Least Chiff Whistle

[mbkmckenzie]

I've been playing about 6 months and loving it! I started with a Feadog, now I mostly play a Clarke Sweetone and just got a Dixon PVC. I really love the pure, clear sound of the Dixon, and I'm starting to like the sound of the others less, but it isn't quite loud or crisp enough for the really fast tunes or session play.

Any suggestions of a whistle with really clear, clean sound and not much chiff?

Thanks!

[Ballyshannon]

My Burkes are about as pure, clear and clean as you can get. I'm a session hound and in my experience the DBSBT can handle all but the largest/loudest sessions. For those, I pull out the Abell, Harper, or Susato which are all very clean and clear with more vol than the Burke. But be careful about volume. Fit in....don't dominate. Odd, I had a Dixon Poly D and it had plenty of volume for most sessions.

[Thomaston]

The purest, cleanest whistle I've ever played is easily the Burke DAN (aluminum narrow bore).

[highwood]

pure and clean made me think of a Burke

pure, clean and no chiff does not necessarily help with being heard in a session though

I think perhaps the quality of the sound has more to do with it than the loudness

[jim stone]

The purest, cleanest whistle I've ever played is easily the Burke DAN (aluminum narrow bore).

me too. also i think it actually has a good deal of volume

[crookedtune]

Burke aluminum (session bore) is my favorite whistle, and the only one I bring to sessions.

[mbkmckenzie]

Thanks for the answers! Here and when I've asked elsewhere, the answer is almost universally Burke. Guess I'll have to start saving up.

The Dixon probably is loud enough since I'm certainly not good enough to event think about "dominating" a session even if it weren't bad etiquette! I was just struck by how much quieter it seemed than the other two I was playing (my wife even stopped complaining about my playing in the house!

[Steve Bliven]

Another, lower cost than the Burke, option might be one of Jerry Freeman's Blackbirds. Very clear voice with moderate volume.

Best wishes.

Steve

[MarkP]

or you could get the heavier brass Dixon pro (DX203) in the meantime? Has quite a pure, bell like tone.

I played mine lots for a while and then got a Burke (also wide bore). Very clean sounding but I went off the idea and quickly decided I wanted to go back to much more trad/chiffier sounding whistle. The only session whistles I take out now are a Cillian Briain tweaked Feadog and the brass Sindt.

[brewerpaul]

John Sindt's whistles are pretty clean sounding too.

Peter Bonesteel isn't making them right at the moment, but if you can find a used Hudson Winds whistle they're excellent and quite chiffless.

[m31]

What is chiff in this context? Fuzz, breathiness, tonal instability? Have you tried blowing softer? Find the ideal breath pressure for producing the 'smoothest' tone for each note.

Or does chiff mean chirp? Some chirp is desirable since the attack portion of the note is important in being heard.

I had a few Burkes and agree they sounded 'pure'.

I'm aware that 'chiff' is an old topic, and it's not my intent to reopen that discussion, but rather to understand the issue with whistle at hand.

[PhilO]

John Sindt's whistles are pretty clean sounding too.

Peter Bonesteel isn't making them right at the moment, but if you can find a used Hudson Winds whistle they're excellent and quite chiffless.

Speaking of Sindts Paul, I haven't put down the Sindt D with sterling silver tube I got for my birthday a year ago for any other whistle of that key. It's very responsive and has nice moderate consistent volume. But here's where I think we need to clarify a bit. I'm not sure if the writer wants chiffless or airless and which is the basis of "clean" here. The Sindt (I have several) has often been characterized as "traditional" sounding or a perfected Generation. If the accepted definition of chiff is that little extra sound upon impact of finger to tone hole, as from the term used for the church organ sound upon striking a note, and which I really like - then the Sindt is a bit chiffy. However, if we mean by clean or pure that there is not much air in the tone throughout playing. then yes the Sindt is indeed clean.

I just think these terms are always a bit confused because we mean different things - does pure equal bright (probably not); does clean equal bright (probably not); to me clean or pure means no airiness throughout, not necessarily chiffness.

Bottom line, I wouldn't ignore a wonderful whistle like the Sindt because of other people's definitions of tonal quality; they are terrific (we're not related or business partners.)

Philo

[PeteyWhistle]

Don't hate the chiff

[Adrian]

Purest toned whistles in my bucket are the Burkes.

[crickett]

The Hudson Winds D should also be placed in the category (alongside the Burke) of high quality and very pure sounding whistles, IMO.