Hi,
I’m new to Penny Whistles and was wondering if you could recommend the best one for around the £50 mark? Would like a nice mellow tone if possible.
Thanks
Amanda 
The best is the one you enjoy playing… 
What key do you want - they come regularly from high G to low D.
What material do you want it made of - brass, nickel, aluminium, composite.
What are you looking for in your whistle - easy blower, hard blower, tone, loudness.
As you can see, there are lots of criteria to the ‘best’.
But, if you are just starting out, I’d suggest something like a Tony Dixon aluminium, the key dependent on the type of tunes you want to play. 
Hi lovelife62
As fatmac says there are lots of factors as to what is “best”.
I am an avid eBay scourer, so my advice would be to look for job lots of whistles, make sure you don’t overpay.
Fatmac’s recommendation - Dixon aluminium body D on eBay.
My suggestion - Job lot of whistles
Given your budget, and making an offer on the Dixon, it is likely that you could get both.
David
You’ll get plenty of different opinions. As a relatively new player myself, I think your target price is about right. There are cheaper whistles that play well, but I think there is more variability in quality in a cheap whistle than one costing a little more. The significance for you as a newbie is that you don’t want to wonder if the horrible noises you are making are the whistles fault - I can almost guarantee that the noises are your fault, but if you have a cheap whistle it will nag at the back of your mind. Get a nice Dixon (plastic or metal, they’re all good) and try it for a while.
Once you are comfortable with it then you can explore other options. I have a small collection of whistles varying in price from $10 to $100, but my preference does not correlate to price. What you’ll like will be a function of what you’re looking to do with the whistle. I just want to make noise on my back porch while my dog hunts for chipmunks, so a quiet whistle is my preference. If you’re looking to play in a public setting you will want a louder whistle (eventually).
Whistles are like cars. If you hate trucks you wont like a luxury truck over a normal car. I feel like the “best” for everyone if they had infinite budget, is usually going to be one that costs a lot, of the style they like, just to get those small details they appreciate. But, just like cars, you really don’t have to spend a ton to still get something you can like, and is about picking the right one for your taste. Luckily whistles cost a lot less than cars, so some of us can justify shelling out on the top end ones haha.
And like most things in life, you want to avoid the super cheapo stuff because they are often very fishy and then you cant tell what your doing wrong and what’s the instrument. So I think your price range is in a good spot.
I don’t have a Dixon DX005 but I’ve heard amazing things about it, of people saying its mellow and not too harsh, and just plays well. And its right around your budget. This should be a solid instrument, not likely to have issues like the $10 ones. Without spending an arm and a leg for something that you might like 2% more.
Other is Dixon D trad. Half the cost, I have this one. Excellent starter whistle.
Your going to get a lot of dixon recommendations at this price range. To me dixon is higher end than the cheap mass produced ones, while being a lot cheaper than many of your hand made ones. Your hand made ones range from $100 ish to $300 ish usually. With these the goal is to just pick one more fine tuned to what you want, to get that small improvement (along with maybe a nicer build quality and maker name brand). But you definitely don’t want to do that until you have gotten a couple others, so that you have an idea of what you like and don’t like.
It could be worth buying some of the cheap ones eventually to compare, because they have different traits. Feadog, Generation, Clarke, Oak, etc. These are the cheapest tier though where they can have bad quality control issues which is why I still endorse paying a bit more for something more reliable. but it could still be a good way to see if you like harder vs softer blowing, etc.
You definitely want to start with a Key of D whistle, and the greatest selection and most ITM is in D.
