What would you say is the most commonly used brand of whistle when it comes to the professionals. To each his/her own, but which do you think catches the eyes of most working pro’s out there and why. I realize there are factors to consider. Are they recording in a studio? Are they playing live? Will other instruments be present? But overall, what do you think? Just curious is all.
for Low Whistles, its probably Overton /(Goldie)
For small whistles…lotsa variety in that one…
Boyd
Anything and everything.
Here’s a start.
Joanie Madden: O’Riordan, Burke
Paddy Moloney: Sindt, Burke, Generation and others I’ve seen him play I’m not familiar with
Brian Finnegan: Overton, MacNeil
Liam O’Flynn: Burke
James Galway: Abell
Tony Hinnigan: Abell, Oz, Harper, Burke, Kerry/Chieftain, Susato
Kevin Crawford: Susato
Sharon Shannon: O’Riordan
Julie Fowlis: Abell, Cillian O’Brien tweaked Eb
Vinnie Kilduff: Generation Bb (only whistle I’ve ever seen him play)
Sarah Bauhan: Abell
Brid O’Donohue: Generation
Mary Bergin: Was Generation but not sure at this point
Liam Kelly (Dervish): Burke
Kathleen Keane: Burke
Ballyshannon, Thanks for that list. From the looks of it, Burke seems to come up quite a bit!
Tied with Abell from that list Cannon. Personally I notice those playing Goldie/Overton/Chieftan whistles more than any other.
I’ll thow in a different take on this: Hollywood here has a large music recording industry, where most of the movie and TV soundtracks are recorded, and there is a community of professional musicians, the “working pros”, who are people unknown in the Irish music world. But 99% of the time when you hear a whistle on a movie or tv soundtrack or on a non-trad album it will be one of these guys, not the people in the ITM world you’ve named.
Take for example Chris Bleth. He’s a fantastic flute player and does most of the flute work that comes out of this town. He’s a master of the normal Boehm flute but he has a vast collection of wood and bamboo flutes that he brings to gigs. And loads of whistles of various kinds. Composers often don’t know what they’re looking for as to the sound they need for a particular “cue” so the studio pros show up with literally duffle-bag-fulls of whistles and flutes and let the composer hear the cue on various things until they hit upon something the composer likes. Chris even has strange flutes he’s made himself out of seaweed. (Off-topic but Chris has over the last couple years turned into a very fine Duduk player and he plays it regularly on Battlestar Galactica.)
These studio professionals sometimes surprise me with what they show up to gigs with. Often it’s a set of off-the-shelf Generations that us ITM players would turn up our noses at: funky tone, bad tuning, but these great studio players (who have perfect pitch) are able to play them precisely in tune. One guy had a fancy padded whistle roll full of more than a dozen brand-new Burkes in every key! Or Overtons in all 12 keys etc. Or the Made In India bamboo whistles in evey key.
These guys wouldn’t know a “long roll” if it hit them in the face but they can sightread anything and play in tune.
Yes, I think you need to be careful when looking at what the so-called “pros” do (and it’s a problematic term in folk music), because their needs and expectations may be very different from yours.
Studio players will favor whistles that are consistent and easy (because they may play them only very seldom), well in tune in Equal Temperament for orchestral part playing, and available in every possible key. Whereas prominent trad players may not give a darn about any of those criteria, and look instead for a chiffy trad tone (which may be more problematic to record), a temperament more consistent with Just pipes or fiddle, and a very limited number of keys. And either will probably have a sizable personal collection, and choose whatever is appropriate for the particular use: recording, session playing, stage performance, etc.
Many of the people in Ballyshannon’s list are not primarily whistle players. Fluters may favor whistles that take a big blow from big lungs. Pipers may favor whistles that have easier air requirements.
My understanding is that Crawford took to playing Susatos at gigs because he was tired of having his more expensive whistles stolen or lost while on the road. Sindt and O’Riordan players are essentially choosing fancy Generations, and might be just as happy playing a good Gen (and Gens are basically universal). Brian Finnegan chooses Goldie/Overtons because he said they particularly suit his big air and volume preferences and his hyper-trad stylistic approach.
OTOH, any of these players can make any whistle sound fine. And while some are consistent in their choices, and worth noting, the whistle you see them playing on any given occasion may reflect nothing more than the needs or whim of the moment or their current favorite or a dozen other factors, and not an implicit statement about the “best whistle”.
