Anderson whistle tour
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wvwhistler
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shadowformz
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Feadoggie
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I wanted to post to the folks on the Anderson whistle tour that the Bendee whistle has arrived in the US and is resting. It had a long flight from Australia and was a bit chilled when it arrived here so I am letting it become acclimated before I fill it with hot air. I will post quite a bit more once I have had a chance to play some tunes.
Feadoggie
Feadoggie
I've proven who I am so many times, the magnetic strips worn thin.
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brewerpaul
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You bet. I have no wheels, but we can work something out.brewerpaul wrote:Hey Mike- call me when you're ready to make the whistle exchange and we can get together for lunch or something.slowair wrote:Brad,
You can put brewerpaul (Paul Busman) and myself one after the other as we live very close to one another.
Mike Reagan
Mike
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shadowformz
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Ctrl Alt Del
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shadowformz
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G'Day all, I've been in touch with feadoggie and he is just putting the finishing touches on what will be a awesome review, including pictures and soundclips. Cant wait to see it.slowair wrote:I wish! That feadoggie is a feahoggie!Ctrl Alt Del wrote:Being on the end of the tour... just wondering... how's thing going? any feedback on the whistle?
Me thinks we'll have to start a whistle tour police force. Come on, move it along lil feadoggie.
Life is a dream within a dream.
I do hope Feadoggie knows I'm pulling his leg. I'm just really anxious to receive the whistle.shadowformz wrote:
G'Day all, I've been in touch with feadoggie and he is just putting the finishing touches on what will be a awesome review, including pictures and soundclips. Cant wait to see it.
I too plan on doing a full review despite the controversy it will most likely generate from certain people who don't like my reviews or playing. But I've stayed away too long and why shouldn't an average player add his opinion? So prepare yourselves...you've been warned!
Mike
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Feadoggie
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It’s not every day that a new whistle maker shows up in the neighborhood. So when free-feet pointed out that a wooden whistle was offered on eBay by an un-announced maker, Brad Anderson, I sent an email to him to find out more about his whistles. Brad responded quickly to my inquiries and I could tell there was some passion in his replies about whistle making. I invited Brad to say hello to the folks on Chiff & Fipple and in no time at all Brad offered to send one of his whistles on a whirlwind tour around the globe. I was first on the list and here are my observations on the Brad Anderson high D whistle in Bendee wood. But before I give my impressions, I would like to thank Brad for offering this whistle for the tour. He’s a trusting father to be putting his young child on a plane and sending it around the world to be cared for by strangers.
General Design: The whistle Brad is making folows a well-known format, a tunable two-piece whistle. The body and head appear to be turned from single piece of wood. The head incorporates a tuning slide where it joins the finger tube. The mouthpiece is the three-piece design familiar to many whistles. The wooden tube is cut to provide the windway, window and labium. The fipple or plug is seated inside the wooden tube forming the windway floor. The face of the plug is concave (Hmm, where have we seen that before?) A collar fits around the outside of the tube to form the windway ceiling. There is a nice radius cut into the mouthpiece to form a comfortable beak. The ends of the tubes are supported by metal rings. The tubes measure just less than 16mm or 5/8” on the outside with the mouthpiece collar being just a little bit wider. The bore of the tube is around 11.5mm or just under ½”. The tuning slide expands the bore a wee bit so the bore is not strictly cylindrical. Tone holes are a typical size for a whistle with this bore size, some may be on the smallish side. The voicing window depth is typical while the width may be on the larger side for an instrument with this bore diameter. A maker’s mark is burned in to the head tube which gives the whistle an unmistakable identity.