If you want an under $20 whistle, a Clarke Sweetone or Original is a great start. Both are conical bore whistles which are easier to hit the second octave and are reasonably in tune in both octaves. The straight-bore mass produced whistles (Generation, Feadog, Clare, Walton) take a little more work until you develop breath control, but the bigger problem is that the one-piece injection-molded whistle heads frequently suffer from poor quality. You could struggle for weeks trying to hit the second octave or play a C-Nat, and all the while it is the whistle head that is the problem. If you don’t believe me, I have some Walton LBWs and a couple Gens for sale cheap
For a little more money, a Dixon Trad ($35 at Hobgoblin) is an excellent choice. The whistle head is plastic but made of two parts and it always sounds good. Body is aluminum, nice sound and you can play on it through to intermediate and advanced levels. And when you decide to spring for a really expensive whistle, the Dixon can become your traveling whistle. I own three Dixons and none are for sale.
Good luck as you embark on your journey!
Thank you for all you helpful replies. I’m guessing this is primarily a US site based on the use of $ and the time of the replies lol. So my £50 hugest would be around $70. I could stretch that a little for the right whistle. I mean I’ve been looking at the Lir whistle. Seems to get good reviews and that’s the type of metal colour I’m after. Do you guys have any experience with that whistle or any thoughts? I’ve been looking at the Dixon’s but don’t really like the style (I’m weird like that haha). It’s got to connect with me if you know what I mean 
Thanks again
Amanda
Hi lovelife82
If you are looking at a Sindt style whistle like the Lir, the chepest is the Mullan nickel D from Erne music supplies - it is half the price of the Lir and comes from Northern Ireland, so no customs charges and hassles. I have bought from them before, they are very responsive.
if you want to try wooden whistles Hobgoblin has the Tamlin maple whistle in D for £30.
David
See if either of these two opinions connect with what you’re looking for:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3quAsRloy9M
Since you mention the tone should be a little mellowed, I think you need to find maybe 10 brand names that are in the financial ball park and then watch a lot of demonstrations and reviews on YouTube and manufacturers websites.
I can respect this. My version of this is I like to get things that are different. If everyone tells me to get something I probobly wont haha. I only have a dixon d trad because its cheap so I decided to pick one up anyway. So I’ll always end up Paying more to get what I want. Ending up with what you want is better anyway.
I do think this forum is like a 50% split between US and the rest of the world. I saw you used a UK pound symbol but I don’t have it on my keyboard so I just used $ anyway haha.
If you want a Lir check out this review. I generally trust this guys advice, hes an excellent player. Also he mentions a discount code. Whats nice about the Lir is the all nickel makes it look different than the others of the same design that have the brass head part.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsJqvE6ayq0
I got the Dixon Trad D a few weeks ago, and of the several whistles I have, it’s the most clean sounding and the easiest to play through the second octave. I wish my two Dixon aluminums and the Howard low D was as smooth in covering two octaves as this. I’d love to try the copper/nickel allow in an alto, but my next purchase is coming from MK.
The Lír and Killarney are almost identical whistles, both rated very well by players and famous endorsers alike, and both made in Ireland. The Killarney is my go-to whistle and I speak from personal experience to its quality and sound.
Mullen and Wild Irish whistles have identical heads to each other, and also to variously-branded whistles available on AliExpress. The Wild Irish and AliExpress whistle heads are actually made in Asia, and I suspect from the price point that Mullens are as well. While the Wild Irish gets good reviews, it suffers from infrequent quality control issues… commonly the fipple not being mounted flush and tight with the head, and also loose joints between head and body. The brass insert between the fipple and head shell is also much shallower and I suspect this is part of the problem, and it suffers from air gaps (yes!).
I recommend the Killarney as it is available immediately. The Lír is backlogged 6-8 weeks, which suggests that they are either very busy, or that they also source components from overseas and are waiting for the next shipment. Has anyone been able to confirm if Lír is completely Irish made, or perhaps “Irish assembled?”
I think you’ll find very few (if any) professional musicians who choose appearance over performance in the instruments they depend upon for their livelihood.
Especially in Studio work where no-one sees you!
I have noticed a certain dichotomy having, on the one side, professionals, top amateur players, and serious hobbyists who have no more concern about what their instruments look like than a carpenter does his hammer, and on the other side dilettante musicians who apparently view an instrument more an objet d’art than a workmanlike tool.
