Best Penny Whistle?

Whistle
21

People talk about looks and price as if they have no influence whatsoever on the sound of the whistle, which isn’t quite true. Sure, in a blind test they generally don’t. But anything that gets you more interested in playing the whistle, whether it’s paying more for a “premium” one or just one that you think looks awesome, is well worth it.

If you were to ask me I’d say get a Generation and learn on that for a bit, but if buying a Dixon or a used Killarney (possibly in your price range) or something else you like the look of would get you more interested in playing more often, that will improve your sound. It’s much, much more about the player, especially for beginners.

22

Thank you everyone. I’ve decided to go Dixon Trad D :blush:

It looks like a recommended whistle by a lot of people.

Thanks

Amanda

23

I’ve tried a dozen whistles and found the Dixon DX006D to be the easiest to play. It feels like cheating compared to my Generation high D.

24

[Thread revival. - mod]

Around $50, there are the tweaked whistles by Jerry Freeman, probably the best price/value you can get. For a bit higher budget (around $100), there are many choices such as Lir, Killarney, Wild…

Btw, this guide is a great resource, you may want to have a look for quite a few options: https://learntinwhistle.com/resources/best-tin-whistle/

25

Blowing your own trumpet there, aren’t you? :poke:

26

I think you’ll find that it’s a whistle, not a trumpet.

27

I think you’ll find that it’s a whistle, not a trumpet.

Nah, definitely his own trumpet. He may play the whistle too but that was not what he was doing there.

28

With a track record of non-commercial posts and not a lot of this sort of thing, the guidelines suggest it’s not a problem so far as the Board’s concerned. Personal taste, OTOH, may be a different matter. To call it self-promotional language is to enter a grey area, and I’m happy to let it pass so long as it’s not a habit.

29

It wasn’t a problem but he could have let on, for clarity, he was linking to his own site.

30

I agree. Transparency wins friends and allies around here.

31

Why would you have anything against linking to a website with relevant content? I definitely wouldn’t mind if you did the same.

Sure, I wrote that specific article and many people find it a great guide. I believe it is way better to link to the article than copy/paste here what it already says in the article itself.

Maybe this was due to a cultural disparity or something similar, but I usually find it more polite to avoid explicitly saying that something is mine. It may sound like I’m bragging. Because it’s about the content that might be helpful, it doesn’t matter who actually wrote it.

32

I think posting a website with commercial elements like yours requires clarity with regards to the who and what. That’s all.

On a different note, some parts of the site may require an editorial eye. Under ‘Meet the teacher’ there’s this:

I initially intended to refrain from publicly exposing myself.

An unfortunate choice of words.

:laughing:

33

Cillian O’Briain tweaked Generation hands down for the budget mentioned. If you have a box of Gens to play thru may be able to save yourself a couple bucks that way but as a beginner you probably won’t know what your looking for so pay the extra money for one of their tweaked whistles.

34

Cillian O’Briain doesn’t “tweak” Generation whistles, and if you buy a Generation whistle, you are highly unlikely to get a “bad” one.

35

I can’t imagine many stores would want people playing through the boxes of Generations in an attempt to find one that plays properly. It’s extremely unsanitary, so stores should not allow it. COVID is another reminder of how that works. Then there’s the issue of doing business with a company that has a standard policy of applying no Quality Control and for decades has sent out whistles of highly variable quality. The morality of that is a major red flag, and as a whistle player, I’m not keen on self-defeating actions or encouraging stores to carry such brands, when it is SO unnecessary! There’s no other product that people buy where they’d knowingly put up with that; eg; cars, clothing, food, electronics, appliances, sports equipment, guitars, drums, keyboards, microphones, medicine, bicycles, kids toys, tax forms, gardening supplies, etc.