Materials: The whistle offered on tour is constructed of Bendee. Brad seems keen on making whistles in more unusual woods, especially those native to Australia. Bendee is a hardwood from the acacia family and is not nearly as flexible as its name may suggest. The Bendee Brad selected for this whistle is a very nice piece of timber and well suited to whistle making. The color is a caramel brown. And one of the wonders of wooden whistles is that they give off that new whistle smell. The grain varies in color from caramel to dark brown to black in places and is most evident on the finger tube. Brad has oriented the grain so that the “cathedrals” are on the top and underside of the tube. There are stainless steel rings at the top and bottom of the tubes and all three rings are different widths, so you wouldn’t be inclined to assemble the whistle upside down. The tuning slide is made from a single brass tube fitted in the head tube. The brass slides neatly into a stainless ring inside the finger tube. The Mouthpiece is on the heavy side. The plug is delrin and well suited to its function. The outer collar is a substantial piece of stainless steel. The use of stainless adds some weight to the whistle, especially at the head end. An attractive case is supplied with the Anderson whistle made from mahogany (?). The whistle parts rest in separate berths routed from the mahogany and are lined with felt. Brass hinges and a brass spring catch secure the case together. Once again, the Anderson logo is emblazoned on the top of the case.
Fit and Finish: The woodworking on the Anderson whistle shows quite good workmanship. The wood is bored smoothly and there is no raised grain evident inside the whistle. The outside of the whistle is nicely polished as you can see from the reflections in my photos. The tone holes are cut into the finger tube nicely. The edges are well finished. They seal easily and provide good feedback to the player’s fingers. The holes are not centered exactly in a straight line. LH3 is a tiny bit off to the left.. So let’s call it “ergonomic” finger hole placement. You don’t notice this when playing, just when you get out a straight edge. The window and labium are clearly hand cut. There are a few file marks remaining in evidence of this hand work. The rings are smooth and also highly polished. The contrast between the polished stainless and the smooth Bendee is handsome. Transitions between the rings and the wood are smooth although not perfectly seamless. Metalwork on the Anderson whistle is good. The rings are very well done. However the mouthpiece is not finished as nicely as the rest of the whistle. There are some some signs of tool chatter on mouthpiece. While the tool marks have been polished a little effort more would move overall presentation closer to perfect. There is also some roughness on the underside of the mouthpiece. None of this has a bearing on how the whistle plays or sounds. These are purely cosmetic nits.
Tuning: This is an obligatory process in a whistle review, so I got out my portable tuner. I will start by saying that the entire scale is strong. There are no weak notes in the scale. There are no peculiar overtones. Volume does increase as you go up the scale with the high A and B being the only outliers from a whistle with great volume balance. The Anderson whistle plays an in tune A=440Hz with the tuning slide pulled out about 3 mm. The tuning of other notes relative to that is good in the first octave. The bell note D is a little sharp but with breath control it can be brought back down but with a commensurate reduction in volume. The second octave is like quite a few whistles, the second octave D starts out good though a little sharp and things proceed to flatten as the scale goes up. The high B is the only note that bothers me at all. Everything can be blown into tune but the high B wants more than I like to put into it. Folks want to know about the cross fingered C natural. It’s close enough with a OXXOOO fingering, just a tad flat. The OXXXOO and OXXXOX are not very usable to my ears. Of course half-holed C naturals absolve any criticism whatsoever. Crossfingered G# and Bb’s are musical and full. The second octave D opens up considerably with LH1 left open, very nice. So, does any of this really matter when you are ripping out dance tunes? Here’s my two cents! The high B is somewhat noticeable, everything else sits well enough for session playing. The bell note may be just me being persnickety.
Timbre: The Anderson whistle has a very nice, full voice. This is of course the most subjective aspect of a whistle review and the hardest to describe. There are no digital calipers to help measure this. In general the tone is crisp, not harsh and not at all muddy. The tone is not exactingly pure. There is an edge to it, a hint of air and this becomes more evident as you go up the scale. It has personality. There is plenty of volume. I would rate the Anderson towards the louder end of the whistle volume scale - about an 8+ on a 1-10 scale. This is an open and somewhat free blowing whistle so the player can effect the tone directly with their “embouchure”. Now I favor that over a closed or constrained voicing but some might not. I’ll try to post some sound clips. You can judge for yourself (or not). One observation I have is that the timbre becomes less crisp as you go up through the second octave although many players would not take notice of it and some might prefer it.
