands on it.
Moral of the story…blow and blow and blow. It seems to do something