Just to let anyone know who might be interested, there is a low D Copeland for sale now (June 2015) on the amazing Fleabay:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/151718412412?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
Right now it is sitting at a very attractive price.
Yeah. Can’t see that being the case for long.
I’ve tried Copeland Low Ds which were fantastic, possibly the best Low Ds ever made.
And I’ve tried Copeland Low Ds which were terrible, with Bottom D and Low E so feeble as to be unplayable.
So… I wouldn’t touch a Copeland that I didn’t get a chance to try.
Very interesting. I have a Copeland low D and it is one of the very best of any kind of instrument that I have ever come across. OTOH, I had a Copeland high D on trial once and thought it was one of the worst whistles I’ve played. I wonder if it’s because Michael was making these things (still does from time to time, I think) for very specific requirements - fitting them exactly to individual players.
Whatever the reason, pancelticpiper’s comment re terrible whistles can just as rightly apply to ány make of whistles. I certainly understand the caveat about trying before you buy – you certainly don’t want to fork out several hundred dollars for a maker’s bad day at the lathe. There are other factors to consider as well, and I see no reason to accept any one person’s experience, mine, his or yours!, as the whole story on one kind of whistle.
My experience with Copeland is parallel to yours by the way: love the low D, don’t get along as well with the high d.
Whatever the reason, pancelticpiper’s comment re terrible whistles can just as rightly apply to ány make of whistles. I certainly understand the caveat about trying before you buy – you certainly don’t want to fork out several hundred dollars for a maker’s bad day at the lathe. There are other factors to consider as well, and I see no reason to accept any one person’s experience, mine, his or yours!, as the whole story on one kind of whistle.
In fairness, during my early days on these forums the regular occurrence of people complaining about the unplayability and the urgent need to send back for re-voicing of Copeland whistles had me baffled.
Not sure Copelands are a product of the lathe, by the way. Bad days or otherwsie.
I am a strong advocate of the try before you buy school of thought after experiencing the inconsistency of some makers’ output or the change of design without notice (and not always for the better, a few months before his death Seán Potts mentioned a whistle I had recommended to him ‘the one you had was perfect but the one he sent me was no use to me at all’. Since that particular incident, which occurred over a decade ago, and similar instances of design change that altered a recommended whistle beyond something I would have recommended, I have been very reluctant about recommending whistles at all).
Right now on the buy and sell forum someone is looking for a particular D whistle:
I really like the sound and ease of play of the C, and I expect a D will be just as good.
All I can say is that one doesn’t necessarily follows from the other. FWIW, I had one of those Ds and it was easily the most obnoxious sounding unplayable atrocity I ever had. The particular maker was highly recommended on the forums. Beautifully crafted but, as it turned out, without any apparent understanding of how it should function as a musical instrument.
And there’s my old hobby horse: only buy from makers who can play well (in a style you would aspire to yourself, perhaps).
[edited for some clarification]
The variation with Copeland Low D’s was far greater than any other make of Low D I have experience with.
I’ve played probably hundreds of Susatos over the years, dozens of Burkes, and they are incredibly consistent. I’ve played dozens of Overtons made over a very wide period of time, from the 1970s up till the end, and they varied a bit it was a variation in playing preferences not of playing quality- they were all very playable professional instruments. Dittos Goldies- they’re made to suit the customer but all great professional instruments.
I’ve tried, now, around a dozen MK Low Ds and they vary a bit in volume they’re all in a narrow window and all are top-notch.
The Copeland variation isn’t like that. It’s a variation from supremely high quality to virtually unplayable. And it can’t be passed off as a preference thing- nobody wants a whistle where the Bottom D and Low E practically won’t sound at all- you have to put in a tiny whisper of air or the notes will flutter and break. The voicing was simply bad, unacceptably bad.
There’s an American whistlemaker who shall remain nameless who had a similar variation in quality. He made quite expensive beautiful-looking exotic wood whistles, though I can’t remember ever seeing one any lower than around mezzo G. Some were superb, some played as bad as the very worst cheap whistles, the kind of cheap whistles with loads of flash and misaligned moulds in the plastic heads, where the 2nd octave is merely a squeaky noise. He somehow made gorgeous exotic-wood whistles that played just like that, at times.
Adjustment by the maker is one thing, but, individuals tampering, carving, trimming, bending, etc. to suit one’s needs and later offering item for resale that’s another thing. I realize the used anything market is what it is… “purchase as is.”