http://www.box.net/shared/xt0skl80s0
http://www.box.net/shared/7jajnc3gg8
Playability: I don’t have any real complaints here. The whistle plays well with no obvious quirks to report. I play a wide array of whistle on a regular basis - different horses for different courses, and I had no difficulty acclimating to this whistle. It wants to be pushed a little in the second octave but not nearly as hard as many other whistles out there. Response is good in general although I felt that the turnover in some ornaments could sound crisper. Clogging? Just about every whistle clogs given the right conditions. The Anderson whistle has a stainless steel mouthpiece. It will get cold, just as you would expect, warm it up before playing. I had no unusual problems with clogging while playing for extended periods.
Summary: This a pretty good whistle. The mouthpiece could be smoother and the tuning could be improved a little. Brad tells me he has just recently started making these so I am really surprised he has so much done well at this point. He is also very receptive to observations on what he can improve so I am sure his whistles will just get better as he makes more. Thanks for the opportunity to try your whistle, Brad, and welcome to the neighborhood.
So now it’s on to Slowair to find out what he thinks. Well it's on to Slowair after the Post Office reopens - there is a holiday tomorrow.
Feadoggie
General Design: The whistle Brad is making folows a well-known format, a tunable two-piece whistle. The body and head appear to be turned from single piece of wood. The head incorporates a tuning slide where it joins the finger tube. The mouthpiece is the three-piece design familiar to many whistles. The wooden tube is cut to provide the windway, window and labium. The fipple or plug is seated inside the wooden tube forming the windway floor. The face of the plug is concave (Hmm, where have we seen that before?) A collar fits around the outside of the tube to form the windway ceiling. There is a nice radius cut into the mouthpiece to form a comfortable beak. The ends of the tubes are supported by metal rings. The tubes measure just less than 16mm or 5/8” on the outside with the mouthpiece collar being just a little bit wider. The bore of the tube is around 11.5mm or just under ½”. The tuning slide expands the bore a wee bit so the bore is not strictly cylindrical. Tone holes are a typical size for a whistle with this bore size, some may be on the smallish side. The voicing window depth is typical while the width may be on the larger side for an instrument with this bore diameter. A maker’s mark is burned in to the head tube which gives the whistle an unmistakable identity.
Materials: The whistle offered on tour is constructed of Bendee. Brad seems keen on making whistles in more unusual woods, especially those native to Australia. Bendee is a hardwood from the acacia family and is not nearly as flexible as its name may suggest. The Bendee Brad selected for this whistle is a very nice piece of timber and well suited to whistle making. The color is a caramel brown. And one of the wonders of wooden whistles is that they give off that new whistle smell. The grain varies in color from caramel to dark brown to black in places and is most evident on the finger tube. Brad has oriented the grain so that the “cathedrals” are on the top and underside of the tube. There are stainless steel rings at the top and bottom of the tubes and all three rings are different widths, so you wouldn’t be inclined to assemble the whistle upside down. The tuning slide is made from a single brass tube fitted in the head tube. The brass slides neatly into a stainless ring inside the finger tube. The Mouthpiece is on the heavy side. The plug is delrin and well suited to its function. The outer collar is a substantial piece of stainless steel. The use of stainless adds some weight to the whistle, especially at the head end. An attractive case is supplied with the Anderson whistle made from mahogany (?). The whistle parts rest in separate berths routed from the mahogany and are lined with felt. Brass hinges and a brass spring catch secure the case together. Once again, the Anderson logo is emblazoned on the top of the case.
