I hesitate to call this a review, because every player’s impressions of a whistle will differ, but I thought I’d share my thoughts on the Irvine Pocket Whistle made by our own Tommy Dion since no one else has done so yet. Here are pictures from Tommy’s commercial post announcing the whistle (mine looks exactly like this one, so it seems silly to post new pictures):
This is, in my opinion at least, a really nice looking whistle - looks a lot like aged ivory. It is very well made with the tone holes, blade, and joints being well finished without hanging plasticky bits like I’ve found on other whistles. Tommy’s attention to detail is evident, and he’s a good craftsman.
The case is really cool - it’s like Tommy bonsai’d a cavellero roll. When the whistle is in the roll, it will fit nicely into a shirt pocket or the front pocket of a pair of slacks…so it’s stealthy.
Tommy’s opinion is that this whistle is on the quiet side of medium, my opinion is that it’s more medium to slightly above medium in volume (it’s louder than a Dixon trad or Clare 2 piece with or without a Hoover white top), so volume level probably depends upon what you’re accustomed to playing.
Compared to the cheapies I’ve always played, the whistle has significant back pressure - it takes a little more oomph to play, but I really like it’s sound. Describing tone, etc., seems impossible to me, so here’s a clip (note - I’ve only had the whistle for 24 hours, so I’m still getting to know it, and there’s a definite flub during the second time through when I nodded to the neighbor…you can also hear birds since I was in my driveway when I recorded this):
http://www.box.net/shared/56fj7x4cog
The clip also gives me the opportunity to ask if anyone knows this slip jig’s name…because I don’t. 
One thing that I, as a flute player, really like about this whistle is that the beak allows for easy transition between the whistle and my flute (my Dixon trad, which I love the sound of, somehow kills my flute embouchure). This may sound odd, but I’ve found that certain whistles work better for me if I’m also playing flute and this is one of those good whistles.
Take all the above with the usual caveats (YMMV, opinions differ, etc.),
Eric
