Anyone ever seen these?
http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2569880918&category=23295
These are 6 painted tin whistles pitched in E. The mark says
“Made in Germany - US zone”. Could these be some obscure post-WWII whistles? Or whatever
Yes. I bought one of the earlier batches from the very same seller. They are currently at Jerry Freeman’s workshop for tweaking, but we don’t have a definite result yet. They are rather unplayable untweaked. See
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=13117
for details.
cheers,
Sonja
Guess the “Blech flote” refers to the sound! They also look a lot like an old Clarke style whistle I have which is Red,(formerly)White and Blue, labelled “All American Fife”.
Different maker. The “All American Fife” was made by Cooperman, whuch also makes the unpainted cheapies you run across at various historical sites and such.
The German post-WWII whistles seem to be a continuation of work by the German maker which produced such lines as the Calura, Eagle and others in the early part of the twentieth century.
They look cool. It doesn’t matter how you play as long as you look cool, right? 
I prefer it the other way round 
Sonja
[quote="Chuck_ClarkDifferent maker. The “All American Fife” was made by Cooperman, whuch also makes the unpainted cheapies you run across at various historical sites and such.
The German post-WWII whistles seem to be a continuation of work by the German maker which produced such lines as the Calura, Eagle and others in the early part of the twentieth century.[/quote]
No, my All American is 'way older than Cooperman. Post WWII would be a good bet.
Paul
A check of the Cooperman website reveals that they have been in business since 1961. Interestingly, they don’t say a word about whistles. Of course, they’re known for high end drums and wooden fifes, but couldn’t find even a whisper of a mention of inexpensive instruments.
I always assumed that Dale’s Cooperman entry on the C&F main site attributed the All-American Fife to Cooperman, but re-reading it, I’m no longer sure:
"Cooperman.
American Fife
Just a quick word that Cooperman is a whistle that resembles the Clarke. Ditto for a USA patriotic motif whistle called the American Fife, or something like that. These show up occasionally in flea markets and antique stores. UPDATE: I now own a Cooperman in C. I don’t find it particularly well made and it is very breathy. However, a few readers have written in to say they are fond of them because of highly accurate tuning and because the quiet, breathy voice makes a good marriage-saving practice instrument."
It could be that the mention of the AAF was just dropped into the other text. Hmmm. Maybe you’re right - in which case we’ve another mystery on our hands. If Cooperman didn’t make it, who did?
Now, this is interesting, diese Weißblech Flöten, with their “clay/tone situation of E” sez the good 'ol Google translator - I was going to bring up the subject of E whistles. Now, with an E whistle, when you play with “G” fingering and clay/tone, you’re actually playing in A. And as we all know, fiddlers and boxers love to play in A, for an obvious reason: to be obnoxious jerks. Someone said something about “fingering advantages” to me once, but I think that’s secondary to the obnoxiousness factor.
An E whistle would let us toot along to this squealy caterwaul, Mason’s Apron and all that dawgshite. Seems like it should be a more popular item.
Mit hölzernem Mundstück, bitte schone.
As I understood the Ralph Sweet interview, on the C&F main site, Cooperman bought his equipment, from a line of rolled tin whistles that he used to produce, and used oit to make their cheap whistles. Cooperman seem to have tried to dissociate their name from these whistles a bit, at least in not mentioning them in their catalogues and site any more. They are now producing a higher-end line of wooden whistles, which they do openly admit to.
Only problem on these is that some notes are in E, others in F and the rest in Eb. I think one of the high-enders makes both high and low E whistles which might be more fit to play along with fiddlers.
Sonja
Just found an All American Fife on eBay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3154464499&category=736
Looks just like mine, but in better condition–mine is considerably yellowed, and doesn’t have the Gretsch marking on the side.
If you can win it cheaply, it’s a fun thing to have. The whistle is in the key of C ( or at least mine is), but there are a couple of funky fingerings needed for the “C natural”, etc. Sound is pretty good-- kind of like a Shaw.
Huh?