Oak Review

I.D.10-t · Post by **I.D.10-t** » Fri Aug 17, 2007 2:55 pm

I normally do not do reviews mostly because of my lack of experience. I have a D and 2 Bb fifes and a flute that I play enough to stay familiar with and G penny whistle that I play at times for a joke (my hands don’t really fit it). So a whistle is pretty foreign to me.

I keep a “look for” list on my computer, odds and ends that I am not exactly going out of my way for, but just a reminder. For example I have had “cloth suit bag” and “starship troopers (the book)” on the list for about three years. It comes in handy if some one asks if I want something for Christmas or if I am ordering something online from Amazon, etc.

Last night my wife said “I got you a birthday present, do you want it now or on your birthday?” I said I’d wait the two weeks, but she being almost more impatient to give a gift as she is waiting to open one, the box was in my hand after 15 minutes. Well, she must have remembered that the Oak whistle has been on that list for quite some time decided to buy me an oak penny whistle.

Looks

I was pleasantly surprised at how the whistle looks. The chrome plated body looked nice with the black head. The finger holes were cut nicely. There was no indentation nor bits of metal on the underside of the tone holes and the tubing felt solid. The head was free from residual sprue or flashing of the molding and was a consistent black with no ripples from molding. The label, while secure, was easily removed.

Playing

It took me a while to get use to holding the thing in front of me (rather than the side) but after about fifteen minutes I was able to play some familiar tunes. It sounded pure with few overtones and little if any wasted air.

It was in tune with itself and seemed to have a bit of resistance that helped give some feeling on how hard you needed to blow. I had tried a Clark in the past and remember that it felt quite different.

Put on the tuner and all of the notes were about 25 cents sharp. Afraid that I would have to drown the head of my whistle in hot water I pushed the volume to see if I could bring it up. No luck. So I decided to give the head a gentle twist and it moved (If I had read the box I would have found that it said “tunable”). The head was bottomed out and pulling it back ~1/4” seemed to bring it into tune. It will no longer fit into the plastic box that it came in, so I wonder if this is consistent with all Oaks fresh out of the box.

It seems that I can blow the thing softly and get it to cut off at 15~20 cents flat or blow it until it starts to Warble at about 15~20 cents sharp on many of the notes except for the bottom D. I was surprised that you could bend a note that far and still have it sound nice on a whistle.

It’s volume sounds fairly consistent up until the second octave g then it seems like the volume needed to get a pure sound goes over what I would considered balanced (this might be due to what I am use to from the flute). I did not venture into the third octave past D.

I don’t think I will be tweaking it in any way, I like it and it seems to be what I wanted out of a whistle.

Some tunes seem to fit it better than others. When I first started playing the flute, it seemed to take over some of the tunes that I played on the fife, and some tunes just could not be played on the flute. I can tell the same process will happen with the whistle.

haggmaster · Post by **haggmaster** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 11:02 am

yes. i have an oak and love it. got given it by a friend who had it in a draw for years and did nt play. i have 5 whistles including a tweeked one, and i like the oak the best .
its a good all rounder that does nt seem to need warming up like the others. cheers haggmaster

hammerhead · Post by **hammerhead** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 4:21 pm

Great review! Thanks.

Have been thinking of getting one for a while now.

Does anyone know any UK websites that sell them? Have been looking but I can't seem to find any.

sbhikes · Post by **sbhikes** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 5:24 pm

I have an acorn which I guess is made by oak. Maybe it's the cheaper cousin, but I like it and it doesn't leave me wanting a better whistle.

hathair_bláth · Post by **hathair_bláth** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 7:38 pm

Spot on, I.D.10-t. My Oak was the second whistle I ever bought, and it's putting up a fight to knock my Feadog out of the top spot. I love that little whistle. It just sings.

john_t · Post by **john_t** » Sun Aug 19, 2007 5:09 am

@hammerhead:
http://www.musicroom.com/se/ID_No/015439/details.html

hammerhead · Post by **hammerhead** » Sun Aug 19, 2007 7:47 am

john_t wrote:@hammerhead:
http://www.musicroom.com/se/ID_No/015439/details.html

Thats great! Thanks very much

Tres · Post by **Tres** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 1:18 pm

The best whislte I own (with the possible exception of my Burke narrow bore brass D) is my "Oakenstein" D-- an Oak head on a brass Generation body with the sticky tack tweak. It has that tone you want and plays like a dream. It's the closest I will ever come probably to the mystical (or should I say "mythical") "good Generation"

Tres

MarcusR · Post by **MarcusR** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 1:03 am

hammerhead wrote:
john_t wrote:@hammerhead:
http://www.musicroom.com/se/ID_No/015439/details.html

Thats great! Thanks very much

Bet you missed the lite notice:

Availability: No Longer Available

And if I'm not mistaken the only chance to get one new is if a music shop
has one or two still sitting on a shelf.

/MarcusR

hammerhead · Post by **hammerhead** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 3:20 am

MarcusR wrote:
hammerhead wrote:
john_t wrote:@hammerhead:
http://www.musicroom.com/se/ID_No/015439/details.html

Thats great! Thanks very much
Bet you missed the lite notice:

Availability: No Longer Available

And if I'm not mistaken the only chance to get one new is if a music shop
has one or two still sitting on a shelf.

/MarcusR

Yeah seen that bit!

Clicked on one of the links and managed to get one. Is in the post as we speak!

I.D.10-t · Post by **I.D.10-t** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 4:53 am

My wife said she bought it HERE and that it arrived in about three days.
She was happy with their service.

Whistlin'Dixie · Post by **Whistlin'Dixie** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 6:51 am

I.D.10-t wrote:My wife said she bought it HERE and that it arrived in about three days.
She was happy with their service.

(runs screaming...........)

Well, Oak is about my favorite of anything, hands down, although I mostly play flute these days. I have found my Oaks at various music stores, my best Oak came from Lark in the Morning in Seattle on one of my trips home. Enjoy your whistle!!!!

M

crookedtune · Post by **crookedtune** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 8:25 am

I hated my Oak when I was starting out. Now I like it a lot. That tells you something about both the whistle and player, I guess.

cadancer · Post by **cadancer** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 12:25 pm

I had a D and a C Oak.

I gave them away.

...john

Whistlin'Dixie · Post by **Whistlin'Dixie** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 6:08 pm

See, that's the kind of thing that happens with whistles.

You get one, give it a try, then move on to something more expensive that plays "better", but after you get a bit of whistling/practicing under your belt, you go back to all those cheapies you threw in a drawer and have a revelation!!!!

I did that with my first Oak, too.

Now, I rarely if ever play my expensive whistles.

M