I own 3 whistles at the moment - a Meg, a Clarke and a Feadog, all in D. Each sounds different. The Meg has a solid though very slightly reedy voice (reedier at the high end) while the Clarke has a sweet but breathy tone. The Feadog has a solid but thick tone.
I’m looking for whistles of reasonable quality and a different tone, just to see what I like. I looked on eBay and found a Generation and Sweetone. How do these differ in sounds? What other types of whistle are there in D? (and yes I realise eBay is not necessarily the best place to look - but there seems to be a glut of whistle vendors on the web and I wouldn’t have a clue which vendors were recommended).
If you are really talking WhOAD here, then I would have thought the answer was ‘all of them, and a few more…’ .
Aside from that I liked my Dixon Trad, Jerry Freeman does some excellent work. You will find a lot of support for both of those whistle sources here. Since D seems the most important key I would imagine every whistle maker makes one. So you will have your work cut out to refine your search. There are lots of makers. Advanced sufferers from WhOAD aactually enjoy the research/decision process as much as the acquisition itself. I am told.
Perhaps you can narrow the search by price range (although price is not always a good indicator of quality, and quality is not always a good indicator of playability)?
My suggestion would be to try different keys. It’s nice to experience the variations within a key but I think it’s even more interesting to find the different moods and feelings you can get from different keys of whistles. My suggestion would be something in the neighborhood of Bb.
if you ask a dozen people,“What does a tomato taste like?” you will get a dozen different answers. then, when you decide to go ahead and try the tomato, there will be a thirteenth answer to the question.
may i suggest… if your goal is to round out your collection… since whistles such as those you already have are relatively inexpensive, buy a Gen, then buy one of the others, then buy another… then you will have the whistles and you will be able to answer your own question about the sound differences… just a thought.
Ok, further to that, buying stuff on Amazon is WAY too easy.
Just bought myself a Generation D whistle with appealing red mouthpiece (not my first choice - I liked the look of the blue mouthpieced nickel Gen better, but the red one was a little cheaper and pay day is a long way away).
Then I added a Sweetone to my wishlist. Then I added a Dixon. Definitely WhOAD
I have suffered from WhOAD for a number of years. If we get together to try some tunes you are welcome to try my whistles, it may give you an idea as to what you want to spend your money on ?
This is really one of those “what do you want” moments. Not really a whistle player, but the Oak is very flexible with a nice mid range, the Dixon rock solid in pitch and a great low end.
Or you could just play the Feadog until it falls apart and learn its range of tones due to playing.
You didn’t mention price, so I’ll say get a Burke DAN (key of D, aluminum, narrow bore) if finances permit. It covers the “pure, sweet, birdlike” description better than anything else I’ve personally played.
I also second the Bluebird and the Dixon Trad. My personal favorite go-to whistle is a Busman.
You specified D, but part of the fun of WOAD is when you start getting all the other keys.
Wow, I had NO idea there were so many different makes of whistle out there! I’ve made myself a WhOAD acquisition list which I fully intend to explore as and when my funds permit. My Generation was dispatched today so hopefully that should turn up on Monday.
Clive, I sent you a PM last weekend - not sure if you’ve seen it yet.
Thomaston, that’s a lovely little puppy in your profile pic - hard to tell the breed at that age, but it looks like a Wiemerarner? (not sure of the spelling there!). Having said that, I know from experience most puppies look a very similar shape, and that could just as easily be a greyhound pup. Ho hum.
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