Hohner Penny Whistle

[jpassa01]

Is anyone familiar with Hohner Penny Whistles. On Ebay someone in Greece has many vintage Hohner whistles from the 1970s. Just wondering if any one here owns one or has played one.

[s1m0n]

A Bb Hohner whistle (often locally called a "beebee", for obvious reasons) was the classic kwela axe.

[irishmuse]

There's a nice kwela style solo here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yt0H3tVQk-w where the camera gets up close letting you see the Hohner whistle itself and the interesting technique where the player has the headpiece far further inside the mouth than would be usual in ITM.

I believe Hohner stopped making them decades ago. I have a couple from the mid-seventies bought in the UK. The main attraction then was they went down to G, below the Bb produced by Generation. At the time you could only get Generations or Clarkes in most music shops.

I'm sure there was another C&F thread on them as I recall posting my own lukewarm opinion. Maybe it was the first time I'd come across clogging issues, as the entire whistle is metal, but I never warmed to them. I keep mine more as part of a collection. If you want something to play though, I would look at one of the modern manufacturers rather than pay collector's prices. Jut my tuppence worth though, as I think they may have some fans on these pages.

[Sirchronique]

These came up in a past thread. I got one of the Bb and low G ones, and I'm not the only one. From a guy in Greece, as well.


They aren't good whistles, to be honest. If you are interested in the history behind them and collection, then go for it, but if you want an instrument that plays well, I'd recommend passing.

[Lars Larry Mór Mott]

The seller and whistles are genuine!
The whistles themselves are nothing special unfortunately. As collectors items, yes but as players, forget it.

[whistlecollector]

Is anyone familiar with Hohner Penny Whistles. On Ebay someone in Greece has many vintage Hohner whistles from the 1970s. Just wondering if any one here owns one or has played one.

A number of us have these whistles, I'm sure all from the same source. As I recall, the seller had cleared out a toy shop's old inventory and ended up with a couple boxes of Bb and G whistles.

It took some tweaking to get the thing to play at all -- it would appear that it (well, at least the one I got) left the factory unvoiced. Or only very poorly voiced. Wouldn't play a note. I'm sure it could use some more work in the fippular regions to improve how it's playing now. It doesn't play horribly, but it's not playing very sweetly as of yet either. I don't know if it's even possible or not, but if the voicing can be well accomplished I think it would be a nice whistle. Certainly has a good range, right up through fourth octave d (though quite piercing up high).

As others have said, if you'd like to have a Hohner whistle in your collection, it's a good opportunity to find a pristine example. Also as others have said, if you're looking for a good playing whistle more or less out of the box, then perhaps something else will work better.

Cheers

[jpassa01]

Thanks, everyone, for giving your opinion on the Hohners. I was curious and you helped me decide to stick with what I have (Kerry Songbird, Sweet Onyx + other inexpensive whistles-Clarke, Dixon, Generation, Oak, WhistleSmith) and with what I know.