rubenroks12 wrote:
The Burke has definitely been on my radar for some time. I'm a fan of the pure or what some call "bland" sound. What keeps me away from their alto g is the bore ID. I agree with panceltic piper, that they are too wide. I fear that the second octave might be too loud and harsh. A narrow bore alto Burke might be heavenly.
I've never had the opportunity to try out lofgren and Reviol whistles. I have only heard clips. Based on those alone, I think they sound like the classic low Overton-esque low whistles.
Reviols are completely and entirely different than the overton-esque sort of sound. I do consider Lofgrens to be similar in many ways to the Goldie/Overton/Kerry sort of sound, but I think the playability is what sets it apart from these whistles, as I find them much more comfortable to play, to my tastes, anyway. Everyone blows differently, though. I've had about 9 or 10 Goldies pass through my hands.. hard blowers, soft blowers, medium blowers, medium-soft, medium-hard, etc. None of them played to my liking (though maybe if I had one custom made my experience might be different, so take this with a grain of salt).
The "bore ID" on all Burkes is going to be the same, as far as I know, except for the narrow bore versions of his high D and C whistles. The bore size gradually and proportionally increases with each key. None of my alto or low burkes has a harsh high end, at all.
That being said, I would also prefer a narrow bore for the mid-range keys, as I don't usually prefer for those keys to have a "fat" sort of sound, characteristic of a low whistle (though that has as much to do with other aspects of the design than just bore size). I think different keys/pitches require a different approach when it comes to whistle making, as the qualities I may love in a low D or E are not what I want in, for instance, an alto A. I've never been a fan of the one-size-fits-all approach where all keys are the same across the board, which is true for many of the major makers. YMMV, though. Some people love Burkes for their consistency from one key to the next, but I think there are certain qualities that are better to bring out with certain pitches but not others. All Burkes are great, but this is something I have always been thinking when people say the same thing about their consistency when this sort of thing is mentioned.
95% of the sound is the player anyway, so I'd be hesitant to call Burkes bland. Different things work for different playing styles, and a lot of people get great sounds out of Burkes.