A friend asked me about a high whistle for someone, but I only play lows, so thought I would ask for him here, where there are plenty of high whistle players, and know about the market for them too. Here is all the info I have on the request, and they are in Ireland, as far as I know. Other than the fact than to say, if there are others that suit for less than budget, it might be a welcome thing! :
I have a friend asking to buy a whistle. Recently back playing after years so probably doesn’t have any favourites yet. They’re playing in a church folk group. Looks like a D or a C, normal pitch not a low whistle. And she is thinking of €120/130 as budget.
Yer man isn’t great at tuning she says. Or breathing. So, a tuneable that wouldn’t be really loud would be perfect.
Highly personal, but I would say a Killarney in D would fit the bill. Not overly loud, within budget, and in Ireland so getting it would be simple.
I’m not sure if the “yer man” who is not great at tuning is the player or the person she is playing with. If it’s the player, one other possibility would be a DX001, AKA a fixed-pitch polymer whistle. In my experience, they’re well-tuned from the outset and it would eliminate the possibility that the head gets pushed all the way in and he plays a quarter tone sharp the whole time (I have seen this done).
Thanks very much for the replies, bigsciota and moof! Sounds like a winner with the Killarney, with both of you concurring on that one. Yes, I imagine “yer man” was a typo from my friend, since the Y and H are so close on the keyboard, so she is looking for one for her man, who is getting back to playing.
Odd that there were only two replies though; I thought there would be more players offering their opinions even if it is a second-hand posting to the player who will be the lucky party of the information.
Like the OP I prefer the Low end, largely Low F for the last few years
But I do have a handful of High whistles, and I can recommend the Oak C and D, the C being particularly good, and the Dixon one piece already mentioned is excellent.
Well, there you go, who doesn’t like Cheese?!! ; ) Thanks for your reply from a fellow handful of high d’s! I just dusted and rinsed mine off and gave them a toot; fun, but got a hand cramp pretty quickly! Just curious, and since this thread isn’t going anywhere fast, who made your Low F that you like to play?
Yer man’s just an Irish expression. It can mean the person you’re discussing (makes no difference whether it’s your beloved, a vague acquaintance, or the GP who’s just told you to lose weight), or a random individual who’s attracted your attention.
Ah, missed your reply, Moof! Thanks for clarifying; that’s what I thought it might be (an expression) at first until I saw the position of the keys for y and h! Not conversing with many Irish, I was unaware of the meaning. My friend is probably laughing his arse off about it too!