A lot of folks around here have Burkes. I see a few Sindts. Couple of Sausatos.
Likewise, you can’t sit in a session with an expensive whistle and poor intonation. I think it has more to do with the player than the caliber of whistle. Of course musicianship and instrument characteristics both come into play (no pun) but an *expensive whistle is not a fix-all when it comes to playing in tune.
I’d prefer to replace the term “expensive” with “individually voiced” or “quality controlled.”
Anyone at sessions play the tune
“Lord of the Flies”?
Never said an expensive whistle is a fix-all, just that there’s situations where it makes a difference, even for a good whistle player. Also, the extra volume most high-end whistles have can be a plus when sitting in on a really large session. There’s been sessions where I couldn’t hear myself and nobody else could hear me on my Generation.
Still, I’ve never understood the urge to spend $500+ on some rare hardwood whistle imported from some remote location.
I’m sorry, but how on earth does one take this to mean anything other than “of course cheap whistles are all out of tune”? I side with Straycat on this one. It’s not the whistle, it’s the player.
Although let me add that the best, most in-tune, sessions with multiple whistles have been when all the whistles are “cheapos”. And I’m talking 3 or 4 whistles, all of them Feadogs or Generations or the like. Adding a Burke or Copeland or some other expensive whistle invariably causes tuning issues and / or severe volume imbalance issues.
around me its mostly burkes, susatos, cheepos, tweakos, and inevitably someone brings in the quality controlled,individually voiced whistles.
See, there is a way around this whole thread…
I have an oz whistle that is only a tiddly bit louder than a generation, that has a beautiful voice (something like a generation)
doesn;t over power anyone, pretty quiet actually, but it is unique.
well, actually that doesn’t get around this thread at all. it’s still a qc iv whistle.
And is the same true for what to drink at a session? Is Guinness mandatory, could I get away with half a pint of Murphy’s and what would be the reception to a piña colada?
While we’re at it, is there also a dress code for players in public sessions?
There was actually an entire thread on the topic of session dress a while back.. in the ITM forum maybe? It was hilarious.
I didn’t agree with the implication that cheap whistles have poorer intontation than expensive ones. In the old days one searched for the best-voiced Generation one could find, then went to work tweaking. I still play the Generaton C and Feadog D that I got back in the late 70’s and their intonation is perfect. (I wish my blowing of them was perfect…)
They’ve been carved and chopped and had stuff shoved in the head and the result is a pair of great whistles, the equal of which I’ve not encountered at any price.
Though the Feadog is too quiet for a loud session so I use a Burke session bore for that.
We used to have a bodhran player in our group who drank ‘sidecars’. We told him that was OK, but the minute we saw him with something that had six cherries and a paper umbrella, he was out of the band! 
You just have to be careful to drink Murphy’s with Bushmills. If you mix Catholic whiskey with Protestant beer you’ll burn in hell.
I have the same issues with my Sindt. I have come to the point that I save my Sindt for my personal enjoyment or situations where microphones are involved. I love the Sindt whistle but I can never hear it over the Burkes and Copelands. I used to play Generations a lot and switched to Feadogs for the same reason (to hear myself, not to be heard). At one point though, I had a Burke session bore whistle but I could hear myself so well that I could barely hear anyone else so I ditched that one. I’ve always been curious to try one of the Burke narrow bore whistles but I’m happy enough with the Feadog, Generation and Sindt group I have that it hasn’t motivated me to pay the ever-increasing price for a Burke. I have, since then, discovered different postures and embouchures that seem to help the whistle “cut through” a bit and help me to hear myself without having to resort to playing out the side of my mouth (which results in less-than-optimum embouchure).
I’m curious to see what you think on the topic of playing, for example, Gens and Feadogs in the same session. I’m certainly no virtuoso and I know that my intonation can use some work but I’ve found it very irritating to play a Feadog whistle next to someone playing a Generation and visa-versa.
The tuning on those two makes is just so different that it drives my ear nuts (and I don’t even have perfect pitch). This, of course, would exclude Gens that were modified to play in equal tuning or Feadogs that are modified to play just. I’ve never put that kind of tonehole work (as pancelticpiper has indicated on his whistles) into mine. I’ve consistently applied tape to Gens to bring the G down a bit but that’s about all the tweaking I’ve done to the bodies. I play mostly along with my cousin and have gotten in the habit of keeping both Gen and Feadog with me so that we can play the same. I play the Feadog mostly as we typically have a concertina player at the session. I like the gens (esp. brass) for playing with pipers.
In my limited experience, most of the players in Belgium play tuneable whistles (Burke, Overton, etc.). Which is a good thing considering the joke : “How do you get two whistleplayers to play in tune ? Shoot one of them !”.
Feadogs and Generations are just as tunable as Burkes and Overtons.
Well, the one session I’m thinking of had four whistles: a Feadog, a Feadog Pro, an old Generation and either another old Generation or possibly a Feadog… but I’m 90% sure it was a Generation. None of them were carved, although the one gen might have some tape, (MTGuru would know, as he’s no doubt seen it quite a bit) but at any rate, pretty much untouched, all of them. The tuning was fine. Maybe the four musicians (two pipers and two fiddlers) are just better at blowing the whistles into tune. I don’t know, really, but like I said, it was great fun and sounded fine to me. More than fine, in fact!
Now, I always thought that the Feadogs were nominally in “Just Intonation” and the Gens were sort of somewhere in between Equal and Just. I don’t really know, I’ve never bothered with an electronic tuner to check, since to my mind that’s a futile approach. If I ever got around to it, I suppose I could check using that program from the flute board. But even still, the whistles are easily blown from one to the other, so I’ve always just relied on my ear and matching those I’m playing with.
On a side note (and not directed at anyone in particular), I don’t really agree with the whole “buy a louder whistle for a big session mentality”. I definitely think anything louder than a Feadog is too loud, usually (especially?) in the second octave. If the session is too loud for that, then the session is either two big or in a bad environment. Neither really makes me want to join in.
The more I play in sessions the more I enjoy the smaller ones. I don’t find that I get as much enjoyment out of a room of 10-15 people as I do in a session of 5-8 players. It’s harder to have the craic with a bigger group I think.
Well this thread pretty well describes me and my faults. Crap whistle player with lots of designer whistles and bodhran player to boot 
If I am in a session, especially a large one - a whistle player is a boon, as a whistle (or fife) is the one thing that will be heard above the cacophony and that means I can hear the tune. To put it bluntly, in the context of this thread, there is no high D whistle that has been played in any session I have been in, except when there are more than 5 or so whistle players, that I have been unable to hear each individual whistle (pipes, banjo or accordion can be drowned out, but not whistle).
David
David, I simply must ask. What the devil do you have at your session that drowns out pipes, banjos, and accordions?
Chain saws ?
Best wishes.
Steve
Hi Tim
It is usually one of two things a herd of guitarists strumming away (in the wrong rhythm usually) but more often the punters in the bar. Once they get a few drinks in them the noise levels go up till you can’t hear yourself think - never mind play. There was one time in the Oran Mor session in Glasgow and I was sitting right next to a banjo player and an uilleann piper and couldn’t make out the tune they were playing, but I could hear the person sitting across the circle from me playing a whistle.
My normal reaction to this is to stop trying to play and just go home, it is not worth the aggravation.
David
Oh, thanks. That explains it. I’ve often wondered how remarkable it is that traditional musicians will work so hard to keep the music intact, yet the pubs continue to change for the louder. I’ll bet in Grandad’s time the pubs were quiet enough to play. I suppose someday we’ll all give in and use amplifiers. Of course, then the punters will yell all the louder, so we’ll use bigger amplifiers…