This topic has probably been done ad nauseam, but I haven’t really found what I’m looking for (much like U2 ). I play the Great Highland Bagpipes wth a Celtic/Americana band, and I’ve recently started playing whistle with them. I have a stand for my bagpipes when onstage, but so far, I’ve just put my whistle on the stage beside the stand to grab when necessary. It’s not an elegant setup, but it works. I’m going to be using my Burke Composite Low D during future shows, so I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations for an affordable stand that I could use onstage that would hold both whistles safely? I tried a test tube holder, but the Low D was too top heavy and caused it to fall over. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated!
Stagg weighted flute stands are really cheap and work well for low whistles. The non-weighted ones are good too, but if you need something that can’t be kicked over, go for the cast iron sort.
Apart from stands designed to hold two different wind instruments (which are no use because one of the spikes will be too wide), I’ve never come across a double stand. Nor have I seen a multi-spike stand that’s small, compact, and stable for high whistles. At home I use a drawer organiser – a sort of plastic pegboard – which stands neatly on a windowsill and accommodates a decent-sized flock of whistles, but it’s no use for taking out of the house.
I think the folding one will work perfectly for what I need, at least for my low whistle! We don’t get too rambunctious on stage, so I don’t think there’s much danger of it getting kicked over! I’m thinking that maybe I can rig up a PVC tube of some sort for my high whistle and strap it to my pipe stand. Maybe I can do the same for the low whistle! Hmmm…
PVC tube would work fine, if you can attach it to something.
As for stands, my friend uses one of these for her flute – they’re easily stashed in a pocket, and are stable enough if there aren’t people trying to squeeze past in a crowded pub:
I mostly play at a table, so although it’s faintly annoying that no one makes a handy double or triple whistle stand, a couple of lumps of Blue Tac are enough to anchor whistles so they don’t roll off when someone jolts it.
I’m very pleased with my Hercules stand - I’ve regularly got low D, low C and mezzo G on my three-prong stand and thus far it’s survived everything a busy gig can throw at it. You can also buy replacement spikes of two different sizes to accommodate your particular mix of instruments.
Not the cheapest option, but highly recommended by me.
I’ve played a variety of wood flutes and whistles, as well as uilleann pipes, onstage since the 1980s.
Back then I cobbled together this stand, which has served me well for 40 years of gigs.
It only holds 5 instruments which might not be enough for many gigs.
It’s a standard folding stand for which you can buy things to hold Boehm C flute (too big for wood Irish flutes) Clarinet and Piccolo. The latter works for whistles and Irish wood flutes.
But being a cheapskate (I was still at Uni) I got threaded rods, wing-nuts, washers, and aquarium tubing and made my own thingies.
I’ve considered drilling 4 more holes and adding 4 thingies so it can hold 9 whistles but I’ve never got round to it.
We do play at Dublin, although I won’t be able to join them there this year due to family commitments. We also play the Riverfront Irish Festival in Cuyahoga Falls, OH, and the Dayton Celtic Fest, as well as pub gigs (I’m not an actual band member, just a guest piper, so I don’t normally join them for them since the stages are normally small).
These days, that’s about all the piping I do, minus the occasional solo gig (I’m playing for a traveling Vietnam Wall ceremony in a couple of weeks). We moved down to the Louisville, KY area from Ohio in 2022, but I haven’t really found a piping outlet yet.
The whistles were a way to let me join them on more than just pipes, which is nice! Your homemade stand looks pretty sturdy!
So I bought a short piece of 3" PVC, capped one end, wrapped duct tape around the other end so the sharp edge wouldn’t scratch my Low D, put bubble wrap in the bottom to cushion the whistles, and voila! I use removable zip ties to strap it to the bottom of my pipe stand while I’m onstage!
I do like Richard’s Thingie as well. It’s the sort of stand I’d like, though perhaps a bit smaller – three high whistle pegs would be plenty.
It would be an easy job for anyone with basic wood- or metalworking skills, but I’d have to buy all the tools as well as the materials, then faff about not quite getting it right, then clean up the mess I’d made of my sitting room, then replace whatever item of furniture I’d used as a makeshift workbench and accidentally drilled a hole in.
It’d probably be cheaper to commission one with solid silver hand-chased pegs from an artisan Thingie maker in the foothills of the Andes.
The Boehm flute thing will probably fit a Low D whistle.
They also make a Piccolo attachment, not sure if it would fit a High D whistle.
I could be wrong, but I seem to remember that back then they made various graduated sizes for the various sizes of Recorders. If so, sizes to suit a variety of whistles would exist.
They also have Sax and Trumpet attachment thingies.
I see now that all I did was to use the four holes on the four legs, and the middle hole too (that has the wingnut that holds the whole contraption together) so I could put on five home-made thingies. At the time (around 1982) it was a quick cheap way to throw together a multi-whistle stand for a gig. It’s held up over 40 years and hundreds of gigs.
One other thing just came to mind, for a while I was playing Boehm Alto flute in my Irish band. They made an Alto flute attachment but I was too cheap so I found a size of clear aquarium tubing that could be slipped over the Boehm C flute attachment (that came with the stand) to make it big enough for the Alto flute. I totally forgot about that! Which would be handy for my huge Bass A Whistle.
You can sometimes get K&M stands in the UK too, although when it comes to the multi-instrument version, for some reason the Hercules brand is easier to find here.
Trouble is I’d have to buy two extra piccolo pegs as well as the stand, assuming they’re narrow enough to hold high whistles. I’m not a gigging musician, so I can’t thoil it – I’ll make do with lumps of Blu-Tack on the table.
). I play the Great Highland Bagpipes wth a Celtic/Americana band, and I’ve recently started playing whistle with them. I have a stand for my bagpipes when onstage, but so far, I’ve just put my whistle on the stage beside the stand to grab when necessary. It’s not an elegant setup, but it works. I’m going to be using my Burke Composite Low D during future shows, so I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations for an affordable stand that I could use onstage that would hold both whistles safely? I tried a test tube holder, but the Low D was too top heavy and caused it to fall over. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated!
I’m thinking that maybe I can rig up a PVC tube of some sort for my high whistle and strap it to my pipe stand. Maybe I can do the same for the low whistle! Hmmm…
We also play the Riverfront Irish Festival in Cuyahoga Falls, OH, and the Dayton Celtic Fest, as well as pub gigs (I’m not an actual band member, just a guest piper, so I don’t normally join them for them since the stages are normally small).
