I have nothing for respect for Jerry’s whistles.
I have had the oportunity to see the lot - from a few different batches. To start with, I thought they were a bit breathy, but that was before I got to try a few Abells and hear how they perform - without exception superlative whistles, but with a distinctly breathy quality. Then the realisation set-in: the breathyness of a whistle has a major contribution to the harmonic range and expression at the disposal of the player. Consider neys and kavals - these are extremely breathy, but the performance options available to the player are also extreme - Phil Hardy published a magic webcast of some kaval performances - well worth the listen! The open reed is one of our most ancient woodwinds, the best performances of it can be found in the middle-east where the reeds come from (Turkey, Egypt, Iran, Iraq etc - they have had millenia to develop the art).
So long as it is in accord with the performance, the noise component of the sound quickly becomes subliminated by the listener - and when in ensemble, the noise component is lost (consider the role of reverb - essentially noise with a spacial key). Also consider that audible breath-sounds have a part in the expressive communication of voice - I once did a mixdown of a vocal performance in which I removed all the in-breath noises - the result was that those listening started getting out-of-breath and complained - I had to put the in-breaths back in. We resonate with a performance - it’s what an audience does.
Another audio-spacial thing I experimented with, was the role of the high string note - It can be very soft and distant, but applies a body to the resulting composite sound that is equally as filling as a noisy instrument or reverb, as evident in prior recordings (this is the heart and soul of the 80’s/90’s pop music sound as producers came to grips with noiseless sound technology - after which, they started demanding meaningful high-frequency overtones - erm … limited by the 41khz imposed by the CD sample-frequency debacle imposed by the standards committee at the time - well, it turned out to be a good commercial decision, hi-fi, unfortunately, got massacred and we are now happy to get our lichen in a 1 and 1/2 inch square on our mobiles 
needs verses expectation is the way that our money gets siphoned from our pockets - look to your expectations people! Needs beats economy in the long-run - if you are stopping a gap, it could be a gap in your life, and many go from day to day with a gap filled with lichen that is mostly fuelled by their own imaginations [choose who you work-for]).
Dolby, for instance is a compressional noise-limiting technology that was originally developed to stop physical vinyl sound-tracks from breaking-through to the next loop - solved a technology conundrum and increased the amount of program that could be captured on the medium. Good economics - Necessity becomes virtue. Should we observe the virtues of the past? The Hierophant would have us believe his well-worn keys are ours (he has his own family to feed). Needs verses expectations.
It is the same with Jerry’s approach to tweaking. He finds the expressive median in a whistle. A timeless need in my book.
Many times I have watched the result of putting a mellow-dog into the hands of exerienced players. The comfort and surprise are always there - usually by the end of part-A of the jig or reel they are using for the test: the tune stops and the player looks at the whistle then starts again with more gusto. Always the same. (Then the whistle goes under the arm - “mine!”). These players often move-on to other boutique whistles, but I see the Mellow-Dogs come out at sessions time and again - everyone settles on their favourite, it could be a Gen, a high-ender or something else - this evolves and is as individual as the player.
I am a big advocate of “try before you buy”, but this is not always an option. Instead I am left with, largely, subjective language to assist players as best I can. Everyone here is at a different stage in thir musical journey - I support that, I also recognise the role of different whistles as they support the players. At least with whistles, you are investing in a fraction of what other instrumentalists are forced to expend - often with more imediate results. Imagine saving-up for your next Steinway!!! Vive la Whistle!!!
All I can say is that Jerry’s whistles are very consistent - he is always true to his objective. This is not always the objective of many players, but, hopefully, this review will help with the decisions of some.
[/rave - sorry for the lecture - everything is subject to change, but I like Jerry’s work - it’s a function of the man - he cares more than can be seen]
