I picked up a used bamboo whistle this weekend at a local shop. It was only $4 and plays in tune, so I couldn’t pass it up. It’s in the key of C and is stamped Japan. The fipple design is a bit different than what I’ve seen for bamboo whistles on eBay in that the windway is on the underside of the whistle (assuming that the finger holes are the top). Are there other examples of this kind of design around?
Yes, the underside fipple is a standard design for East Asian bamboo whistles of this type that I’ve seen. It’s also seen on Eastern European fipple flutes. I have basically the same whistle as yours. It’s now ~50 years old, and a nice player.
Some Bulgarian folk whistles, called Дудук “Duduk”, but not to be confused with the double reed instrument from Armenia with the same name:
They are made in various keys, and usually out of some fruit tree wood, like aprikot or plum. They are actually quite comfortable to hold against the mouth, having the windway on the bottom side.
That actually looks like a very nice tourist shop whistle. I have some tourist shop whistles. A relative mailed me one and spent more in postage than it was worth. It plays nice. Your tourist shop whistle is way prettier than mine. I have tourist shops whistles that are completely unplayable and even after years, the paint is still sticky to the touch and smells funny.
Many countries around here produce whistles, and even recorders, with the window underneath.
IMO
whistles still linked to pastoral roots
have underside windways which helps
to play in windy landscape.
I often twist my standard Irish whistles heads
so if I am playing by the sea in windy conditions.
It OFTEN helps.
I often twist my standard Irish whistles heads
so if I am playing by the sea in windy conditions.
It OFTEN helps
Thanks for the tip! I am a new whistler and took a whistle to Mexico while on vacation, hoping to play on the beach. I was puzzled why I could not produce a single note but I figured it had something to do with the ocean breeze.
It is a nice sounding whistle and 1960’s was my guess on the age when I bought it (thanks MTGuru for confirming). If I can figure it out, I’ll try to post a sound sample of it in the next day or so.
Looks like a new area of collecting to consider. And after I thought I had gotten most of the cheap ones on the market these days. WHOA never ends, does it…
I’ve got two small whistles from Bali called Suling in my little museum of musical folk instruments. A Suling is a bamboo flute (whistle) which has the fipple blade underneath, and the windway is formed by a band of rattan. Sulings are the only wind instruments used in Gamelan orchestras.
Here is a pic of some big low Sulings, low whistles have been used a long time!
and the link to the page: http://blog.baliwww.com/headline/6863
There is a video of a Suling orchestra playing, which is interesting.
And this page http://mus431.com/431_inst_gamelan.html got a video of a solo Suling performance, where the musician uses circular breezing to keep the tone going.
Wow, I wouldn’t have room in my little apartment for one of those monsters.
Here is a short tune I’ve been learning, found on The Session, played on the bamboo whistle, complete w/ missed notes.
And the whistles are pretty big, too. 
I’m curious, what was your tune source at The Session?
As far as I can tell, the tune is Lovely Nancy as identified in this online ABC collection:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/djfoster/Tunebooks/MESS2.abc
Your setting is in A Mixolydian (G-nat) instead of A Major (G#). And Amix does sound more “correct” for this Scottish-style tune.
It’s also related to Prince Charles in Ryan’s/Coles:
http://www.ibiblio.org/fiddlers/PRIN_PY.htm#PRINCE_CHARLES_[2]
And it seems to be in the same family as The Tripper’s, which I posted on The Session a few months ago:
http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/10491
As for the bamboo whistle itself … Assuming that tune is fingered in A, the whistle is actually somewhere between a Bb and B whistle, not C. But it’s hard to tell because it’s not in tune with itself (for example, those fingered A’s are very flat compared to the other notes). You could try intonating it by sanding some of the holes larger and removing any burrs protruding into the bore, and maybe end up with something close to a B whistle.
It was posted last week, http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/10661. There are a couple guesses for the title in the comments section. I just play 'em and let others worry about keys, titles and other nuances of the tunes (it’s posted in Gmaj). With my whistle being in the key of C and playing a little sharp, I could see where it could be a bit difficult figuring the key. Probably why I could never play it in a session setting.
As far as getting the whistle more in tune, I’ll try what you suggest, though, unlike the putty tweak which I can undo, I’d worry about sanding too much. Does it matter which holes are sanded?
Interesting, Brian, thanks. In that case, as a G tune … Your whistle is a slightly sharp C whistle with funky intonation. 
But the xxx xoo fingering is a full half-step flat, giving F-nat instead of F#. So it is, in effect, a Melodic Minor whistle (or what I call a Dorian whistle if playing C-nat). Which is not a bad thing, just different.
To correct the intonation … Yes, you have to adjust the holes individually and be careful about not enlarging them too much. A while back panceltpiper posted a good description of doing this systematically on his Gens. I’ll see if I can find the post. I did this on my bamboo whistle with very good results.
As for the tune, I’ll post some comments over at The Session*. It does seem to be a G version of the Scottish A tune family, which is a common Irish transformation. In fact, Kenny Haddon, who posted your Gan Ainm, worked with me on my posting of The Tripper’s there. So he’s probably aware of the connections, whether he knows it or not.