Last week I was at a 1950’s style ice-cream parlor in Pasadena, CA, and they had a section with kids’ toys. Next to the toy harmonicas and kazoos was a penny whistle, a brand I’d never seen or heard of before, “Schylling”. A cheapie I’d never heard of before and that hasn’t been micro-analyzed on C&F? Shock! I paid $4 for it, brought it home and tried to play it.
I’ve heard of mythical “unplayable” cheapies, but never came across one myself. I’ve bought 7-8 Generations, 4 Feadogs, 2 Clarkes, 3 Oaks, and they’re all totally playable. This Schylling whistle, though–pure junk. It’s seriously bad, not just “it’s okay but not my cup of tea” bad. Not a single remotely musical note to be found anywhere. Using the Search function, I found two vague references to Schylling whistles on C&F, including one person saying they were bad.
It’s made in China, that should have been a red flag. Nothing against China, but it’s not known as the world headquarters of Irish music and instruments. It came in plain brass and several other brightly colored tubes. The fipple’s black plastic with a couple of strange ridges on it. The tone holes look suspicious, like they were drilled with only two different sized bits. I tried the fipple on a known good tube, and still no luck.
Does anyone here play Schylling whistles? Am I missing something? Is it supposed to be a kids’ toy and nothing else? Did I just get a bad one? (And please don’t tell me, “you should have an experienced player try it out, there may be nothing wrong with it, you just need to learn how to play it, etc.”)
