MK Toob

This is number 6 of just 10 MK Toobs ever made, each individually numbered. A precursor to the MK Chameleon, the Toob is the concept instrument on which the Chameleon was based. Lightly used, having been played in performance only three times, it is in excellent condition.

The architecture mirrors that of the 2-legged Chameleon, with G# and Eb keys and thumb-holes that can also be plugged. The keys are cut and formed rather than 3D-printed, and the return mechanisms use torsion springs. The body is blue-green anodised, giving it the same distinctive finish as the production Chameleon. The Toob body is made from silver steel, a material MK used in only this very small run before moving to other approaches for the Chameleon.

The thumb-hole position requires a longer play-in period than the 4-legged Chameleon to make the stretch comfortably, but once that accommodation is made it offers the advantage of direct finger contact with the tone hole for F natural and Bb, supporting ornamental techniques such as cuts, rolls, and bends. Players accustomed to the standard 6-hole MK low D should expect an adjustment period, though the core fingering logic of the instrument will feel familiar.

The Toob predates the Chameleon by three years and was held in the workshop for testing before a small number were made available. Only ten were crafted, each numbered 1 through 10, and more may not be made. Number 6 is a genuinely rare instrument representing a documented step in the development of one of the most ambitious whistle designs in recent memory.

Includes the original brushed aluminium and see-through case, and comes with MK's ten-year guarantee.

About the Maker

Misha Somerville of MK Whistles is a musical innovator who has been crafting aluminium low whistles in Glasgow for over 25 years. Somerville will go through hundreds of different versions of a headpiece before he is fully satisfied with the tone, and that same attention to consistency runs through every aspect of the workshop's output. The Toob and the Chameleon represent the culmination of more than a decade of development work on the problem of building a chromatic whistle that retains the expressive feel and simplicity of the traditional 6-hole instrument.