Why bother with that list of nonsense; there are plenty of consistent quality, lower-cost whistles with lots of happy players, supplied by Feadog, Walton, Oak, Tony Dixon, Goldfinch, Chris Wall, Clare and the Clarke Sweetone. Whistles that let you build your skills and enjoy the music along the way. :slight_smile:

36

A long while ago (well before covid) I was able to play through a whole box of Generation D whistles (20-30 as I recall). The differences were very very small. I did end up buying one I thought was “the best”, but any one of them would have been great. All of them were better than any Walton, Dixon, or Clarke I’ve ever played, and better than some of the Feadog and Oak whistles I’ve played and/or own. I find Feadog and Oak whistles to be much more variable, but that’s just because I own a couple of each that are markedly different in tone and playability. The so-called variable quality of Generations (at least the D ones anyway) is somewhat overstated in my experience. Of all the D whistles I’ve played and owned, that Generation, another Generation, and a Feadog are my favourites, more than Burkes, Sindts, Freeman tweaked, various high-end wood whistles, and others as well. The best whistle I have and play is a Generation Bb that I chopped the tube (no carving holes were needed) into a Bish (to match my flat pipes).

For literally any other musical instrument, you would always expect to try before you buy. Music shops should have disinfectant or UV disinfecting machines to remove the gross factor. Whistles are often sold in stores that otherwise don’t sell wind instruments, though, so in that case I wouldn’t expect to be able to try them.

37

play through a whole box of Generation D whistles (20-30 as I recall). The differences were very very small. I did end up buying one I thought was “the best”, but any one of them would have been great. All of them were better than any Walton, Dixon, or Clarke I’ve ever played, and better than some of the Feadog and Oak whistles I’ve played and/or own. I find Feadog and Oak whistles to be much more variable, but that’s just because I own a couple of each that are markedly different in tone and playability. The so-called variable quality of Generations (at least the D ones anyway) is somewhat overstated in my experience.

That has been my experience as well. The whole Generation things has become a sort of an internet trope, floating around the echo chamber.

Yesterday, in the real world, there was a conversation, and expression of frustration, about comments posted (on piping forums but this equally applies here) by ‘experts’ who have been playing ‘all of three months’. Don’t believe everything you read was the take-away, unless you can gauge who is writing and from what experience.

Anyway, my most recent experience going through a batch of Generations was that 99% were decent, serviceable and some were great but the differences were mostly of taste and a beginner or intermediate player won’t most likely even notice them.

I have not tried or bought Oak in over twenty five years or so, the one I have is a nice whistle but manufacture has gone through different hands a few times since so I can’t speak to their current state. Variability comes with the injection moulding process, so I would assume Oaks are no different in that regard from other makes using the that mode of production.

Feadógs come individually wrapped so there’s no trying out. The luck of the draw. I have come across serviceable ones and others less so. A Feadóg Pro bought directly from Feadóg Teo was probably among the worst examples of mass produced whistles I ever had to deal with. Binned the head, tube lives on with a head transplant. In general I find Feadógs to tend towards an unpleasant high end. Harsh.

I never found a properly working Clare.

Also note Robertunes’ rant was probably triggered by a recommendation for a Cillian O Briain improved Generation (he did make them but not recently, as far as I know). All said and done, I think it’s hard to beat Cillian’s work, two of his ‘improved’ Feadógs are close at hand in my house, the go-to whistle, FWIW.

38

My experience was just one box, as I recall two dozen, Generation D’s straight from the factory.

It had to be at least 20 years ago.

With those caveats in mind, as I’ve said on these pages one was absolutely superb and another was nearly like it. I don’t think there are any D whistles at any price that would top those two.

At the bottom end there were a couple which were literally unplayable, with no 2nd octave whatsoever, just harsh squeaking sounds.

The rest were in that “acceptable to good” spectrum.

Why they would allow their reputation to suffer by letting the horrid ones out the door mystifies me. Some sort of minimal quality control, like having somebody give each whistle a very quick blow, would have caught the worst of them.

Seems like some people have found boxes that didn’t contain any unplayable ones, so perhaps they do QC at times.

39

It has changed over time too, Richard. Perhaps six years or so there was a batch in one if shop and they all looked dog rough, useless. Bits and rough edges everywhere. I was ready to give up on them at that point. Some time later the ones I referred to above came in, they looked clean and all aged well. They must have replaced the mould somewhere between those two batches. They have been, as far as I can see, (I have no need for any more whistles, I don’t look too often) alright since.