Anyone have any experience with these? I might have asked about this some time ago, and can't recall if it was Wanderer who said he might do a review at some point. I handled one of these at Custy's in Ennis, and didn't know who the maker was at the time. I missed a good price from what I see now and noted that the tuning slide was perfectly fitted on a somewhat different looking whistle. However, I didn't get a chance to play it and couldn't make it back to Custy's. I e-mailed Misha for info but either never got a response or unwittingly spammed it away.
Any feedback?
Philo
MK Whistles
-
PhilO
- Posts: 2931
- Joined: Wed Jun 27, 2001 6:00 pm
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 1
- Location: New York
MK Whistles
"This is this; this ain't something else. This is this." - Robert DeNiro, "The Deer Hunter," 1978.
-
Wanderer
- Posts: 4461
- Joined: Wed Mar 24, 2004 10:49 pm
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
- Tell us something.: I've like been here forever ;)
But I guess you gotta filter out the spambots.
100 characters? Geeze. - Location: Tyler, TX
- Contact:
Re: MK Whistles
Misha said he would send me one eventually, but never got around to it, it seems...PhilO wrote:Anyone have any experience with these? I might have asked about this some time ago, and can't recall if it was Wanderer who said he might do a review at some point. I handled one of these at Custy's in Ennis, and didn't know who the maker was at the time. I missed a good price from what I see now and noted that the tuning slide was perfectly fitted on a somewhat different looking whistle. However, I didn't get a chance to play it and couldn't make it back to Custy's. I e-mailed Misha for info but either never got a response or unwittingly spammed it away.
Any feedback?
Philo
-
Bloomfield
- Posts: 8225
- Joined: Mon Oct 15, 2001 6:00 pm
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
- Location: Location: Location:
I was just at Custy's *cough* last week. Played an MK there. Beautiful, sleek thing. Played well, but I wasn't blown away. Got a bit breathy on the upper end and a little harder to sustain up there, would need a bit of practice on the breath control, I thought. The tone is not as rich as an Overtons and not as creamy or interesting as I had expected from the reports I read. It was also a bit softer and the voice a bit more brittle than I expected. Nice bottom end. Overall I thought it was a fine whistle, well made, but not something that I needed to add to my arsenal at 220 Euros. If I bought my one and only low D (and didn't know about Overtons), I'd definitely consider it.
/Bloomfield
-
King Friday
- Posts: 407
- Joined: Tue May 09, 2006 3:37 pm
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 1
- Location: Chicago
-
Scott McCallister
- Posts: 896
- Joined: Fri Apr 11, 2003 7:40 am
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 10
- Location: Denver, CO
I own one of these whistles. They're really nice. Keep in mind that though heavily machined, these are still hand made whistles, not mass produced so each one will be a bit different from another. The slides on these are, as noted, "perfect". (at least all the ones I held) The tone while being a little breathier than say, a Copeland which I would class as "richer" sounding than the MKs, is very pleasant to listen to and quite full of chiff and character.
What I liked about all of them that I played when selecting the one I bought was the back pressure allowed these whistles to be played very expressively and rather easily as well. I would say that my MK whistle is only about 30% as difficult to play as my Copeland because of the consistency that can be maintained with the backpressure. The Copeland is just much more touchy in that regard. Leaps of a 4th or 5th are easily accomplished on the MK with out the "huffing" that is needed to get other whistles to make the leap. You can push the low end on these as well with out it breaking into the second octave too easily. Just the right balance on these IMHO.
Finger stretch is about the same as my Copeland as well, but the mouth-feel of the MK is more comfortable.
It is not very prone to clogging either, probably as a result of the tighter windway and increased back pressure.
It is a very satisfying whistle to play. Misha wrote once on this board that he is trying to develop other Keys as well. I'm looking forward to that.
Hope this helps
Scott
What I liked about all of them that I played when selecting the one I bought was the back pressure allowed these whistles to be played very expressively and rather easily as well. I would say that my MK whistle is only about 30% as difficult to play as my Copeland because of the consistency that can be maintained with the backpressure. The Copeland is just much more touchy in that regard. Leaps of a 4th or 5th are easily accomplished on the MK with out the "huffing" that is needed to get other whistles to make the leap. You can push the low end on these as well with out it breaking into the second octave too easily. Just the right balance on these IMHO.
Finger stretch is about the same as my Copeland as well, but the mouth-feel of the MK is more comfortable.
It is not very prone to clogging either, probably as a result of the tighter windway and increased back pressure.
It is a very satisfying whistle to play. Misha wrote once on this board that he is trying to develop other Keys as well. I'm looking forward to that.
Hope this helps
Scott
There's and old Irish saying that says pretty much anything you want it to.
