Hey everybody. I recently purchased a Michael Burke roll case, and thought It’d be a good idea to upload a review of it onto Chiff & Fipple seeing as there really aren’t any large pictures of it floating around for people to look at on the internet when considering buying it.
To start off the case is a rather large (about 18 inches tall and two feet wide) roll case sold by Michael Burke on his website for $40 USD (as of August '12). It features twelve slots, each with different heights and widths so as to accommodate various whistle sizes.
It can be tightly rolled up and fastened with two draw-string loops of chord. The excess rope can be wrapped around the rolled up case and tucked into itself.
Here you can see the bag unrolled with its protective flap down. If you make sure that the protective fabric is separating the whistle when you roll it up it does a great job of keeping them scratch-free.
A close up of the velcro tabs that keep the protective flap fastened down over the whistles. You can see the top of a Dixon C poking out from its slot.
This picture shows the whistles next to their slots so that you can see about where they’d be poking out. The Burke E flat whistle (farthest right) does not poke out when the tuning slide is at the E flat mark, the Feadog next to it does not either, the Dixon C whistle pokes out just barely, and my self-made Bb whistle sticks out about half way to the seam for the flap. I would guess up to a G whistle would fit without having to be taken apart. From there only two-piece low whistles would fit, and then they would take up two slots each. In that case however it could easily fit a low D whistle, or even a three piece flute taking up three slots (but that’s just an assumption, the slots could be too narrow).
The three main fabrics used for the bag. The fabric farthest left is the soft inside fabric, top right is the smooth rubbery fabric covering the inside of the protective flap, and bottom right is the canvas-like outer fabric (by which I mean it resembles canvas due to the way it is woven, it is softer and thinner however it is still quite durable). There is actually a fourth fabric, which seems to be a softer version of the outer fabric, which is used to make the slots. It is not lined. In-between the inner and outer fabrics is a type of foam padding. It provides good protections and is not too thick.
Overall it is an exceptionally handy piece for taking your whistles places, or even just as something to store them in. It’s definitely worth the price and would be an excellent option for anyone looking for a large, multi-whistle roll case.