My wife has been a flautist for several years and has recently taken a liking to the the whistle. I have several low end whistles that sound great, but she says she wants something more flute-like tonewise. She tried the irish flute (a John Rutzen in D, which is a great flute but too big for her) but the hole spacing is too wide for her tiny fingers. Any suggestions on what whistle out there has the most flute-like tone? Oh, and if anybody’s interested, we have a barely used Rutzen flute for sale as well.
Steve,
When you say your wife has been a flautist for several years I assume she was playing a silver flute.
Silver flutes and irish flutes, in my opinion don’t sound alike at all. If she want a whistle that sounds like a silver flute, I thinks she would like the copeland nickel.
I’d concur about the flutes. She does still play the silver flute and really liked the tones that she got from the Rutzen, but it hurt her fingers to spread so far. I’ll have to check out Copelands site and see what the wait is like.
The Copeland low D is probably the most flute-like low whistle around. The high d is not at all flute sounding to my ears. The closest in a high d would be an Abell, to my ears. But, it sounds a lot more like a whistle than a flute. Both are fantastic sounding instruments and don’t come cheap compared to other whistles.
Tony