I used to see this problem in the music retail business all the time. Kids would come in and say, “I want the same guitar that X plays, because I want to sound like X”. Not considering that X played dozens of personal instruments, and special ordered or customized his main instruments beyond all recognition. Guitar marketers were happy to oblige by offering “X Signature Models” to the unwary - sometimes good, sometimes nothing more than a signature. The only whistle I’ve seen take this approach is the infamous Davy Spillane whistle, more a chimera than anything.
I used to see this problem in the music retail business all the time. Kids would come in and say, “I want the same guitar that X plays, because I want to sound like X”. Not considering that X played dozens of personal instruments, and special ordered or customized his main instruments beyond all recognition.
There is the famous and oft-repeated story of how Seamus Ennis would pick up someone else’s set of pipes and play them, and still get the famous Ennis tone and style out of them…I think it was Willie Clancy’s in the story.
And the fella that makes John McSherry’s reeds reckons John sounds like himself on any set of pipes.
The same goes for whistle and flute players
Boyd
Kevin Crawford also uses Grinter, Burke, Sindt and others. Members of Lunasa use Chieftains as well. See here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgmwQvgCoWw&feature=related and Kevin explains the whistles he uses here: http://www.lunasa.ie/bb/viewtopic.php?t=673&sid=ea0ab547c1c8a57ee4540759fb8a7b7a
I’ve heard this same question asked about every possible instrument for years. Whistles, flutes, saxophones, trumpets, bassoons, you name it. Look at any orchestra and you’ll find 20 different makes of violin and probably four different brands of trombone. I don’t think there can be a reasonable, concise answer. Pros use what they like best and suits their needs.
If you’re trying to pick a whistle that will make you sound like a pro, stop. You can chase that red herring for years and waste all the time you should have spent practicing and developing your tone. It isn’t the instrument that makes the pro.
Dennis Brain - the superb French Horn virtuoso of many, many years ago - played a truly dented, non-descript instrument, for which he did not even use a normal hard case. He would throw the instrument into a soft ‘gig bag’, and then throw the bag in the back seat of his Porsche. He died in that car. I suppose it is possible the horn did, also.
Best.
Byll
Case in point: On several occasions I’ve seen Paddy Moloney playing his beloved Generation red top held together with sections of black electrical tape and naturally, it sounds wonderful.
Peter Leban also prefers an off the shelf hand picked Generation. 
Peter who? … 
Sorry, couldn’t resist.
Hmmmmmm… 
seems I misspelled the name. How bout Peter Laban of ‘‘Theyll be good yet.’’ http://www.theyllbegoodyet.com/
I enjoyed this thread. I play what comes my way. I’ve never thought bad of my instruments but now I’ll think better.
I think everyone has nailed it here.
Thing about whistles is they are chaos creatures - no 2 are exactly alike, no matter who made them and how they were made.
A “professional” player will get whatever he/she can to do the job. If it’s your bread-and-butter, then it makes sense to have a pallete of instruments to meet the range of challenges on-going.
Each life has its own thread, it will contact other threads. There are very few whistle makers in the world each with his/her own thread. There are very few whistle “professionals” in the world .. whistles are great for reducing the world into human dimensions. Even with this reduction, it is all still vast.
I like to think the scenery is better than any other 
Above all - it’s all still in its infancy - the nature of whistles will continue to ensure it never, ever grows up.
The growth in players and makers will forever be cyclic - the greatness never gets recorded in the concsciousness of the flow -it comes, enriches, and fades .. and, so, continues to renew itself - never better or worse. This has been the case for the 25 thousand years we know about. It’s a swirl of nature - you either join it or never knew it was going on. And it will never change. We partake of a rare fruit of the earth - or have never lived..
Can anyone shed some light on the Ian Corrigan Whistles that Kevin talks about on the band forum? Cant find a website or any info on a search. 
Chris, Ian Corrigan makes whistles under the company name of Deerness Pipes. At this moment his website isn’t working for me, but the Deerness Pipes MySpace is.
(This one doesn’t work for me)
http://www.formedeconphotography.co.uk/secure_area/deerness_pipes/corrigan-whistles.html
http://www.myspace.com/deernesspipes
And, of course, the obligatory Chiff and Fipple discussion topic:
https://forums.chiffandfipple.com/t/deerness-pipes-a-lesser-known-pipe-makers-website/49937/1
Edit: I should also mention that I by no means have a thorough knowledge of whistle and/or pipe makers, but I am actually an advanced, top-secret internet private investigator. As in, I use Google.
Cheers Duff! Some good googling there!