Indeed I’ve seen gorgeous $1,000 whistles made of exotic woods and Sterling Silver which a $10 Feadog could play circles around.
It’s a matter of deciding what the end purpose of a whistle is; one cannot serve two masters.
Yes, it’s a difficult balance. I certainly understand the desire for a whistle one likes the look of… there are some whistles I will pass on based totally on looks. But I’ve also had plenty of times when I’ve tested different instruments, and the one I chose for its sound is not the same one I would have chosen for its aesthetics… I’m just lucky when I get both!
As others have already said, as a beginner you can’t go wrong with a Tony Dixon whistle. I usually recommend his trad nickel whistle to my beginner students.
There are a lot of decent mid range whistles out there at the moment. I mentioned on another thread that I recently picked up a McNeela Wild Whistle and I’m quite happy with that for the price - it’s definitely got a nice mellow tone. Brian Hughes (who’s a great player) has a review of it that you can see here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytAPFTo4Pn4
Honestly aesthetics aren’t the most important thing - when it comes to a whistle it’s all about how it plays and how it sounds. I played a cheap dented feadóg for years that just happened to be a gem in regards to tone - one of those rare finds in a batch of mass produced whistles.
The good news is most high end whistles also look good. I do understand the wanting your instrument to look nice thing. If you are spending a lot of $ you want it to look good. And if a maker is putting in a lot of effort to make it play amazing, they might aswell make it look the part aswell. Like Mk and Burkes. Some of that money definitely goes into the looks but I think its worth it, assuming its a smaller percent of the instruments cost. I personally wouldn’t want my instrument to look like a $10 amazon whistle. But anything after that is fine, extra premium looks are just a bonus when I want how it plays and it also looks amazing.
À chacun son goût, as they say, no accounting for that sort of thing and all that. I have always thought Burkes look particularly clunky, possibly best summed up here by someone( was it Bro Steve? Memory is dim..) who said something along the line lines he always thought they look like they were designed by Soviet armament manufacturers.
I suppose if you pay inflated prices you will have to tell yourself what you got looks (and plays) amazing. I like whistles where form follows function, no frills. But first and foremost they need to do the job well.
And as for whistles looking like a cheap whistle, a lot of makers follow the cheap whistle path of a metal tube with a head of some description stuck on it. The design original plastic head was dictated by the injection moulding process and most designs managed to keep things light. There have been exceptioons, Camac comes to mind for making chunky heads and Feadógs were initially particularly clunky looking, whitling away a bit in each following iteration of the design. But Generation set the tone there, in more than one way, that a lot of makers emulate to a degree. Using other materials, wood or a comination of delrin/metal, will, out of necessity, always result in clumsy, heavier heads that may or may not be much a problem if your whistle is a (high) D or Eb but rapidly becomes one as you go lower (my Sindt B ios a fine whistle, even if I only play it when needed and that’s very rarely nowadays, but there is some heavy chunk of brass sitting atop of it.
And then you have ofcourse makers who deliberately make very expensive whistles that try to look like $10 Amazon whistles . One called it a stealth option (which was actually a simple nice looking option that didn’t need any excuse for the way it looked).
Maybe I’m just trying to convince myself that I haven’t wasted $1000, but I’d like to think that the top makers are able to sell at the price they do because their product is excellent. I know that what I hate about one whistle might be why its someone’s favorite. I just don’t want new players to think they shouldn’t bother checking out the pricey ones because “they aren’t better”. They might not technically be better. But a lot of people who have tried several others end up picking them, and I don’t think that’s just random chance. The big name makers are apparently doing something right.
…or, perhaps, they may play them because they spent all that money on them…
I have bought some more expensive whistles, (mainly pre used), & whilst a couple are good, I would never have spent full price on them - & I do tend to play them more than my cheapies - but I think there is a limit to how much more money buys regards to better playability & tone.