After reading Peter’s thread about customer service I realized one simple thing: I’ve never read any negative reviews about tinwhistles. Just never. Neither at this message board, nor anywhere else.
Freedom of speech, huh?
So - would you like to share all negative experience you’ve ever had with high- and middle-end tin and low whistles in this thread? No positives, no ‘but I still like it’ stuff, only negative reviews.
As long as you never see that in other threads - that will be fair enough.
While I think there’s no need to cover up less than positive experiences and that it’s probably good to air frustrations every once in a while, it’s good to realise before this explodes that there is as little point to the ‘this is plain bad’ approach as there is to the ‘this is all good’ one.
Dale mentioned self assessment of playing abilities: it’s very easy to blow almost any whistle out in both directions. This can be a tool to use if you can control it but it can also lead to an endless stream of ‘this is not in tune’ by people who don’t have the breath control to drive the instrument properly. It’s after all one of the reasons a lot of people go off on mass produced whistles, often only to find a year later with their playing experience grown, the problems are non existent.
So yes, by all means, don’t be shy if things go lopsided but like with the praise: keep it realistic if you want it to be of any use.
We’re not going to do this. No “post your negative reviews here.”
If you want to comment on a whistle, open a thread, make your comment on a whistle. As Peter says, if you want it to be useful, talk about what you like and don’t like. People will look at your post count and use that as one piece of data about how seriously to take the post, along with how sensible your review is and what it says about your actual knowledge of whistles. Don’t call it a “review” if it’s a vaguely impressionistic remark.
But, what this thread does is essentially constrain people from balanced reviews and comments.