Jerry-Tweaked Shaw Low G

[Darwin]

A couple of days ago, I received a package from Jerry Freeman, containing the Shaw Low D that I won in the recent lottery held for none-other-than Jerry Freeman. Coincidence? Nah...

It was donated by the Undisputed Hisownself, and passed on to Jerry for the tweaking.

This is my eleventh whistle, my first Shaw, my first Low G, and my first Jerry-tweak, and I like it a lot.

Since I don't know what an untweaked Shaw Low G might be like in either sound or appearance, I'll just stick to describing what I've got here in my hand. (Actually, I find that I type better if I lay it down.)

First, for others not too familiar with Shaws, it's "German silver", conical, rolled, with what appears to be a silver-soldered seam up the back, and is 17 inches long. About 2 to 2.5 inches of the end that you blow into has been pressed into a rectangular--almost square--cross section.

It has a Shaw logo and a G in a circle stamped into the metal between the window and the finger holes, and has the highly attractive and appealing "Jerry Freeman Tweaked" clear sticker with Mouse appended just below the logo.

There is a distinct handmade look to the whole thing. It has a wooden fipple block, but on the inside of the windway, it is covered by a strip of the same German silver, which also turns down to cover the end of the fipple block inside the whistle, so that it appears that the wooden block is not exposed anywhere inside the whistle. I found the part of the wood where my lower lip rests to be a bit coarse-textured, so I've rubbed it with some birthday candle wax to smooth it out a bit.

The windway being flat, the blade matches it in shape, being pressed in, but still kept very flat, except right at either edge. The edge of the blade appears to have been sharpened a bit. The beak has a very comfortable shape to it.

Given its size, it's not particularly heavy. The holes are fairly widely spaced, though--especially the last one. In this, it's a lot like my Hoover Low A, but all the holes are more widely spaced. As I mentioned in my review of the Jubilee low D practice whistle, I have a bit of trouble closing and opening that last hole cleanly and accurately. I'm sure I'll be able to master it, but it will take some dedicated practice. I've been playing scale patterns, which seem to help.

My electronic tuner says that it's well in tune with itself across both octaves--as long as I blow pretty hard after the two lowest notes. The amount of air required across the octaves is as balanced as I've seen, and the bell note can take a fair amount of push. Overall, back pressure seems to be moderate to high.

The timbre is just right for the slow airs that I play. It has what I would describe as a complex sound--just a bit short of the complexity of my Busman bloodwood D, but is not the least bit "breathy". Its complexity is more of slight buzz, though that doesn't do justice to the musical quality of the buzz. Maybe "hum" would be more accurate.

In short, though I wouldn't mind if the fingering were a bit easier, I'm completely satisfied with the sound and playability of my Jerry-Tweaked Shaw.

Thanks to Jessie for the lottery, to Dale for the whistle, and to Jerry for his fine work.