Hi,
Does anyone have any recommendations for a really quiet whistle, which plays in the 1st and second octave and plays well, so no sticky tack? 
I’ve been looking at Black Diamond or a Dixon High D whistle, any pleasent words about them?
Oh, and this is my first post! Hurray. 
Cheers!
Hoover.
Mack Hoover makes whistles that sound like an exact match for your criteria.
–James
I’ll second the suggestion of a Hoover. Very quiet and easy to play through the second octave, as well as 3rd octave D and E. Very low breath requirements.
Welcome to the board.
I like Hoovers as well. Have two Black Tops that see a lot of use, especially the one on my Gen C body.
But you can make any whistle quiet. Stand a paper clip up in the window of your favorite whistle and it acts like a mute.
Hope this helps.
Mike
Hoover
My soprano whistles play just fine, through both octaves, and are VERY quite, with a bit of scotch tape placed horizontally across the window, covering somewhere between 1/2-3/4 of the normally open window area. I’ve always liked this much better than blue-tac for quieting whistles.
This also makes for a whistle that is quieter than than even my Laughing D, which is the quietest, decent sounding D whistle I’ve run across. (Although, come to think of it, I’ve never played one of Mack’s whistles, which I’m going to have to rectify one of these days!)
Of course, YMMV 
Loren
I never could make my whistles that quiet using either tape, paperclips or even sticky tack; they usually end up sounding really bad… I usually just blow really quietly instead, but that won’t work for the second octave.
Cheers.
Does it have to be a high D whistle? You could get a whistle in a lower key. I have a Burke in high Bb and I think it’s quiet compared to my high D whistles.
I would like to add Mr. Burke’s Narrow Bore offerings as well. I have a high D and C, and they are both sweet sounding through the entire range, spot on as far as intonation is concerned, and quiet as well. You can coax more volume out of them if needed, but they play quietly as well as any I have heard (though my expertise, if one would hazard to call it that at all, is not as notable as many on this forum).
Blake
Hi ams and welcome!
The Dixon whistles are quiet while still sounding nice. Black Diamonds are somewhat louder.
The Hoover blacktop is also a very sweet-sounding, quiet head that you can use on a standard body - the advantage with Mack’s whistles is that he is very amenable to fitting the instrument to your particular situation.
The Clarke original in D is a very quiet whistle in both octaves. It takes a bit more air.
I’m mostly looking for a practise whistle that is sweet and quiet. So I guess it doesn’t have to be a high D…
Cheers.
I have a 5-set of O’Brien whistles. They’re very quiet.
hoover definetly, the narrow bore brass is not only quiet but has a great sound and plays the second octave as easily as the first its now my favorite whistle
Noah Herbison’s Laughing Whistle. Not only quiet with a wonderful sweet tone, but telescopes down to a neat pocket fit. It’s quieter than a Hoover whitecap and has more personality.
You might also consider the Alba Q1.
I just came up with a good way to make a really quiet whistle when tweaking a Clarke original the other day. As some of you may know, making the windway smaller on the Clarke by pushing down the roof slightly will make the tone purer with less wind noise and also reduce the air requirement. If you push it down even further it will make the whistle REALLY quiet, but it will still play pretty much as usual. You will probably have to adjust the blade so that it lines up with the windway. The octave balance was a little funky but totaly workable in one of the positions I tried anyway. Of course, this wasn’t really what I was after so I reversed it, but it was a cool thing anyway.
Clarke whistles rock. You can alter the fipple in any way you want and it’s usually easily reversable.
I have a good quality whistle from a japanese maker that is very quiet, it’s called G-sligo. The design is advertised on the website as being “Chieftain and Kerry tuneable alike”. I’ve never played a Chieftain, so I can’t make a comparison or give an opinion about that, but usually japanese makers in general are quite good to copy things or even improve them, as you should know.
The volume is quite low and the high notes come out very easily and softly, being very well tuned. Actually I didn’t like it exactly because it had a low volume power and I think it wouldn’t be heard at all in a session but if your objective is to study I guess it would be great. The fipple had a quite narrow window and some troublesome back pressure, but still manageable, though I think it’d be somewhat difficult for a beginner.
I returned it to the shop and exchanged it for the older model, which has a larger window, being easier to play and then I found that the model announced on the website was oriented to japanese women with small hands or low breathing capacity. Despite that, I think it’d be ideal if you want to sound quiet and with a very well tuned whistle in the second octave.
You can find a picture of it at http://www.glenfinan.com/fue/ more to the bottom of the page, but it’s in Japanese. I think the shop owner can speak some English, so you can ask him for further information in case you are interested. I could also help with the translation if needed.
nice if that sound clip in the write up is the actual whistle that has a nice sound. hehe to bad I don;t read Japanese and can’t figure out which link will take to prices and ordering