Hi, got this at a thrift shop; anyone know history/maker?
http://s1067.photobucket.com/albums/u438/kelsohighlander/
Any help appreciated! It’s one of the sweetest and clearest whistles I’ve ever played.
The brass is real hefty too.
I’m not much of an expert on anything but to me it looks rather like a custom head on a standard brass generation/feadog style body. Other people with more experience should be able to help more.
The airway is gigantic. How much breath does it take?
sigh
I’m gonna guess that someone sat down without removing their sopranino recorder from their back pocket.
Replaced the broken body with a brass tube and tied the cracked head joint back together…
queue the twilight zone theme
What key is it in? It looks a little bit short for a D, but maybe that’s the camera angle.
I doubt it - no recorder I’ve ever seen has a windway anything like that.
Did you guys notice the size of the windway? I suspect you’d need lungs like an elephant to string 4 notes together.
Also, the holes look fairly irregular. I suspect the tube is homemade.
HI,
The brass is a lot thicker than a generation or a feadog (i’ve got both). It actually is a lot easier to play than both of them! It takes hardly any air at all, and doesn’t have a real woody sound, but it’s smooth and sweet. Thing weighs a lot too. About three times as thick as a generation whistle. It’s also spot on in D.
I’m guessing the floor of the windway slopes upward, hence the minimal air requirements. As others have suggested, it certainly looks like a “frankenwhistle”, not that that’s a problem, if it plays well, so much the better 
It’s might be interesting to know the diameter of the brass tube and how high up the second octave it plays (easily), I’m guessing it might be a little limited in range, compared to an “ordinary” whistle, but if it sounds nice, choose a tune that fits!
Is that the case? Does the windway narrow down significantly?
Interesting whistle!
This is how O’Riordan whistles are built - the floor ramps up to a much narrow windway, but it is still the same general shape, flat on the bottom and arched at the top.
Yes, it’s easy to play all the way up into third octave notes. Third octave takes hardly any pressure at all. I’d say 1/3 less air than a clark whistle in the upper register. But clarks are a bit louder than this. Brass is just over half an inch wide.
I really appreciate all your feedback on this! (Frankenwhistle… i like it!)
And yes, the ramp is significant; prob 30 degrees. Not straight in like a recorder…