The GFM East USA tour whistle has landed in Ohio.
First impression … Wow! Nice whistle, ChuckT.
More to report later after a longer than 20-minute acquaintance. 
Judy
The GFM Whistle Tour has arived in Glasgow! I played a couple tunes in Kelvingrove Park this morning immediately after opening the parcel. Lovely. I will post more after I’ve had a chance to play indoors where it’s warm and dry.
Cheers,
Laura
I’m sorry but what is a GFM?
A Good Frame of Mind I hope!
Nate
GFM stands for Granite falls Manufacturing. Chuck Tilsbury makes a whistle under this trade name. Its a very nice whistle, and gets a lot of playing time at my house.http://www.granitefallsmfg.com
It could mean that! It would be hard for me to claim credit, though. It is impossible to be unhappy while playing any musical instrument.
Hi all,
I’m the first West Coast recipient. I’ve had the whistle for about a week and this is my first chance to post my impressions. Overall, I like it very much.
It is a very professional looking, nicely crafted whistle entirely made of aluminum.
I’m usually not a fan of metal mouthpieces because of the problem of warm-up and condensation build-up. This whistle does need to be wamed up to play at its best and moisture builds up a bit in the windway while playing cold, however this is normal and much less of a problem than with many other all aluminum whistles. The curved windway probably helps a great deal.
The mouthpiece feels very nice in the mouth. very smooth.
I was immediately impressed by the tone and loudness of the whistle. It is not a loud whistle, about the loudness of a Sindt, which I think is about the right loudness for whistle. The character of the sound is full, round and velvety with a small bit of breathness. There is a very Burke-like, round smoothness to the sound, however it is darker and the slight breathiness adds that touch of character that I tend to miss in Burkes.
It also has a bit more backpressure than a Burke, but is still a low backpressure whistle. The sound is very balanced between the two octaves.
Overall, it’s an easy player with a very satisfying, mellow sound. It’s great for playing at home, but would easily hold it’s own at a smaller session. I’m enjoying it and may end up buying one even though I shouldn’t spend the money.
The Granite Falls Manufacturing whistle has been visiting me for a few days now. I’m not qualified to do an indepth review like Wanderer – won’t even try to come up to his standards. 
Never the less, here’s my take on the GFM whistle.
Using a picture from the GFM website:
My first impression remains unchanged … wow! The tone is clean, pure – very little chiff, as I understand ‘chiff’. It’s really the tone I look for in my whistles. While I didn’t get out the tuner and check, the whistle seems “in tune” with itself (to my ears) and sounds good - even with my playing. C natural is OXX OOO.
Only problem I’ve had is a bit of clogging … but it is a metal whistle and I play in a cool room. There are a few scratches, nothing major or unexpected in a ‘tour’ whistle.
To sum up … I’ve already ordered a “keeper” for my collection. 
Judy
(also posted at Gaelic Crossings)
GFM European Tour – The report from Glasgow
This is the first stop on the European leg of the 2005 GFM world tour. This all aluminum, soprano D whistle is designed by Chuck Tilbury of Granite Falls Manufacturing in Granite Falls, Washington, USA (www.granitefallsmfg.com). A discussion of GFM whistles, and a detailed review of this whistle from October 2005 can be found at http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=33511&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15
My first observation about this whistle is that it appears well made and solid, and has a comfortable heft in playing. Like other all aluminum whistles, it tends to clog quickly. This was especially true outdoors in Glasgow in December, but the whistle needs ample warming up indoors as well. Play for a bit and set it down and it gets cold right away.
The tone of this instrument is quite nice – sweet with just a bit of chiff. As you go up into the second octave, the tone gets sweeter and it is not harsh or shrill. The bell note is fairly weak in my experience, however, and cannot be “leaned into” at all.
The whistle is on the moderately quiet side, is quite responsive for ornamentation, is nicely in tune (C nat 0XX 000), and has a fairly small breath requirement and back pressure. As a point of comparison, I most often play Burke whistles or a favorite old Generation.
I think this whistle is an excellent value at $60. Especially in the second octave it sounds like a more expensive instrument. The main drawbacks in my opinion are clogging (which can be dealt with by adequate warming up) and the weak bell note.
Thanks to Chuck for the opportunity to try out this lovely whistle.
Laura
I’ve now had the Euro tour whistle about a week. So here’s my thoughts.
I normally play a Burke DASBT, so this is what i compare everything to.
Clogging… Not a problem at all. First thing i did was dip the mouthpiece in some diluted Ecover washing up liquid and it hasn’t clogged at all since.
Appearance… This to me is what lets this whistle down - needlessly. Chuck hasn’t bothered to buff out the manufacturers printing on the aluminium piping he used, nor the tool marks. If i’m buying a whistle i don’t expect it to look like it just came from a diy store. 10 minutes of buffing would go a long way to make this a beautiful whistle to look at.
Size… The whistle has a very wide bore, and thus a rather short length. Much shorter than my DASBT anyway. This does give a rather cramped feel to it. Going from the Burke to this feels a little bit like going from my classical guitar to my Adamas - it’s still very playable, but one misses the space. It would certainly be a good whistle for children and those with very small hands, but certainly not for people with big hands.
Playing… Quite low on the back pressure, so you have to be gentle with it. But the sound it gives back is well worth it. It really does have a wonderfully sweet voice. It takes about the same air volume as my DASBT, which isn’t much at all.
Volume… Not too loud, not too quiet, and quite balanced throughout, but it does drop off slightly as you head down to the bell note.
Ornaments… The only ornament i had problems with was cutting a high G down to a high E through A tonguing the cut. It “clunks” horribly. It works fine if i don’t tongue it, but i like to tongue that cut sometimes. Is it possible that this maybe caused by the short wider bore of this whistle?
It’s a picky point, but as i like to use this ornament it’s important to me.
What i’d like to see from Chuuck in the future… A nicely presented whistle without tooling marks or printing left on. A narrower bore model with a wider finger spacing. A little bit more back pressure with a little more volume on those lower notes.
Overall… I’m not ready to relinquish my DASBT for a GFM just yet, but a very nice whistle generally.
Thanks to Chuck.
I was not able to finish these instruments as well as I would have liked to. The problem was that In my rush to get these finished, did not do things in the right order. I put the logo on before I finished the rest of the instrument. Rather than scrap it and delay the start of the tour by at least 2 weeks, (as I normally would), I felt compelled to ship it. I want to assure everyone that production instruments do not have a poor finish. They are brushed smooth, with none of the problems that Stan has cited. Perhaps when I get another batch out, I should replace the ones on tour. Anyone have any opinion on that?
I don’t mind appearance issues. Look at some of the Water Weasels, with PVC coding on them. Syns aren’t “finished”. They’re still high quality instruments. Appearance doesn’t [usually] affect sound, at least IMO.
Thanks for that. I had that in the back of my mind when I shipped these. That is, finish is less important than the sound. Nonetheless, my production instruments are well-finished.
Hi Chuck
I don’t think that there’s any need to replace the ones on tour, just as long as people are aware that this is not the usual standard.
If you bought a new car would you care if it came with scratches all over the bodywork, faint printing marks, and covered in dirt? After all appearance doesn’t affect the driving does it?
I have the East USA Whistle right now. I have to agree with most of what Screech has mentioned. There were a couple tool marks, but overall pretty clean looking. Although, I do notice a bit more complexity than what I remember the DASBT having, which is a plus in my mind. Plus a bit more Back Pressure than a DASBT, also a plus. The wider bores leads to an in tune OXXOOO C nat, another plus. I really like this Whistle, it is very high on my list.