Shearwater Whistles

Our low black Polymer whistles have a curved windway, as do all our whistles which does help with condensation problems. They have offset finger holes which make them easier to play

Although they are nominally tuneable, this is only to a slight degree because tune the lower octave in and the top will more than likely change.

What ever anyone may tell you tuning is always a compromise. These are a good starting whistle for those wanting to get into Low whistles playing.

I also make tuneable and non tuneable alloy whistles and brass bodied sopranos with curved windway and acetal mouthpiece block. The brass whistles have an acetal mouthpiece. Acetal is a food quality material similar to delrin which is safe for human contact.

As regards tuning, as these are all handmade, I try to make sure they are as close as I can get to being in tune with A440 with normal air pressure, the rest is up to you! Tuning is really up to the player. It is amazing how much you can change a whistle just by blowing harder or softer so it is a very individual thing. No straight bored instrument is going to play perfectly in tune on every note; it is just not the nature of the beast.

Whistles are subject to small design change.

We have just added another exciting addition to our catalogue. This is a Soprano C recorder whistle.

The C recorder whistle is a whistle recorder hybrid made with a wider bore than the standard C whistle. It has a top left hand thumb hole and four finger holes for the right hand, like a recorder. Fingering is similar to a baroque recorder, using cross-fingering for both F natural and F sharp etc. Other accidentals are available such as Bb, G# so other keys such as F are playable. The wider bore gives it a slightly more powerful sound than the standard C whistle. It plays well over two octaves which is plenty for most traditional and Early Music. This recorder whistle would suit recorder players who would like to achieve the more open and powerful sound of a whistle, with stronger bottom notes (compared to a typical tapered-bore recorder), and those who need a whistle which can produce cross-fingered semitones, for easier playing in various keys.

In the second octave the notes from C up to A can be played with the thumb hole closed, as well as pinched in the typical recorder technique. Note that middle C and D can be easily played with a strong tone having the fingers down (overblowing) as well as the traditional recorder fingerings with just two or one top finger down in the first register.

Also new are our brass bodies soprano whistles, offering tuneable or non tuneable instruments. At present we are just offering Ds but other keys will become available. Our sopranos have a bright and clear tone in both octaves with balanced volume, as The change from first to second octave is excellent. The whistles are well in tune with themselves. Tuneable whistles have fine tuning possibilities and you will find that very little movement is required. They are however made with a moderate amount of movement with the tuning slide.

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