refined Bernhard Overton Low F

[lefty]

Hi all,

it's been a long time since my last post, the usual suspects, work/kids/life in general, all good distractions though, different
musical directions as well, anyway to the point, I recently saw a Bernhard Overton low F on ebay a few days back, having purchased one through
a trade over 6 odd years ago, from a chap in Cork, it sat unused until this weekend, when I saw the ebay one, what struck me about my one
was that it has been finished with more refinment than usual, as the chap I purchased it from said that Cillian O’ Briain, gave the holes extra
finishing, which is very apparent, as they look lovely not sure if it shows in the pictures very well, he also had a full set of Cillian O’ Briain
from G to low D if memory serves.

So without being controversial...... I bought it because he said Davy Spillane used the same model whistles,
this was was when I was a Spillane fanatic, and spent months trying to emulate his style, whether Davy used adapted Overtons or not, one thing
is for sure Bernhard made his F low whistles with the biggest holes of any low F I have seen, and watching Davy on may morning dew video on youtube
it's defo the same whistle, although Davy has masked the bottom of the G hole with electrical tape, possibly to sharpen it?

Not sure when my one was made, short beak may date it, I got it in 2009 ish the seller, again from memory said he had got if 5 years earlier, so rough guess
2004 vintage, and from what I gather Cillian O’ Briain was still making his low whistle in 2004

not sure what to do with it, I don't play any low whistles apart from a Low D, Kerry pro, and did consider getting back into low whistles,
but I also have a flute which gets some play time and delivers the low and highs I require, but my main instrument is classical guitar,
and being a bloke one instrument plus life is enough, I love noodling on a low D, slow stuff only, the ebay one went for £115 which seems low for an original
Bernhard O, and mine has such a nice refined finished the holes are buttery smooth polished, no sharp edges at all, it sounds great too.








just to give you an idea what I mean by large holes, the pic below is an MK low D and LOW F, I think the Overton has bigger holes than the D as well

[pancelticpiper]

Putting tape on a hole flattens the note.

You put tape on the edge of the hole closest to the mouthpiece. What it does, in effect, is move the hole a tiny bit further down the tube (towards the open end) while also reducing the size of the hole a bit, both of which flatten the note.

The only alternative, if you have one sharp note like that, is to carve out the 5 other holes to match the pitch of the sharper one. You might also have to chop the bottom of the tube.

That's a gorgeous whistle! I love the high polish.

Personally I don't see the value in supersized holes. Some of the best-playing and loudest Low Ds I've owned have had medium-sized holes, like your MK there.

[lefty]

Hi,

your right pancelticpiper, it makes more sense, the MK whistles are not mine, I just went image hunting to see if I could find anything close to the holes size of Bernhards low F,
yes the finish is super smooth, the body and the hole edges and inner walls of the holes.

I think I might put it up for sale, it should be played really

cheers Lefty

[wizzywig]

I think we may be missing the point here, the feel of big holes give's the player a real sense of control over the bending of notes. Smaller holes are very hard to control when great sesitivity is needed on smaller holed low whistles. When we think of Mr Spillane's playing, it's large holed whisles that gave him the oppotunity to achieve these wonderful notes, bent and held and captivating. This made me want to play a whistle.

wiz

[Peter Duggan]

You put tape on the edge of the hole closest to the mouthpiece. What it does, in effect, is move the hole a tiny bit further down the tube (towards the open end) while also reducing the size of the hole a bit, both of which flatten the note.

You can put it on top or bottom edge. While both affect both octaves, taping the top edge affects the lower octave more and taping the bottom edge affects the upper octave more.

[Mikethebook]

One of the normally missed advantages of the huge holes is that, without affecting the bottom notes, the second and third octaves become so much easier to reach. I don't know whether Davy Spillane tweaked his Low F like he did the Low D (that is remove the block and reinsert it to produce a windway with a widening taper). I suspect so and the tweak and shortened beak may have helped him reach those third octave notes but the large holes will have done that too, no question.

Out of curiosity what size are the holes? My big hole low D has 13mm and 11m holes. But those look even bigger!! And does it play in tune? Bernard's tuning wasn't always as accurate as Colin's.

[tin tin]

Just a little FYI--it's Bernard, not BernHard. Lovely looking whistle!

[lefty]

Hi all, yes it's a nice looker with the polish and smooth toneholes, some more pics of the windway below which is quite wide, you can fit the width of credit card into it with a bit spare