thanks everybody for the good advice! i have a LBW that i actually like, and agree on the low volume. i’ll carefully look over all the suggestions and links, and then busy some whistles to get started. i think over time, i’ll try out all the suggestions so i can be well educated. my problem is that i am very finicky, and i don’t have the time or money to buy all the cheap whistles and see which i like, so i am glad that there are so many knowledgeable people here that can offer their input to help me make my decision.
for those who might be interested, can elaborate on the whole situation.
these whistles are for college-age students, and many of them will be music majors on other instruments. i myself am a grad student in psychology, but one of my students is a music major, and she is going to help me start the club at our university, and has already generated some buzz in the music school. it might be a while before we’ll get approval from the university for funds to buy whistles or rent accordions / whistles / etc., so i need to get something new to give to the wind players who obviously can’t play a trumpet or clarinet in Irish music (at least not in my club! 
).
as for the project as a whole, we’re going for a club that emphasizes experiencing irish music in the real world. we’re going to bring in one or two big-name musicians to do a workshop and concert every semester, and get lesser-known musicians to do workshops and master classes in between. as our university is located a little over an hour from chicago, there are a lot of musicians that we can get that we won’t have to pay to fly in! we are also going to push heavily to bring our members to sessions, so they can experience irish music in its (current) native habitat. our advisor is a professor and expert in baroque music, and she learned irish music when she was in grad school in new york, so fully supports our desire to teach exclusively by ear, and supports our ambitious aims for the
club.
i myself am a concertina player, who was a whistle and flute player before i was converted to free reeds. although i do try to keep my chops up and improve on the flute and whistle, nowadays i am much better versed in the minute differences and playing characteristics of concertina models at every price range, than i am of tin whistles (in fact, these days, i am only really familiar with the burke models, and have not played another maker’s whistle besides my low-D chieftain in many years!). for flutes, i play a jon c. boosey pratten copey, or a david copley wooden headjoint for silver flute, and occasionally a gisborne 8-key from 1864 in cocus, fully restored by jon c.
thanks again all for your input! i’ll be checking back for any more comments, and update anyone who is interested in what i think of the whistles, and the progression of the new club.
In fact that’s what got me started in making whistles. I designed a simple CPVC whistle and made the components ahead of time and the players assembled their own whistles from kits. We spent a lot of time fiddling with each whistle to get them working as well as they could. I enjoyed that effort but it didn’t seem to add much to folks learning to play the whistle. So now I just make the whistles I would use for a workshop ahead of time. While I am one of those people that is curious about what makes a whistle work, others find themsleves full-up just learning to blow properly and to cover the holes without crushing the whistle. Your experience may be different.