hi,
has anyone tried the Ethic Winds wood low whistle? i was trolling through ebay the UK edition and found this:
so i went over and checked the website to make sure it was authentic and not something weird… but it’s on Nick’s website; he’s offering low D whistles in mahogany, Black Walnut, and Cherry.
i have one of his G whistles in aluminum; it’s a nice whistle. so i’m wondering what a wood low whistle from Nick might be like…
cheers,
eric
Maybe you can stick it way back in your mouth and play kwela!
I couldn’t find any sound files on their site, but it’s certainly an attractive whistle. However, the problem for me is would I be able to resell that whistle and recoup my money, or at least most of it, if it turns out I don’t like the whistle.
like i said, i’ve bought a whistle from Nick before; he was a really easy guy to deal with. i suspect if you really didn’t like the whistle he would let you return it…
i send him an email asking about why he angles the cut on the bottom end; i asked him if it affected the sound here’s what he said:
No, just for decorative purposes pretty much. It does a tiny bit of helping the sound come forward rather than down, but mainly aesthetics.
anyway, i meant to say before too… glad you checked the site; that one going on ebay is going for more than what his site offers for one new… so if anybody was interested i’d contact Nick directly. (then send me a review! : )
cheers,
eric
Of course I’de be more than happy to give a full refund to anyone who wants to return a whistle. Thw wood whistle is my newest style, and I really like them. They are more expensive because they take me about twice as long to make, and cost me about twice as much for the materials.
The best way to try one out would be to stop by the North Texas Irish Festival in Dallas where I will have a booth, and you can try out all the whistles you’de like. otherwiseanyone can order one, and if you aren’t happy I’ll give you a full refund.
Feel free to ask any questions, and I’ll do my best to respond to anything in this post.
Thanks!
dear Nick,
can i ask some more questions? how does the tuning slide work? are you putting plumbers tape under the copper joint?
all your photos are offset holes; do you do inline as well?
the black walnut looks awesome… 
cheers,
eric
The tuning slide is basically the same as my other whistles, and yes, I do use plumbers teflon tape in the tuning slide to give it a good seal.
I have fewer customers complain that they can’t reach the holes on a low D with the offset holes than I had with the straight ones, so that’s why it’s standard, but I’d be happy to make straight holes if that’s what someone prefered, or offset for left handed players as well.
Here’s some photos of the wooden whistles. I made a mahogony model last night with aluminum in place of the copper fittings, came out nice.
thanks Nick.
i’ve always loved the great look of the ethnic wind stuff, and recently got the copper “micro” set in trade. i really like them. unfortunately (for my wallet at least) it makes it harder to talk myself out of picking up one of these wood low D’s…
I have one of the aluminum low Ds.. it sounds pretty nice. I didn’t like all the paint though. It was just too gaudy for me. So.. Sorry Nick, but I took paint thinner to it.
The sound is really nice. Its a little heavy for me (hence needing the carbony whistle) but overall, it was a good whistle to start with. I still play it.
Ok, that made me cringe a bit… U know I sell them unpainted as well. I also have the PVC models that weigh very little and sound great for a fraction if the price of
The carbony whistles.