My favourite whistles

All high D, all used to play Irish jigs&reels and sessioning:

Not in any particular order:

  • Wide bore
    • Raindog
    • Silkstone alloy
  • Narrow bore
    • O’Briain Improved Feadog
    • Water Weasel

Happiness is a good whistle!

Happiness is a good A/G/F whistle!

About to Go Flat?

My favourite lower-than-D whistle right now is Rerburn LB C, followed closely by Burke AlPro G.

On the higher-than-D category, the O’Briain Eb, followed by Generation F (yow!).

Actually I’m only playing one soprano whistle these days, my Humphrey (Raindog) C. I’ve lost interest in all the others. Anybody want to buy my Overton Bb?

For low whistles, I do still play my Overton low D and I’m trying to figure out my new Copeland low D.

I’ve played nothing but the O’Briain D for the past month. I got the Raindog yesterday, and played it for about an hour or so. Lovely whistle. Then i picked up my previous favourite, the Silkstone, and was surprised to find it mellower than the Raindog, but almost as good. I guess i won’t be selling it.

I have a few other keys just in case i need to accompany sombebody, etc, but most of the playing i do is in D, so it doesn’t make sense for me to invest on other keys. I do like the Reyburn C, it has a low whistle feel to it.

A good high D whistle, in my book, sounds nice and sweet all the way up, without shrillness. The O’Briain is surprisingly good, the cheapest one i’ve seen that fit the bill. I guess you can get great Generations too, but i haven’t been lucky with them.

Hey how does the Humphrey wide bore play compare to the narrow? The narrow is great. Does it pretty much sound and feel the same but louder?

:laughing:
I have always been a Generation lover,old habits die hard I suppose,and my all time favourite would have to be the little F whistle.
To my old fashioned way of thinking,ITM is a joyous celebration of racial pride and there is nothing like the high soaring brightness of the Gen F to bring out the defiant,exuberant passion of the music,especially in the playing of reels.
I’m rather fond of the Eb as well,it seems to be perfectly suited to the rollicking sway of all good hornpipes.

There are no sessions anywhere near where i live so my choice of keys is not a problem to anyone except Mrs.D., who goes off to Bingo when she sees me eyeing up a whistle.

Each to their own.

Slan,
D.

I keep thinking you live in Dublin.

I tried for a long time to find the “perfect cheap whistle.” It was a waste of money. But i only tried one Generation, and it was so incredibly horrible that i never thought there could also be good ones. :laughing: I should have just persisted on getting Gens until i got a good one. Too late for that now. Oaks are good too, nice heavy tube. I probably could get used to playing them.

But i do have a Gen high F that i love. Also a nice Bb that probably needs a small amount of work to get rid of some raspiness.

I still don’t have any whistle that has cost more than $100, since i bought the Reyburns and the Silkstone used. My most expensive one now is the Raindog, bought new for just under $100.

g


I keep thinking you live in Dublin.sez Glauber.

Chance would be a fine thing :laughing:

I have been buying Gen’s now for over thirty years and what with the law of averages and all that… I have managed to find/kick into shape a few excellent ones which I guard with my life.
If the house went on fire they are what I would grab first, then the Bob Dylan CD collection, then the Joni Mitchell CD’s,then oops gotta go Bingo is over.

Slan,
D.
:wink:

I have a lot of whistles (mostly inexpensive) that I like, and most get at least some regular play. But there are some I just reach for automatically when I want some music.

High whistles: Serpent Sweet Polly D, Syn D (depends on mood)

Alto whistles: Serpent Sunsinger A

Tenor whistles: Howard D

My Dixon D and Bb deserve honorable mentions, and I am fond of my Generations, Oaks, and Walton’s C - but my first choices are the ones listed.

The Serpent F gets a fair amount of play, but it’s a heavy whistle and needs to be warmed up to sound its best, so it seldom gets picked up for a quick tune - when I pick it up, I expect to be there a while. The ones I listed above are good for anything from a single tune to multiple hours of play.

But I’d hate to be without any of my whistles - sometimes, the “best whistle” depends entirely on my mood and the tune.

Good question. But not good enough for me to spend $94 to find out. :smiley:

Gary says the wide bore is “more mellow” than the narrow bore.

Just as a side note, I wouldn’t consider the Water Weasel a narrow bore whistle, but I’ve never measured it. Maybe someone could and report back.

My current favorite is my Humphrey Delrin & Brass Wide-Bore D, which I need to post a review of but haven’t yet… It’s a wonderful whistle with good medium volume, stable notes (no squeeks), and a bit of character to the sound. The only problem I’ve found with it is the oxxooo C-natural is a bit sharp unless you blow really soft and the high B is way flat unless you blow really hard. I don’t want to send it back to have these minor points fixed because I like it so much, but I’m sure Gary would fix this if I asked.

My second favorite is my Humphrey Complete PVC Wide-Bore D.

My third favorite is my Humphrey RetroFit Head on an Oak body.

My all time favorite was an Abell that I sold for some stupid reason. It had a stain on the silver Abell logo area and has changed hands again now I believe. I originally got it 2nd hand and then sold it to a board member in Louisville, KY who sold it to someone else I think. It was much better than the Abell I ordered brand new directly from Mr. Abell.

I don’t design my whistles to play C-natural oxxooo, but rather oxxxox… the reason being that I’d have to make the C# hole so small that it would be too weak.
The highest notes in the 2nd octave going flat without extra push is mostly due to the whistle being a wide bore model… my narrow bore whistles have the same problem, but don’t require as much push to correct it.
Nothing can really be done to eliminate the problem on a cylindrical bore whistle without adding perturbations and/or other modifications.

I starte d with a clarke High D and i love this whistle but she makes problems cause of the wooden mouth piece often.
My absolute Favourites are tweaked generation High D ,Susato High D and my Shaw High D
And i´m looking happy forward to christmas for my new Overton High D ,my last one broke after a sad accident.
slan,Julian

I’ve pared down to 5 whistles that all seem to be a favorite at one time or another. These are:

Sindt D
Humphrey Narrow Bore D - Just Intonation
Jerry Tweaked D
2 Brass Clare with green mouthpiece.

The Clares play really well right out of the box, no tweaking. I’ve had a red top brass Clare and a green top nickle Clare but these are the first green top brass Clares I’ve seen. I got them from Lollycross.com. I believe they’re a new batch. These are my kick-around whistle. When it all comes down to it there’s something about a Sindt. :smiley:

Medium bore, maybe. To me, it plays more like a narrow bore than like a wide bore. It requires that careful playing not to overblow it.

g

Burke Black Tip D
Copeland D
Copeland Eflat
Sindt C
Copeland G
O’Riordan G

Pretty much in that order too.

Philo

favorite lower-than-d- burke B. purchased originally so i can play along with B pipes. It has a haunting fullness and is an amazing instrument.
favorite suprano D:
when i must be quiet, laughing and/or whitecap on alum tube
when i can or must be louder: burke session pro
in my car: jerrysweetone
in my wife’s car: a lucky gen

meir

Burke is something, isn’t it? And to think i gave mine away because i wasn’t playing it enough. Doh!

My whistles that get the most play time:

Laughing D # 2
Laughing D # 1
Hoover-Feadog hybrid D
Laughing D # 3
Meg D

:smiley: