Born again Low D: the saga of an avatar
- Zubivka
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Born again Low D: the saga of an avatar
The tale of the Broken Arrow
Stacey--you know, the chef, CEO, chifftain and fipplartist at Alba Whistles--devised a nice personal feature to this new low D I ordered.
You may call it a case of motorbikers’ masonry : she thought my strapping of low whistles on the pillion seat with a bungie cord may be not the safest transport for a whistle. Or the best to keep it warm until arrived at the pub.
So she made this low D non only cut to be tunable, but also splitting in-between the third and fourth holes. Great: now the longer section is only 235 mm (some 9 in.1/4), shorter than a regular pennywhistle. The three pieces fit nicely, safe and warm, in the breast pocket of the Barbour jacket, or the side pocket of my phot-hog’s gadget bag. When assembled, the seam of the lower section is hard to see, so it doesn't hit the fingers.
There was also some strange design on the lower end, like an invert flare, but later on this.
I try out the whistle immedaitely, of course. Great Alba’s sound, but with with an extra bit of back-pressure adding the resonance of a fog-horn. So I wouldn’t call it exactly “typical” Alba low D sound; more like “Honk if you’re horny, dear President.”
Cool damp spring mornings are tough on whistles: lot of condensation. So, at some point, I shake the juice out, as usual : hand on the tube, with the thumb and forefinger securely clasped on the head, and give it an energetic shake... like batting for a home run.
“Whizz!” went the third detachable section I forgot about. It flew up vertically, bounced on the ceiling oak beam, near-missed the window, crashed on the tiled floor, then gracefully rebounded to smash its other end as well.
Talking of disaster! When I looked, the prodigal tube was crushed flat on both ends. In shock, I still clenched on the rest of the whistle, until I realized I had no real use for an overbore tabor pipe in A flat...
Well, this did teach me. I use SWABS to dry my whistles, now.
Incidentally, a look at the ruins of an Alba Low D also gave a good laugh to a visiting llama. Gossiping camel cousine, too: so, hearing the story, Stacey had also a good laugh, started making fun of my “broken arrow”. I guess that also taught me, like not to expect brotherly Christian sympathy from them female knnniggets...
I packed the triple split corpse in a nice cardboard, then sent it back to Scotland so it would get a decent funeral in the land of its ancestors. Well, instead of this, Stacey decided to resurrect the “Broken arrow”. It probably took a lot of work, annealing and all, but maybe sh’ell explain the processes herself.
It came back here a couple days ago. Plays as well, or even better as new.
One detail I did not immediately notice, before the first, careful and gentle swabbing over my thickest carpet. Now, it looks much better, too. Stacey added a nice touch of “fipple art” to the mouthpiece. Care to see it? Check my new avatar
Stacey--you know, the chef, CEO, chifftain and fipplartist at Alba Whistles--devised a nice personal feature to this new low D I ordered.
You may call it a case of motorbikers’ masonry : she thought my strapping of low whistles on the pillion seat with a bungie cord may be not the safest transport for a whistle. Or the best to keep it warm until arrived at the pub.
So she made this low D non only cut to be tunable, but also splitting in-between the third and fourth holes. Great: now the longer section is only 235 mm (some 9 in.1/4), shorter than a regular pennywhistle. The three pieces fit nicely, safe and warm, in the breast pocket of the Barbour jacket, or the side pocket of my phot-hog’s gadget bag. When assembled, the seam of the lower section is hard to see, so it doesn't hit the fingers.
There was also some strange design on the lower end, like an invert flare, but later on this.
I try out the whistle immedaitely, of course. Great Alba’s sound, but with with an extra bit of back-pressure adding the resonance of a fog-horn. So I wouldn’t call it exactly “typical” Alba low D sound; more like “Honk if you’re horny, dear President.”
Cool damp spring mornings are tough on whistles: lot of condensation. So, at some point, I shake the juice out, as usual : hand on the tube, with the thumb and forefinger securely clasped on the head, and give it an energetic shake... like batting for a home run.
“Whizz!” went the third detachable section I forgot about. It flew up vertically, bounced on the ceiling oak beam, near-missed the window, crashed on the tiled floor, then gracefully rebounded to smash its other end as well.
Talking of disaster! When I looked, the prodigal tube was crushed flat on both ends. In shock, I still clenched on the rest of the whistle, until I realized I had no real use for an overbore tabor pipe in A flat...
Well, this did teach me. I use SWABS to dry my whistles, now.
