Hi whistlers - I have joined your forum to beg advice. My daughter has assigned me the task of buying my Irish son in law a tin whistle. She wants me to get a “good one” at between $50 and $100 australian. I think he has had a whistle before but is not a musician. Her faith in my knowledge of all things is misplaced and I am at a bit of a loss. It looks like B is the pitch to get but beyond that I have no idea. Do you have any suggestions? It has to:
Look impressive.
Meet the price.
Sound good and be nice to play (not that I’d know the difference).
Be available or deliverable to Australia before Christmas.
I have since read through another thread and many recommend the The Dixon Trad but I look forward to any further input.
I looked at the dixon catalogue and this looks like it…. yes?
DXTRAD - Traditional Whistle
dx2trad
Fully tuneable high D. Gets back to the basics ABS tuneable head with a brass body.
“Simplicity itself…another winner from Dixon” - Big Whistle Music.
DXTRAD Keys: D, E, Eb
All Keys: £17.25
Add Traditional Whistle Key D to order
You may wish to consider a Syn Whistle, made in the Blue Mountains by Earle Bartlett. In March this year I purchase a C/D set (one whistle head that fit on two tubes for a key of C or D whistle) for $90. They are my current go-to whistles - good clear tone and volume to cut through in a session.
I don’t know if Earle is making whistles in the key of B though, so you’d best send him an email to discuss your requirements. I found he was quite happy to answer queries and the whistles were sent promptly. His email was synwhistles@yahoo.com.au
Or you may wish to look at Oz Whistles by Mitch - although I don’t think he’s making much these days, and they will probably be out of your stated price budget.
Yes those Dixon whistles with the plastic head and thick-tube metal body sound very nice.
As far as your “look impressive” requirement goes, just about the coolest-looking whistles, amazingly bright and shiny and futuristic, are Burkes, but a Burke D will be considerably over your budget.
If you don’t have a specific reason to get a whistle in B its probably not a good choice. Maybe you were thinking of B-flat?
Anyway, D is by far the most popular key for whistles. If he’s wanting to learn whistle, then you should get D, because 100% of the instructional material is going to be for D whistles.
In your price range I have a Jerry Freeman Mellow Dog D/C set. It is one whistle head with two bodies. C is the second most common key, so having D and C together is handy. It meets your requirements of sounding good and playing well. Not so impressive looking though – just a brass tube with a green plastic head.
Something that is sort of impressive, or at least exotic, is Carbony. It is carbon fiber. The maker is an engineer (from MIT). I just got his D whistle and I like it a lot. It plays well and has a nice mellow sound. But it is nearly us$200, which is well over your budget.
I agree about the appearance of the Burke whistles. They look awesome. I’m not personally crazy about the sound though. To me they are louder than I want. Obviously that’s a matter of taste and a lot of people think they are the best.
Thanks everyone. I think I will investigate the Aussie brands mentioned. He has an aussie wife (my daughter) and my grandchild to be is “made in australia” - so I reckon his whistle should be as well. That tickles my fancy for some reason.
H. Piper, yes I meant D and typed something else. Thanks for the correction.
By the time I buy this whistle I am going to want to keep it myself.
The Syn “D” retails for about $80.00 US or so here in the USA. For a little more (about $120.00 US) you can purchase your son-in-law a Syn Set with one interchangeable mouth piece and three tubes allowing him to play in multiple keys (a combination of Bb, C, D, Eb - I believe). If I’m not mistaken, the cost in Australian dollars would be roughly the same and shipping would be minimal.
And they certainly made some of the best stuff ever went to war! The AK47 has to be the most built and used rifle ever invented. The MIG 15 was superb - albeit mostly due to the Rolls Royce copy engines. And the tanks…
Alas my daughter feels the same. I am now the proud owner of a syn whistle. It had a few manufacturing scratches and “wasn’t green” and so was rejected as a potential present for her partner. So I am having fun playing Christmas carols (badly). I can play a little so long as I (a) know the tune, and (b) have pictures not music score - I can’t read score.
Anyway, after doing all the research I kinda wanted one anyway.
Put your third finger between the 2nd and 3rd fret and play the top three strings. Presto! You can now play a G chord. Record yourself strumming that and play along – see which notes fit and which don’t as you play the carols. Most of all, enjoy the process!
FWIW, I like the old-school look of the Shaws. Their sound is rather unique, which you may like or not.