Back in the 1960’s a 10-hole fife was designed by John McDonagh and built by Roy Seaman. The fingering was similar to that on the fifes and flutes now made by Skip Healy, but they do have a double hole on the right hand second finger, which facilitates playing F natural. Then in the late '70’s or maybe early '80’s, Seaman built a fife with 11 holes, the additional hole being a right hand thumb hole to play the F natural with. The reason for this was that many fifers had trouble managing to cover only one of the double hole cleanly when playing fast runs. For some reason, they didn’t eliminate the double hole, leaving you two options for playing the F natural.
These fifes gained acceptance because they were created and used by John McDonagh and his New York Regimentals, and were adopted by The Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps, the U.S. Army’s ancient corps. This would be the equivalent of Paddy Moloney and Mary Bergin endorsing a whistle, and Bill Ochs and L.E. McCullough handing them out to their students.
The 10 and 11 hole fifes are not accurate for re-enactments, but are widely accepted by most ancient fife and drum folks, and are played by almost all of the true virtuoso fifers. (With all due respect to Mr. Dickey, re-enactors are a little obsessive about these things).
These types of configurations would certainly work for whistles, and although they might feel clumsy at first, within a month of playing 10 or 11 hole instruments exclusively, I guarantee that you would become comfortable with them. I managed the switch from 6 to 11 hole fife in about 2 or 3 weeks.
Of course, whistle folk being who they are, the introduction of such an instrument would probably lead to the longest and most heated exchanges this board has ever seen.
Dave Migoya, feel free to contradict - I yield to your expertise in this area.