So does anybody know of a source (that is to say a retail shop) in Southern California, particularly the LA /Orange County area, that happens to carry a variety of brands of whistles?
I searched for that specifically and then Irish music stores and Irish instruments in particular. I mean obviously it’s not going to be a store carrying just a bunch of whistles, but maybe I’m using the wrong search terms, because I just didn’t get the results I wanted.
https://larkinthemorning.com is in Berkeley.
830 Gilman Street
Berkeley, CA 94710
+1 (707) 964-5569
Berkeley is a six hour drive from Southern California
Maybe this place, the Folk Music Center?
Maybe?
Closed on Monday.
220 Yale Avenue
Claremont CA 91711
Phone: (909) 624-2928
E-mail: info@folkmusiccenter.com
HOURS
Mondays : Closed
Tue-Friday: 10 am – 6 pm
Saturday: 10 am – 6 pm
Sundays: 12 pm – 4 pm
Berkley is a whole world removed from SoCal. 
Best wishes.
Steve
I’ve been visiting the Folk Music Center in Claremont since the mid-1970s.
The couple that started the business have passed away- named Chase- but AFAIK it’s still in the family.
I’ll tell a story about the Folk Music Center from back in the 1970s: a guitarist friend told me that he was in the FMC one day and there on the wall was a fine vintage guitar. He played it for a while and decided he needed it, but he didn’t have the $500 to buy it until he got paid that Friday.
So he gets paid Friday and Saturday he goes in the shop to buy it and Lo and Behold it now had a price sticker that said $800!! He thought about it, played the guitar some more, and decided that it was worth $800. But he wouldn’t have the $800 until his NEXT payday.
So two weeks later he gets paid and on Saturday goes into the FMC with $800 ready to buy that guitar. He glances at the price sticker to see if it’s gone up in price even more, and to his astonishment and disgust the sticker says NFS!! He never did get that guitar.
(The FMC is officially a museum in addition to being a shop and dozens, maybe hundreds, of their instruments are not for sale.)
About whistles, I think as of late they’ve just had Generations. I think at times they’ve had Susatos too.
Last time I was in there they had several used Generations, among the last instruments remaining from the collection of Keith McNeil, a folk musician of some prominence in the 1960s and 70s who recently passed away. I bought most of them, they’re quite nice. Keith had engraved his initials on each.
I bought Keith’s Highland pipes from the shop, a very nice instrument which I’ve played at numerous gigs and pipe band competitions.
About Keith and Rusty McNeil http://www.mcneilmusic.com/bio.html
Keith’s pipes now in my possession, by RG Lawrie Glasgow in near-new condition though being a half-century old
Well that was certainly an interesting story about the FMC. And even though it doesn’t sound like a would have anything like I’m looking for they are a lot closer than Berkeley. Just saying. So I guess I won’t be going to either one. Thanks anyway all.