Granite Falls Soprano D Review
(Review written Sept 2005)
Preface
In late 2004, Charles Tillsbury contacted me about possibly reviewing a whistle he was making and hoping to sell. Over the next several months, we kept in contact, and he would occasionally tell me about new designs he was trying out. Eventually he settled on one he really liked, and Granite Falls Manufacturing was born in June 2005.
At a Glance
Whistle Reviewed: Granite Falls Soprano D
Models Available: Tunable Brass D and C. Aluminum while supplies last.
Construction: Brass with plastic or brass fipple plug
Price at time of review:$34 US.
Available From: Granite Falls Manufacturing
How Acquired: Product Sample from manufacturer.
Appearance/Construction
The whistle is brass with a plastic fipple. Charles also makes a brass fippled instrument if you want a whistle made out of all one type of material. Overall the whistle is sleek and well made. It also hasn't left a brassy taste in my mouth like my brass Copeland used to.
Here's the full whistle. It came polished to a high gloss. It's already started picking up some finger marks and a bit of a patina.
Here's a close-up of the mouthpiece. You can get a good look at the labium ramp, which has been pressed into the whistle head. It's got the tiniest bit of an edge on it.
Here's another angle on the mouthpiece, showing the fipple area. My 500 watt shop lamp really makes the fipple look a lot duller than it looks to my naked eye. You can just see the brass screw on the bottom of the whistle that Charles uses to adhere the fipple. There's also just the slightest bit of a bevel on the fipple there at the end of the beak. You can't really see it, but the brass on the sides extends past the fipple by some near-microscopic amount. I wouldn't even have noticed, but when resting the fipple on my lips, I could feel two little hard bumps there. After a couple of days, I was completely used to it and stopped noticing.
A shot at the end of the whistle, showing the last three holes. The holes on this whistle are nicely-sized, cleanly drilled, and centered on the body. the F# and the G holes are really close together on this whistle. I normally don't worry about this, but I mean they're close! My fingers are touching each other when I'm playing. If you had a bit thicker fingers than me, you probably would have trouble sealing this whistle.
Here's a pic of me with my fingers sealing those holes. See what I mean?
The Granite Falls Manufacturing logo. It's really nice and cleanly etched. Professional grade work here. It's on the tuning slide, which feels a little wobbly. I never actually pushed it closed while playing it, but if you're a bit tense or grip your whistle tighter than I do, it's a possibility.
Playing Characteristics
This whistle has a fairly solid and pure tone (not reedy and not scratchy), with a bit of airy chiff. If you lean into this whistle, the airiness goes up, so I wouldn't recommend it unless that's the sound you're going for. It's an easy blower, so just pull back a bit, and let the music flow
Sound clips of the whistle:
Musical Priest
Volume: A little below average. This whistle is slightly quieter than my Sweetone whistle. The volume goes up as you move up the scale, and the 2nd octave A and B notes end up being louder than the Sweetone.
Responsiveness: Nimble. I didn't have any issues with this whistle feeling sluggish.
Tuning: The tuning on this whistle is pretty darn good. The breath requirements are smooth up the scale, without any breathing gymnastics required. That's pretty impressive. The tuning slide itself works great too. All the way in, it's about 95 cents sharp, All the way out, it's around 170 cents flat! That's far more range than you'll ever need.
C-natural: OXXOOO produces a C natural that's about 10 cents sharp, but can be brought in line with breath control. OXXOXX is pretty perfect. OXOOOO is about 30 cents sharp.
Hole size and placement: As I mentioned above, the holes are well made, but the F# and G holes are pretty close together. If you've got thick fingers, you should take that into consideration.
Air volume requirements: Below average. Maybe a hair more than my Hoover. But it's a close thing.
Air pressure requirements: Also below average. The second octave is easy to hit, though the upper most B does take a little aggression compared to the rest of the whistle to hit cleanly. Even so, that amount of aggression is below average compared to other whistles.
Clogging: I never had this whistle clog on me. Not once. No fading out, no getting scratchy or honking at me. Just solid performance. For me, that's golden.
Wind Resistance: For a quiet whistle, this surprised me. I played it outside on Saturday as Hurricane Rita was pushing through Texas. We were getting gusts in the mid-20mph range, and on the strongest gusts, the whistle thought about cutting out, never quite blew out completely. Nice!
Summary Excellent value for the money! This has quite a number of strong points that more expensive whistles struggle with. Like all whistles, there are things that could be improved, but all whistles have tradeoffs, and these are aren't too bad. Just be mindful of the hole spacing and the tuning slide wobble, so they don't come as a surprise.
