A Matter of Purity: Sindt Whistles?

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Wombat
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A Matter of Purity: Sindt Whistles?

Post by Wombat »

Every so often our community seems to divide—not always evenly—into two schools of thought between whom there is a gap of mutual incomprehension. Until recently I thought the question of whether or not Sindt whistles are pure gave rise to one of these divides.

Most people seem agreed that Sindt's sound like good Generations. I've never met a good Generation in the flesh. I take it everyone agrees that Sindt's have quite a bit of attack chiff. So the disagreement had to be about the purity of tone of the post-attack sound. Most people seemed to class Sindts as impure; Dale and Jessie notably disagreed firmly.

I've had a Sindt A/Bb set for a while and found the sound cloudy. I'd call that impure and I have done from time to time. A few days ago I received a Sindt D. I got a surprise. Although it was recognisably akin to the A/Bb whistle set, the features that made for cloudiness in that set did not make for anything like that in the D. In short, I found the post-attack tone to be quite pure.

Conclusion: if my whistles are typical the higher Sindts are pure, the lower Sindts are cloudy. Those who think of the higher whistles as impure must have in mind their very noticeable attack chiff.

Oh come on now. Surely we can't reach agreement on this issue can we? :boggle:
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chas
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Post by chas »

I had two Sindts -- a D and an A. I found the view of the majority pretty much spot-on for the D. I thought it had a pretty much traditional whistle sound, but found it kind of bland. I thought the A was about the purest whistle I'd ever played, plus it was sweet. Maybe the current owner of the two will chime in; I'm curious to see if our takes on the whistles is similar.

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kevin m.
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Post by kevin m. »

Interesting topic,as I own 'D' and 'Eb' Sindts,and have a 'Bb/A' set on order.
I would describe the whistles I currently own as akin to 'good Gens'- the intonation is better,the sound has some initial chiff,but is purer than the Gens that I own.
I rate Sindts very highly,and look forward to receiving the Bb/A to compare to my Gen. Bb and (dare I say it) Susato wide bore 'A'.
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Hiro Ringo
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Post by Hiro Ringo »

These below are my two lazy ways to describe shortly(and without using math!) Sindt whistles on their tones. :)


1)Sindt whistles = automobiles with manual transmissions.

Manual transmissions reflect your own character/condition/technique much more than automatic transmissions.Manual transmissions don't work well on routine work.
They make you happy as long as you have your own 'I will drive like this' and concentrate on your automobile.But they offer nightmare when in really backed-up traffic because you have to take more complex proccess repeatedly, while the other people with automatic transmissions can achieve the same proccess without paying much attention to their automobiles.

2)When Sindt whistles sound really good to me,their tones don't belong to keyed modern flute and Overtone whistles at all.


P.S.A is very convenient whistle key to understand its maker's aim and where I am.So I chose Sindt A among his whistles. :wink:
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Post by Zubivka »

From my experience with an Alto set (A+Bb)...

I'd call the sound generally as "trad" or TIN-whistley.

Chiffy (attack) then reedy (on sustain).

Also, the A tube may be less matched to my head than the Bb. On a hunch, it could be the bore/length issue. The down A is weak, and as ususally goes so is B (xxx xxo). No such problem with the Bb tube on Bb and C one step up. Let's say it just works better in my set.
Great: a "reedy" Bb is exactly what I wanted for Bb--Bbreton!--tunes.

oxx ooo (aka =C) sharp with both tubes; no big deal, oxx xoo works and it gets me working my øoo ooo...

However, I really love this head, so I ordered from another whistlesmith other tubes, higher pitched. Shall let you know when they're ready.
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Hiro Ringo
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Post by Hiro Ringo »

>However, I really love this head,
>so I ordered from another whistlesmith other tubes,
>higher pitched. Shall let you know when they're ready.

Thanks!
Looking forward to the report :)


BTW, I have never read any explanations of what is the price we pay when we get (for example Sindt's)oxx ooo in tune.....all I know is that oxx ooo of my Sindt A is even higher than that of equal temperament(that's why most people feel it's a bit high,even for those who are not interested in just intonation).
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Post by Bloomfield »

I would describe the sound of the Sindt as mostly Sindtish. As for other tubes...

Image

Details here
/Bloomfield
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Hiro Ringo
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Post by Hiro Ringo »

[quote="Bloomfield"]I would describe the sound of the Sindt as mostly Sindtish. As for other tubes...


You are right. And I surely checked your page once the other day(and my impression was that upper xxxooo was the price of more in-tune oxxooo).
I don't know why I couldn't remember that..... :oops:
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selkie
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Sindt

Post by selkie »

I love my D. It's clear and high and easy to play so much so that I am waiting for a C. SHould just arrive in October for my birthday.
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Post by Jack »

SHould just arrive in October for my birthday.
My birthday is in October, too. :)
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Hiro Ringo
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Re: Sindt

Post by Hiro Ringo »

selkie wrote:I love my D. It's clear and high and easy to play so much so that I am waiting for a C. SHould just arrive in October for my birthday.

Sindt C should sound great when you play slow tunes in D with it.
Greater than playing Sindt A in key of D I guess. :)
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