I’m culling my collection of cheap(ish) and unusual (some of them) whistles, but because of the low value and potential hassle I don’t want to sell them individually. They are therefore on offer in three lots. If anyone is brave enough to go for all three lots they can have them at the reduced price of £70 post free anywhere in the UK. I will also deliver within a one-hour range of Manchester UK. Enquiries to s.saxton@salford.ac.uk
Lot One: manufactured whistles (£25 the lot plus p&p)
Shaw high E (with box)
Sweetone C in yellow with brown mouthpiece
Clarke C (old & battered with gold diamonds around holes)
Feadog D (green top)
Generation F (blue top)
Generation G (blue top)
Generation low G (all metal – this is an unusual one: I phoned Generation to find out the history and they couldn’t remember for sure, but possibly it was produced for the South African market in the heyday of kwela)
Lot Two: home-made whistles (£30 the lot plus p&p)
My wife says that my attempts at whistle-making neatly illustrate the difference between ‘home-made’ and ‘hand-made’. Mine are definitely ‘home-made’.
High G (copper. Nice tone but needs narrower fingers than mine)
High E flat (steel – I think – chrome appearance)
A (narrow bore copper. My very first attempt. Not really a success. A challenge for tweakers)
A flat (steel, as E flat above. The 2 made from the same bit of piping picked up at the tip.)
Low E flat (steel – I think – brass appearance. A nice whistle with a rather individual tone. Worth the lot price on its own, in my opinion)
Low A (wide bore aluminium made from a length of TV arial sheathing. An absolute monster which needs longer fingers than mine)
Lot Three: international whistles (£20 the lot plus p&p)
Indian (Kumar) B natural (engraved B flat but is so sharp it actually plays as a true B. Tin – I think – with a rather acid tone)
Indian C (brass with an odd little pipe to side-blow)
Peruvian A flat (bamboo. Needs tweaking)
Turkish C (bamboo. Tourist tat which needs tweaking)
Turkish D (bamboo. Tourist tat which needs tweaking)
Hungarian F# ( wood – elder? – hardly playable but might tweak up to G)
Bosnian C frula (painted wood with a nice recorder-like tone)
Bosnian B natural frula (wood with pokerwork decorations. This is the best of the bunch and the most unusual. These wooden whistles are produced for the tourist market and usually only vaguely in tune, but they can easily be tweaked. This one was so flat of C it was tweakable into B. Why would one want a B natural whistle? If you sometimes play in church with a guitarist who loves playing in E, you’ll soon realise the usefulness of a B natural whistle)