Incidentally, a look at the ruins of an Alba Low D also gave a good laugh to a visiting llama. Gossiping camel cousine, too: so, hearing the story, Stacey had also a good laugh, started making fun of my “broken arrow”. I guess that also taught me, like not to expect brotherly Christian sympathy from them female knnniggets...
I packed the triple split corpse in a nice cardboard, then sent it back to Scotland so it would get a decent funeral in the land of its ancestors. Well, instead of this, Stacey decided to resurrect the “Broken arrow”. It probably took a lot of work, annealing and all, but maybe sh’ell explain the processes herself.
It came back here a couple days ago. Plays as well, or even better as new.
One detail I did not immediately notice, before the first, careful and gentle swabbing over my thickest carpet. Now, it looks much better, too. Stacey added a nice touch of “fipple art” to the mouthpiece. Care to see it? Check my new avatar
- IDAwHOa
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- Tell us something.: I play whistles. I sell whistles. This seems just a BIT excessive to the cause. A sentence or two is WAY less than 100 characters.
Besides her quality insturments and her nearly always entertaining GIF's, Staceys fipple art is becoming legendary in its own time!
More from this camp in the near future hopfully!
More from this camp in the near future hopfully!
Steven - IDAwHOa - Wood Rocks
"If you keep asking questions.... You keep getting answers." - Miss Frizzle - The Magic School Bus
"If you keep asking questions.... You keep getting answers." - Miss Frizzle - The Magic School Bus
- CHIFF FIPPLE
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Its also what they call a missiel what an't gone bangWalden wrote:Broken Arrow is one of Oklahoma's few cities large enough to have a Kinkos®, and also some religious outfit with a big Christmas light display.
Stacey has the most bodacious fipples! & Message board
http://whistlenstrings.invisionzone.com ... t=0&p=3303&
http://whistlenstrings.invisionzone.com ... t=0&p=3303&
- CHIFF FIPPLE
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[quote="emmline"]I love this story. I love your fipple![/quote]
You have to be carefull where you say this
You have to be carefull where you say this
Stacey has the most bodacious fipples! & Message board
http://whistlenstrings.invisionzone.com ... t=0&p=3303&
http://whistlenstrings.invisionzone.com ... t=0&p=3303&
- Nanohedron
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Oh, yeah: also a mod here, not a spammer. A matter of opinion, perhaps. - Location: Lefse country
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- CHIFF FIPPLE
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- Location: Albawhistle Works Bonnie Scotland
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- CHIFF FIPPLE
- Posts: 722
- Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2003 10:22 am
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 1
- Location: Albawhistle Works Bonnie Scotland
- Contact:
Stacey has the most bodacious fipples! & Message board
http://whistlenstrings.invisionzone.com ... t=0&p=3303&
http://whistlenstrings.invisionzone.com ... t=0&p=3303&
- trisha
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Cheer up Tom, it's really not an issue unless you have eyes in your chin. And who knows which way up Zoob's playing it now - à la mode d'elephant rose probably. Translated - his preferred Abell style.Blackbeer wrote:Well now I`m bumbed. I am playing, what I think is the finest of low D whistles only to find now that it lacks fipple art. My Alba must be prefipple art. I am now crying the blues. Oh hey maybe I`ll play the blues.
Tom
Trisha
- Zubivka
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To translate the translation, I had this Able made of pink elephant's tusk (aka Boozhornia pinkoliphantis), and I loved its sound. However, I found out that the bizarre shape of its mouthpiece--pointy with a sharp edge on top--felt like Jumbo's revenge. By turning this mouthpiece upside down (with the window towards my chest) I found it more comfortable, less threatening and clearer sounding.trisha wrote:Cheer up Tom, it's really not an issue unless you have eyes in your chin. And who knows which way up Zoob's playing it now - à la mode d'elephant rose probably. Translated - his preferred Abell style.
Now, the difference is Albas have a very comfy mouthpiece--and only the normal way up. Good thinking, or I'd keep squinting at this fipple.
You know, Tom, this is my only Alba with fipple artwork. When Stacey started offering these as an option, I was at loss for choice, and stayed with plain "fundamentalist" no-frills fipples. The Broken Arrow, as you read, is a consequence of a different story and I'm doubly glad Stacey herself picked the theme and inlaid it. Must be my overgrown kid side: I like surprises.
However, now I've seen what Stacey can do, I certainly won't skip the option in the future...
It's true: I read it on Internet.