Anderson European whistle tour

[Berti66]

the whistle arrived safely at my place yesterday.
just to let you know.
berti

[Berti66]

Tegea, the whistle has been mailed out to you today!
So NOW is the moment to go camp in front of your mailbox................

berti

[benhall.1]

I'm getting jealous now. How do you get on this tour list?

[jemtheflute]

I'm getting jealous now. How do you get on this tour list?

PM Brad. Dunno if he's taking more names at this juncture - you'll have to ask him.

Can people see the pictures in my review above? For some reason when I looked at it they're showing as dead links, yet my picture file host has them live OK and accessible. Of course, in the new forum format I can't get into that old post to check on the links or edit them back in.

If they continue not to show, here's a link to the host file they're in - unlabelled, I'm afraid - you'll have to work out for yourselves what is what.

[benhall.1]

Work it out for myself??!?! You know I'm incapable of that!

[Berti66]

I wonder if Tegea did get that whistle?

berti

[tegea]

Berti,

I was in holidays last week, so I took the whistle yesterday at my local post office !
It's in perfect condition and looks great.

I'll take some time to play it and will let you know.

Thierry

[tegea]

Here is finally my small review of the whistle (I'm very sorry for the big delay...)

The whistle is presented in a beautiful wooden box with some red felt to protect it.



The whistle looks really awsome ! It is made of some dark wood and is well proportioned, not too fat and not too slim either. The contrast of the wood with the polished silver barrels is very pleasant to my eyes.


The mouthpiece is made of polished metal with a delrin fipple plug. It's bottom is not flat but gently curved which makes it comfortable.



The windway is curved and the window is quite small, which means that the whistle will be more on the quiet side. Some tool marks are visible on the sides of the window, and the ramp is not perfectly flat : there is an angle on it. Some adjustments are also not perfect, but this is the mark and charm of a handmade whistle.



This is a tunable whistle, and the tuning slide is made of brass.



The holes are perfectly round and very well realised. The bottom of the whistle has a silver barrel.



When I first played the whistle, I was very surprised by the backpressure : blowing in it required a big effort, and the whistle seemed to be blocked. I checked inside, but found nothing particular, except the fact that there was no light slit visible in the mouth piece when seen from the bottom of the whistle : simply because the floor of the fipple block is higher than the ceiling of the tube and therefore higher than the blade. This explains the first impression that I had : the whistle didn’t breath and the bottom notes were weak and very unstable. It took me a while to understand that things would get better as the whistle was heating. This whistle needs a quite long heating period, let’s say at least 5 minutes, and after that only did he reveals it’s true character.

So, let’s forget the cold whistle and speak about the whistle when it is warm !
With it’s small window, the whistle is on the quiet side. It is therefore perfect to play at home or for just a few people. It may not be ideal for sessions.
The sound is very pleasant to my ears : it is on the warm side with round and full notes but with a good clarity.
The first octave is pure and the second has a small amount of breathiness.
The whistle does not need a big air requirement, but the backpressure remains present. It is easy to blow the second octave, but not too much. The transition between the two octaves is clean, without any parasit noise, except perhaps for the transition lowD/high D which is a little bit less clear. But this is absolutely not a problem. The low D and E are a tiny bit weaker than the other notes, and the bell note must not be blown too hard otherwise it gets into the second octave.
The balance between octaves is good and the second octave is not shrill and remains pleasant to hear : neither my wife or my children told me to stop as I was playing sharp notes, so this is a good sign …
The responsiveness is fine, but I can’t judge this too much because I’m not skilled enough to play very fast.
The overall tuning of the whistle is fine, within 10%. The C# is 20% flat, and the OXXOOO Cnat is 10% sharp, which is normal for a cylindrical bore. The OXXOXO Cnat is in tune.
I was not bothered by any clogging issue. The whistle does clog from time to time, but not exaggeratedly.

So, this a beautiful and good whistle, with a very pleasant sound. Slow airs are very pleasant to play with it. The only issue is that it needs a good deal of heating before it gets fully playable : This issue could be quite easily solved by lowering the floor of the windway so that it becomes a bit lower than the ceiling of the tube. I would then be very happy to purchase one !

I will send the whistle to the next on the list (Squirrel) during next week.

[Whistler Bard]

Can I still sign in for the tour? I live in Europe.

[tegea]

Squirrel, I shipped the whistle yesterday. You yould have it at the beginning of next week.

[squirrel]

Squirrel, I shipped the whistle yesterday. You yould have it at the beginning of next week.

Thank you!

[tegea]

Squirrel, did you receive the whistle ?

[squirrel]

Squirrel, did you receive the whistle ?

No

But I'm sure it will arrive soon, usually shipments from UK or France can take 7-10 days.

[Whistler Bard]

No

But I'm sure it will arrive soon, usually shipments from UK or France can take 7-10 days.

Really? It's weird, when I get things from the UK or Germany it arrives in less than 5 days (I live in Portugal) but when I get them from France they always take longer and I still don't know why! Maybe some kind of "control" by the french post?

Cheers!

[tegea]

Maybe some kind of "control" by the french post?

I would say a kind of "lack of control" by the French post ...
There were also some vacations in France last week that can explain the delay.

The shipment was made 7 days ago, so I hope it will arrive soon.