Review: Dr Guido Gonzato's Canada/US new whistles tour

kennychaffin · Post by **kennychaffin** » Fri May 16, 2008 4:05 am

Peter Laban wrote:
Björn wrote:
That's probably where the 'General Whistle Community' lives...
on planet Tweak?

See! See! I always felt like the Irish were aliens!

KAC

Feadoggie · Post by **Feadoggie** » Fri May 16, 2008 9:59 am

AZW wrote:Can anyone compare Guido's lager (quiet) and stout (loud) models?

Art, I am not sure if this is exactly the answer to your question so make of it what you will. Guido and I have swapped whistle making "secrets"

and whistles as well. I sent Guido a couple of my DIY whistles (like those I had at Augusta last year) and he sent me a couple of his creations. The two high D's that Guido made for me are voiced a little differently - one is louder than the other. These were made prior to the lager and stout designations but I am assuming they represent those concepts. The louder of the two whistles, which I would call the stout, has a slightly larger window and a marginally higher windway height due to a very slight difference between the pipes used to make them. They are both tuned well and play well. The tone is pleasant and response is good on both. The tuning slides work well and and stay put where you tune them. There might be a very little bit more air in the sound of the louder of the two whistles. The top end may be a just a bit sweeter (balanced) on the quieter/lager whistle. The quieter whistle is no wall flower and the louder whistle is not at all strident. These are just my observations. PM me if want to know more.

Hope that helps.

Feadoggie

keithsandra · Post by **keithsandra** » Fri May 16, 2008 12:53 pm

Peter Laban said: "Ever looked at a Burke?"

Despite the looks of his present whistles, I think Michael Burke could be the one to make them stunningly beautiful because he already produces whistles that are arguably among the very best the world can offer at the moment. He has proven expertise in financing, tooling, production management, marketing, organizing sales and dispatch and customer relations. He’s also constantly improving his whistles. So what more do we whistlers want? From the postings on the thread, “The end of high end whistles?” some time ago, it seems a lot of people insist good looks matter and they’re willing to pay for them. If that’s a thread Michael thinks is worth pursuing, bearing in mind a lot of people favour function over form and wouldn’t pay more for form over function, then I think Michael Burke is the one to pursue it. He’d have to invest in some engineering design talent, but he’d know where to find the right people he can work with, then bingo: we’ll have the same near perfect whistle as we have now but with knock-out looks… And following Michael Burke’s philosophy of delivering the best for the lowest price, it’ll probably be a lot cheaper than the whistles we call high end today …

There are other people out there who can do this too, and I’ve told them so, but MB has a head start, IMHO.

Cayden · Post by **Cayden** » Fri May 16, 2008 12:59 pm

the best for the lowest price

You must be joking!!

No accounting for taste but I mean, $190 for a D whistle is hardly in the lower (or mid) price bracket of the whistle market isn't it? In absolute terms or relative terms.

And don't give me the 'if you buy a cello you'd spend a lot more' one

keithsandra · Post by **keithsandra** » Fri May 16, 2008 1:18 pm

Peter Laban wrote:
the best for the lowest price
You must be joking!! It's fine with me if anyone wants to throw money at it but, I mean, $190 for a D whistle is hardly low isn't it? In absolute terms or relative terms.

I think you're right Peter. MB is tripping up on price, especially when you compare the sound and playability of, for instance, a $28 Gonzato High D with the $190 cost of a Burke High D.

If Dr Gonzato or James Becker, and others now beginning to produce inexpensive whistles with as good sound and playability as Burke whistles, ever get into cahoots with a friendly commercial production engineering designer, MB might very well be forced out of the market if he tries to hold on to his current price ratios ...

I'm sure Dr G will be happy to send you a whistle to try. Give it a try. Check out what I'm talking about, Peter.

azw · Post by **azw** » Fri May 16, 2008 1:49 pm

Feadoggie wrote:Art, I am not sure if this is exactly the answer to your question so make of it what you will. Guido and I have swapped whistle making "secrets" and whistles as well. I sent Guido a couple of my DIY whistles (like those I had at Augusta last year) and he sent me a couple of his creations. The two high D's that Guido made for me are voiced a little differently - one is louder than the other. These were made prior to the lager and stout designations but I am assuming they represent those concepts. The louder of the two whistles, which I would call the stout, has a slightly larger window and a marginally higher windway height due to a very slight difference between the pipes used to make them. They are both tuned well and play well. The tone is pleasant and response is good on both. The tuning slides work well and and stay put where you tune them. There might be a very little bit more air in the sound of the louder of the two whistles. The top end may be a just a bit sweeter (balanced) on the quieter/lager whistle. The quieter whistle is no wall flower and the louder whistle is not at all strident. These are just my observations. PM me if want to know more.

