Wooden Low F Makers?

IDAwHOa · Post by **IDAwHOa** » Fri Jul 30, 2004 9:34 am

I know Grinter does.

I know Bleazey does not.

Any other players out there in the wooden Low whistle space?

JessieK · Post by **JessieK** » Fri Jul 30, 2004 9:51 am

Jon Swayne (long wait)

tubafor · Post by **tubafor** » Fri Jul 30, 2004 10:15 am

Doesn't Glenn Schultz of Thin Weasel fame make a low F?

Loren · Post by **Loren** » Fri Jul 30, 2004 10:25 am

JessieK wrote:Jon Swayne (long wait)

This reminds me: I'm on Jon's waiting list for a Low D, but I've decided that purchase is simply not in my budget, especially since I prefer the flute and don't yet have the sort of flute I need, so I was going to cancel my Swayne Low D order. However, if anyone here is interested in a Swayne Low D, without the long wait, drop me an email and we'll see if we can work something out (I'm not looking to make a profit.)

Loren

chas · Post by **chas** » Fri Jul 30, 2004 10:36 am

Schultz does. I'm not nearly as thrilled with his PVC low-F as I am all the others, but F isn't really my key. If his E, C, and Bflat are anything to go by (and they are), his wooden low-F will be MUCH better than the PVC. That's saying a lot, especially about the Bflat.

I think Yvon LeCoant makes a low-F, too.

My wait for Swayne whistles was shorter than my wait for Grinters (about 8 months vs. a year). Makers such as Jon and Michael do work in batches, though, so wait time depends largely on on what they're up to (pipes, flutes, recorders, whistles).

Schultz works in a number of woods, while for whistles, Swayne is exclusively boxwood and Grinter almost exclusively cocobolo. I think LeCoant works in a few woods -- blackwood, mopane, maybe a couple of others.

You can always ring up Glenn and try one out. If you don't like it, just return it and get on someone else's list.

Wombat · Post by **Wombat** » Fri Jul 30, 2004 10:42 am

Most of us who play wooden low Fs play Grinters I suspect. Mine is one of my favourite whistles. I'm a bit curious as to why you wouldn't want one. Or are you just window shopping to see what's out there?

Loren · Post by **Loren** » Fri Jul 30, 2004 10:48 am

Just realized I should mention the price of the Swayne Low D whistle: 350 pounds sterling, plus shipping, which at todays exchange rate would be around $637. for the whistle alone.........

Loren

IDAwHOa · Post by **IDAwHOa** » Fri Jul 30, 2004 11:01 am

Wombat wrote:Most of us who play wooden low Fs play Grinters I suspect. Mine is one of my favourite whistles. I'm a bit curious as to why you wouldn't want one. Or are you just window shopping to see what's out there?

Just shopping right now. Since Chas won't trade his Grinter Low F for one of my Copelands

, I have to go see what else is available. I have contacted Michael and he quoted me 350 Euros and a 6 month waiting time.

Thanks for all the discussion.

trisha · Post by **trisha** » Fri Jul 30, 2004 11:10 am

Grinter Low F is indeed a wonderful whistle. I don't like his double pricelist though.

Can't comment on the Le Coant F if he does make one - I have a G which is a nice whistle, but the head is very chunky and - dare I say it - re@@@der-like. Very well made. I have also played the Low D which uses a load of air and weighs a ton, but is a mighty fine whistle.

Trisha

Wombat · Post by **Wombat** » Fri Jul 30, 2004 11:36 am

trisha wrote:Grinter Low F is indeed a wonderful whistle. I don't like his double pricelist though.

Given the size of the Australian economy compared to his market—mainly America and Europe—either he or his Australian customers could get into serious trouble if he agrees to a price at time of order unless he has some hedge against massive exchange fluctuations. The Aussie dollar has been doing pretty well recently compared to how it had been doing for about 10 years but things can change very dramatically very suddenly. People in America and Britain aren't experiencing anything like the exchange-rate nightmare that we face more often than not. The current rate isn't terribly unfair; it's just that trading partners had come to expect that anything from Australia was a bargain.

chas · Post by **chas** » Fri Jul 30, 2004 12:02 pm

Does Grinter have a couble price list? Having made a couple of purchases from him and still having an order open, I've never been aware of that. I know he's gone from quoting prices in US dollars awhile back to currently quoting them in euros, but whatever price he quotes when you order is what he charges.

BTW, I'm quite fond of my Grinter D and low-F, but the low-G is right up there with my favorite Thin Weasels as one of the best whistles I've played.

Wombat · Post by **Wombat** » Fri Jul 30, 2004 12:30 pm

chas wrote:Does Grinter have a couble price list? Having made a couple of purchases from him and still having an order open, I've never been aware of that. I know he's gone from quoting prices in US dollars awhile back to currently quoting them in euros, but whatever price he quotes when you order is what he charges.

BTW, I'm quite fond of my Grinter D and low-F, but the low-G is right up there with my favorite Thin Weasels as one of the best whistles I've played.

Oh right. I was thinking of his one-price-for Australians, another-for-others approach. I think that's fair. I'd forgoten that he seems to swap about with the foreign currency he quotes in. There might be a good reason for that though. For example, he might have changed the way he banks and found Euros more convenient. I doubt it though. I think he's looking for a stable currency that protects him.

Because the Australian economy is tiny compared to the US or Europe or Japan or China—indeed most of our main trading partners—we feel a bit like a paper boat on the ocean when making commitments to deliver overseas for a certain price down the track. If things went really badly with our trading partners, we could have an Argentinian experience and it wouldn't matter how strong our domestic economy was if that's how the chips fell elsewhere. It has never happened in a really big way in living memory—the 1930s aside—but we are acutely aware of the possiblility. For example, the Japanese economy has been in a precarious position for a long time and a collapse there would have very serious ramifications for us, and, indeed, for the whole region.

Bloomfield · Post by **Bloomfield** » Fri Jul 30, 2004 12:33 pm

NorCalMusician wrote:
Wombat wrote:Most of us who play wooden low Fs play Grinters I suspect. Mine is one of my favourite whistles. I'm a bit curious as to why you wouldn't want one. Or are you just window shopping to see what's out there?
Just shopping right now. Since Chas won't trade his Grinter Low F for one of my Copelands , I have to go see what else is available. I have contacted Michael and he quoted me 350 Euros and a 6 month waiting time.

Thanks for all the discussion.

How about stopping the whistle buying long enough to learn to play a few tunes? Agh, never mind.

avanutria · Post by **avanutria** » Fri Jul 30, 2004 12:38 pm

I wonder if Mack Hoover has started making wooden low whistles. I know he has made some high D's.

colomon · Post by **colomon** » Fri Jul 30, 2004 12:56 pm

Bloomfield wrote:How about stopping the whistle buying long enough to learn to play a few tunes?

But then the whistle economy would collapse, and we'd all have to back to playing cardboard tubes with randomly spaced holes!