Fit and Finish: The woodworking on the Anderson whistle shows quite good workmanship. The wood is bored smoothly and there is no raised grain evident inside the whistle. The outside of the whistle is nicely polished as you can see from the reflections in my photos. The tone holes are cut into the finger tube nicely. The edges are well finished. They seal easily and provide good feedback to the player’s fingers. The holes are not centered exactly in a straight line. LH3 is a tiny bit off to the left.. So let’s call it “ergonomic” finger hole placement. You don’t notice this when playing, just when you get out a straight edge. The window and labium are clearly hand cut. There are a few file marks remaining in evidence of this hand work. The rings are smooth and also highly polished. The contrast between the polished stainless and the smooth Bendee is handsome. Transitions between the rings and the wood are smooth although not perfectly seamless. Metalwork on the Anderson whistle is good. The rings are very well done. However the mouthpiece is not finished as nicely as the rest of the whistle. There are some some signs of tool chatter on mouthpiece. While the tool marks have been polished a little effort more would move overall presentation closer to perfect. There is also some roughness on the underside of the mouthpiece. None of this has a bearing on how the whistle plays or sounds. These are purely cosmetic nits.
Tuning: This is an obligatory process in a whistle review, so I got out my portable tuner. I will start by saying that the entire scale is strong. There are no weak notes in the scale. There are no peculiar overtones. Volume does increase as you go up the scale with the high A and B being the only outliers from a whistle with great volume balance. The Anderson whistle plays an in tune A=440Hz with the tuning slide pulled out about 3 mm. The tuning of other notes relative to that is good in the first octave. The bell note D is a little sharp but with breath control it can be brought back down but with a commensurate reduction in volume. The second octave is like quite a few whistles, the second octave D starts out good though a little sharp and things proceed to flatten as the scale goes up. The high B is the only note that bothers me at all. Everything can be blown into tune but the high B wants more than I like to put into it. Folks want to know about the cross fingered C natural. It’s close enough with a OXXOOO fingering, just a tad flat. The OXXXOO and OXXXOX are not very usable to my ears. Of course half-holed C naturals absolve any criticism whatsoever. Crossfingered G# and Bb’s are musical and full. The second octave D opens up considerably with LH1 left open, very nice. So, does any of this really matter when you are ripping out dance tunes? Here’s my two cents! The high B is somewhat noticeable, everything else sits well enough for session playing. The bell note may be just me being persnickety.
Timbre: The Anderson whistle has a very nice, full voice. This is of course the most subjective aspect of a whistle review and the hardest to describe. There are no digital calipers to help measure this. In general the tone is crisp, not harsh and not at all muddy. The tone is not exactingly pure. There is an edge to it, a hint of air and this becomes more evident as you go up the scale. It has personality. There is plenty of volume. I would rate the Anderson towards the louder end of the whistle volume scale - about an 8+ on a 1-10 scale. This is an open and somewhat free blowing whistle so the player can effect the tone directly with their “embouchure”. Now I favor that over a closed or constrained voicing but some might not. I’ll try to post some sound clips. You can judge for yourself (or not). One observation I have is that the timbre becomes less crisp as you go up through the second octave although many players would not take notice of it and some might prefer it.
http://www.box.net/shared/xt0skl80s0
http://www.box.net/shared/7jajnc3gg8
Playability: I don’t have any real complaints here. The whistle plays well with no obvious quirks to report. I play a wide array of whistle on a regular basis - different horses for different courses, and I had no difficulty acclimating to this whistle. It wants to be pushed a little in the second octave but not nearly as hard as many other whistles out there. Response is good in general although I felt that the turnover in some ornaments could sound crisper. Clogging? Just about every whistle clogs given the right conditions. The Anderson whistle has a stainless steel mouthpiece. It will get cold, just as you would expect, warm it up before playing. I had no unusual problems with clogging while playing for extended periods.
Summary: This a pretty good whistle. The mouthpiece could be smoother and the tuning could be improved a little. Brad tells me he has just recently started making these so I am really surprised he has so much done well at this point. He is also very receptive to observations on what he can improve so I am sure his whistles will just get better as he makes more. Thanks for the opportunity to try your whistle, Brad, and welcome to the neighborhood.
So now it’s on to Slowair to find out what he thinks. Well it's on to Slowair after the Post Office reopens - there is a holiday tomorrow.
Feadoggie
I've proven who I am so many times, the magnetic strips worn thin.