I got my daughter one of those electronic tuner/metronomes the other day. She is in school band. Being musically challanged which is why I took up the pennywhistle latter in life I decided to check it on my whistles. It shows a lot of what we have seen in these columns on quality of tone. The whistle that was most stable was a Sweetone D. My Clarke C was ok, the Clarke D was a little unstable. I have a Feadog and a Guinness whistle also. These were bad. I would highly recommend one of these toys for tuning whistles and getting out clean notes. It also has a metronome with different beats and a tone generator. Cost was $39.95. If you are musically challanged like me this really takes the guesswork out of things. It is small and compact, will fit easily in a shirt pocket.
I’m pretty sure there are free tuners and metronomes available online.
I have a tuner and metronome coming in the mail. I want to check a couple whistles. If it shows they are spot on…then something must be wrong with my ears. 
Interesting on the Feadog…I have two, one needed serious tweaking and one was good (but not spectacular) out of the box, but both are pretty much dead-on in regards to tuning.
–James
I guess what you are referring to is tuner software to use with in input mic on the computer. Not a bad Idea. The one I got for my daughter is a Sabine I picked up at a local music store. It is about the size of a pack of cigs. Of course you can take this with you unlike the computer software. My daughter plays French horn and clarinet. I don’t know if I would want her at my computer with the horn. Still if you know of any urls I’d love to try one. I bet others would like it too. This is really great for tuning whistles and getting a stable sound out of them.
I guess what you are referring to is tuner software to use with in input mic on the computer. Not a bad Idea. The one I got for my daughter is a Sabine I picked up at a local music store. It is about the size of a pack of cigs. Of course you can take this with you unlike the computer software. My daughter plays French horn and clarinet. I don’t know if I would want her at my computer with the horn. Still if you know of any urls I’d love to try one. I bet others would like it too. This is really great for tuning whistles and getting a stable sound out of them.
I don’t know the URLs right off but I’m sure they’re easily findable in a search for ‘tuner’ and similar words. I got the portable ones because I don’t usually play whistle at the computer for any length of time. I usually play in bed or outside.
Interesting on the Feadog…I have two, one needed serious tweaking and one was good (but not spectacular) out of the box, but both are pretty much dead-on in regards to tuning.
I want to test my LBW and see if my ears are right. It sounds waaay out of tune on some notes, even with itself. I don’t trust my ears so I have to check it.
My Guinness is a LBW. I paid the extra couple of bucks for the cool Guinness logo. I can tune it stable but not in the key of D. But I notice issues with it like you do. This tuner also shows if it is in tune with itself. It also has a metronome that can do different beats and a tone generator. I don’t know if I would pay for it for my whistle addiction but it sure helps. Someone who doesn’t want to fork out $40 should check for a computer one.
I thought I knew what you meant by “stable”, but now I’m confused.
As far as I’m concerned, unless I’m playing with others, the most important thing about intonation is that the instrument be in tune with itself. In that respect, my Sweetone is abominable, but my Feadog is great.
By stable I mean how close to the note it is and how it stays on that note. If you are playing a note at say 300 hz it will stay right on 300 hz. As it gets unstable the note will vary around 300 hz as you play it. On my tuner is a LCD needle that shows this. Some instruments by design are more stable than others. Also how you play affects this. This is also a good use of the tuner to practice getting clean continious notes. With my harmonica it stays dead on. The whistles tend to vary. My daughter plays the French horn and clarinet. The clarinet has a wooden reed and is very stable the horn is a lot harder to control. Of course keep in mind that some instability can give the music character which is why we like, um I mean love the whistle.
The horn in unstable in every way imaginable. The best one I ever played was a $7K Alexander, but even that required some subtle lip and hand adjustments to get some of the notes in tune.
So you go from a $7k horn to a $8 pennywhistle and both are unstable, lol. I suspect this is why pro pennywhistle players actually prefer the cheap ones. That fluctuation gives the instrument character. I think this is a theme in folk, ethnic and blues music etc. Taking notes off key expresses emotion and character. To play scales on a second postion with harmonica you are bending notes deliberately all the time. On a pennywhistle you use ornamentation. While some fluctuation can actually be desired I suspect you are right. You must have it in tune with itself. Still, even harmonicas actually have special tunings for some very specific purposes.
At any rate this tuner will be fun to experiment with. The only problem is my daughter is getting ticked when I keep borrowing it.
Angelo,
Thanks for posting that link to the free tuner software. Everyone who doesn’t have it already should get it. It’s really great.
Best wishes,
Jerry
Yes, thanks for the link. This type of stuff takes the guesswork out of it for those of us who aren’t master mucisians. That stuff looks like it does spectral analysis. A techy like me will have fun with it.
If you haven`t downloaded that tuner that Angelo provided the link for you are realy missing haveing a great tool. I think Terry McGee helped in the programing of the thing and it realy is one heck of a tuner. It may realy open your eyes about whistles both high end and the lolely cheepies.
By the way its fun to play with also. 
Tom
When I looked at the spectrum analysis, it turned out that the whistles I liked the best had a relatively even set of peaks for the overtones with a slight downhill slope to the peaks. Whistles that I didn’t like at all (like some of my homemade ones) had a single overtone much higher than the rest.