Hope that helps.
Feadoggie

Hi, Dennis! Yes, that does help. I'm in search of a whisper quiet whistle. I'm sorry to say that I'm not able to attend Augusta this summer. I'll miss seeing you there!

fipple · Post by **fipple** » Fri May 16, 2008 3:57 pm

Peter Laban wrote:Ever looked at a Burke?

I think they are quite lovely...

Robert

azw · Post by **azw** » Fri May 16, 2008 4:24 pm

To my eye, Burke's fipple ends are beautiful and graceful. But the tunable slide part looks industrial or utilitarian. I'm kind of a utilitarian guy, so that's fine with me, but I don't find it to be an elegant design.

Cayden · Post by **Cayden** » Fri Jun 20, 2008 7:53 am

Time to draw up this thread.

A Gonzato D was delivered to my door by Postman Patrick yesterday. Curiosity got the better of me after all the enthusing and so I bought the whistle untried (which is generally against my better judgement).

My first impression is not a bad one: the whistle is easy to play and although sweetness is maybe not the first things that comes mind the sound is nicely clean and balanced.

My first impression confirms the MT review (in it's own thread) in that the whistle likes to play slightly sharp of concert pitch and that the whistle doesn't like to be pushed without going notably sharp. The promised strong bottom note doesn't really live up to the blurb's promise, in fact at a first glance it's the D hardest to hit in tune out of all whistles I have (in fact bottom D wants to play flat of concert pitch and needs a good push to get in tune and it reaches the auto-cranning verge of breaking once you get there). In fairness, the pitch of the D does rise once the whistle warms up but it remains a note that needs far more delicate breath-control than any of the Generation type whistles.

[edit, the morning after] Maybe I should add for clarity's sake I like the whistle a lot and while I don't think the perfect cheap whistle to end 'everything whistlers had to put up with so far' has arrived, not in it's present form anyway, it's a fine player with a decent sound and overall a good alternative to other cheap whistles (if you are looking for a different sound). The bottom D is a flaw though that needs a bit of a re-think as far as I am concerned.

I'll play it for a day or so and put up a few clips and, FWIW, submit my further impressions, if any.

Cayden · Post by **Cayden** » Mon Jun 23, 2008 8:11 am

OK, no real new impressions to add (except that the whistle triggered an un-typical and strong reaction in my ever patient and tolerant tinnitus suffering wife who can't bear the sound of it). It plays well but is marred a bit by the flat (once warmed up it settles between ten to twenty cents flat of A=440) and weak-ish bottom D (and I mean that in the sense that it breaks easily, even when only slightly pushed).

I'd like to say I bought the whistle because I like Guido's idea of making a decent instrument for a decent price (rather than squeezing it for 'what the market will bear') and fair play to him for it.

I also think gushing unrealistic 'reviews' are more of a hindrance than help. This is a nice enough whistle that can hold it's own and it doesn't need the hyperbole.

I put down three rough and ready files in one go (all I can do is sit at the kitchen table and play whatever comes into my head and plonk a little recorder on the table) to give you an idea how the whistle works for me :

Three jigs (a bit of a skip in the third one when a cat jumped me)

Air

Reel

This is, by the way, the more quiet version and I wouldn't want it any louder.

jemtheflute · Post by **jemtheflute** » Mon Jun 23, 2008 10:42 am

I enjoyed your clips, Peter. Thanks for posting them.

scoutcow · Post by **scoutcow** » Mon Jun 23, 2008 12:43 pm

Although I'm in the European tour, I'll add my experiences and video's here.
I really like the whistles, but the backpressure could've been a bit higher, especially on the high D whistle. I like the Bb and A whistles the most, but both low and high D whistles are very nice too.

Here are some video's:
High D whistle:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=XQ4zA9_tjLY
Bb whistle:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=vAFZF4OlgB8
A whistle:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=0EvSegwigqU
Low D whistle:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=QV9qcTApf-o

Guidus · Post by **Guidus** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 6:05 am

scoutcow wrote:Although I'm in the European tour, I'll add my experiences and video's here.

thanks a lot, Scoutcow!