Tell us something.: Beginner using only Susato whistles. Plays guitar and can be found in classical guitar forums under the moniker of CoastStrings. Absolutely NOT on Facebook.
I thought I'd just introduce myself. I'm trying to make progress in playing the whistle and am hoping that being part of this community will help me along.
I still rank myself as a beginner and am working off the old Bill Ochs book from The Pennywhsitler's Press.
I just have three Susato whistles:
A fixed D small bore (I don't think these are made anymore)
A switchable small bore set with bodies for Bb, C, D, and Eb
A low-D because I wanted to experiment with it instead of learning the flute
Tell us something.: Playing Scottish and Irish music in California for 45 years. These days many discussions are migrating to Facebook but I prefer the online chat forum format.
In general my opinion has been that Susatos get better as they get lower. I don't care for most of their higher keys, but my Susato Low D and especially my Susato Low C were fine players.
About your narrow-bore set, what's interesting is how Susato will sometimes make the same pitch whistle with various bores.
I had Mezzo 'A' Susatos in three different bore sizes. The narrowest one, which used their High D whistle bore and mouthpiece, was a standout player.
If your set is similar, you might find that the Bb is the best player of the lot. And if you can get an 'A' body for it I would recommend doing so.
Richard Cook c1980 Quinn uilleann pipes
1945 Starck Highland pipes
Goldie Low D whistle
Tell us something.: Beginner using only Susato whistles. Plays guitar and can be found in classical guitar forums under the moniker of CoastStrings. Absolutely NOT on Facebook.
My whistles are from the S series (Small Bore?) which seem to range from B to Eb. I'm not sure how my old set happened to get a Bb body. The M series (Medium Bore?) seems to range from G to Bb (so A is included).
The V series (Very Small Bore?) seems to range from D to F. I assume that these came out after I purchased my S series whistles. Perhaps there's an A model that I'm unaware of.
My Low-D was purchased before Susato offered the option of "keys" to make fingering easier. I'm wondering if it's possible to add keys to it.
Now, I just need to see if I can carve out 20 focused minutes in my busy day for routine practice.
Welcome! I wouldn't worry about having keys on your low D. Unless your hands are truly tiny you should be completely fine without them. And I can see keys introducing some of their own problems.
Tell us something.: I'm an old folkie, play some instruments and made some own things, like different genres and play scottish and Irish music for over 30 years.