That’s one of my issues with buying from the secondary, re-sale, used market, and eThingy only complicates the issue even more with international offerings where geo distance doesn’t allow for prior trial. Maybe the users of eThingy regularly should voice up and request a trial period / return period within a short period for items over a designated amount. I know this won’t happen and that’s one of the reasons I avoid as much as possible the eThingy site. I must miss out on a lot. 
Nothing like the feel and sound of a new whistle build from the maker him/her self. Buy new.
Why?
It’s an argument that’s been fleshed out more than a few times over the past 14 years or so that I have been posting here, I called it a hobby horse for a reason, so I am not going to extensively set out the case again. It seems obvious to me on a number of levels.
The magic that sets apart a great instrument is in the detail, only a skilled player can appreciate that detail and so only a good player will be able to set up an instrument to that level of detail. The (counter) argument has been made here several times that making a whistle is a mechanical process, a matter of sticking the pieces together and boring the holes in the right place. To me that’s like saying a chef can cook a meal without having a sense of taste, an intimate knowledge of ingredients and processes, as long as he follows the recipe. He may produce something edible but the food is not going to get him a mention in a guide to fine dining. In other words, there will never be a showing of deeper understanding, no art, no magic.
I’m shocked that Seán was still lamenting right up until he died over the whistles I sent him all those years ago. I sent him a replacement for the first one that he didn’t get along with, and thought he was happy with that one. I never understood what he didn’t like about the first one, or how it was in any way inferior to yours. I mean really, it was my first opportunity to make a whistle for a famous musician who I also happened to be a big fan of, so don’t you think I sent him the very best I was capable of making at that time? I passed that first whistle of his on to another customer after getting it back, and he was quite happy with it… all a matter of personal taste, I suppose. It’s fair to say that I’m guilty of changing my design many times over the years, and I’ll admit that it hasn’t always turned out for the better, but both of Seán’s whistles should have been virtually identical to yours. For reasons I won’t even pretend to understand, every now and then a particular whistle does stand out above the others… makes no sense given how strict I am with tolerances, but somehow it happens. That being said, I don’t believe that any whistle I’ve sold over the years was poor enough quality to be “of no use” to anyone. I have always sat down and given each whistle a thorough workout before cleaning them up and packing them for shipment, and more than a few rejects have been tossed into the recycling bin because sometimes I do screw up, but I’ve never shipped a whistle that wasn’t up to my personal standards. I would have gladly refunded Seán’s money if he had just asked, but he didn’t, and I wasn’t even made aware of his dissatisfaction until long after shipping the second whistle. If it hurts my business to out myself on a public forum like this, so be it, but I feel this issue needs to be publicly addressed since private messages and emails apparently weren’t sufficient to lay it to rest long ago. Seán has gone on now, may he rest in peace. And by all means don’t you recommend my whistles to anyone if you don’t want to, but it’s long past time for you to let it go. And it was long past time for Seán to have let it go as well.
Just to let anyone know who might be interested, there is a low D Copeland for sale now (June 2015) on the amazing Fleabay:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/151718412412?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
Right now it is sitting at a very attractive price.
And now the fat lady has sung, the final price turns out to be a wee bit north of “attractive”! Pace pancelticpiper and his experience with Copelands; hopefully this will be a good instrument and well worth the price to the buyer! The seller ought to be pleased as Punch with $1250. That’s exceptionally higher than the highest price I’ve seen the last two years on the amazing Fleabay. The most expensive low D I recall seeing was either $1000 or $1100; the least, $500.
I bought one from Ebay around 2011 and paid £550.00, I’d been through an insane period of chopping and changing whistles in search of the perfect low D (I thought, I hoped if I went to the top of the mountain my quest would end) have to say (with all due respect to Mr. Copeland and his devotees) although beautiful to look at it was fairly unremarkable whistle.
Luckily within a couple of weeks of receiving it the seller contacted me and asked if I’d like to sell it back to him as he was now regretting his decision to part with it (he even sent me funds for return postage)
I would like to try a Copeland high D one day however.
De gustibus…as with all things!
Oh, the vagaries of the amazing Fleabay!
The last one sold at over $1200 a week ago; this one, couldn’t even reach the half-way point!
http://www.ebay.com/itm/161752320376?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT