I’m very impressed with the quality of my Water Weasel high D whistle. I love the sound (i just sent my first clip to clips&snips, but you can check it out here too).
Anywhoo… loverly sound, great dynamics (i can play it loud, but i can also play it almost as soft as i want), very agile, never clogs, great conversation piece with the plumbing code in it. In fact, i rarely play any other whistle now, and i’m thinking of selling the other high-quality whistle i have.
Another interesting thing about this whistle is that (true to its name) of all the whistles i have, this is the one that drips the most.
I’d hate to lose this whistle. I’m even thinking of buying another one to have as a spare.
You might want the C/D/Eb set that Glenn makes for roughly double the price of a single whistle. The tube size and the blade are optimized for the D, but the Eb and C also really sing. (Or, even better, maybe the Bb/A set. Those are some of the finest whistles on the planet, of any material, for any price.) You can play D tunes on the A whistle, too.
Hmmm… I was going to advise against getting a C/D/Eb set, because changing on the fly is too much work (bad enough to have to dig out another whistle when someone starts “Broken Pledge” – twice as bad to dig out another body and then have to switch the head). But then I realized if you already had a D Weasel, the you could leave the combo whistle always on C, and have the other two keys as backup – makes sense to me!
(But then, I could do just that with my O’Riordan’s, but it ends up that I really like having the Eb sitting around the house, so the C body languishes at the bottom of the whistle bag and never gets used. Hmmm.)
And what to my wondering eyes/ears did appear. . .
Came home to my package, and I have to say for the price its a wonderous whistle. It isn’t as stable on the high end as I would like, but this may be the ‘new whistle’ effect where I just don’t have the breath control for those jumps figured out…kind of like over compensating when initially driving a new car.
Mine has a true, woodish sound, and nice, medium volume.
Mine is tricky specially when jumping to the high B at low volume, but i find that this goes away if i’m playing loud. I think it’s a breath control thing combined with fear of being too loud “up there”. It took me a few weeks playing this whistle a lot before i got really comfortable with it. Mine is a lot more “free” blowing than other whistles i have tried (including the wooden version, Thin Weasel). It has very little “back pressure” until you get to the high A and B, and there it changes a little.
I must concur that the water weasels deliver truly astounding bang for the buck. I’ve had or have:
D
Bb
A
G
And (just to be cruel to someone who may think their WHoA is in remission) if you think his PVC tooters are good wait 'til you try one of his wooden ones!
