I discovered that there are some big quena Andean flutes tuned to low D which have a mouthpiece very similar to an Irish low D whistle: that mouthpiece is called “pinquillo” mouthpiece because it is the same as a small Andean flute called pinquillo. Please see this link:
http://www.boliviamall.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=428&products_id=11984
if you click to enlarge the image, you will see details of the mouthpiece that are very similar to a low D whistle. What is interesting, is that this instrument seems to have been invented thousand of years ago in the Andes of Latin America.
I wonder if anyone had the chance to play such instrument ? They cost very little: around $ 30.00 if made with cane, or around $ 45.00 if made with hardwood.
I have a smaller instrument (13") that looks exactly like that, bought in Argentina about 30 years ago. Couldn’t do anything with it, decided it was a tourist item and consigned it to the ‘low-cost things that are played by blowing but which I cannot play’ box.
Just blown the dust off it. It has a back thumb hole like a recorder. Marked ‘La’. Bell note seems to be a very flat Ab. Not obvious what the scale is. Soft tone. Can get a lot of pitch change by varying blowing pressure without breaking into the second octave (much more than any whistle I have played). That may be why I can’t work out the scale. But it may just be a tourist item. Somewhere I have an instruction book, but these days I guess the web would be a better source of info.
Edit: Just found a quena bought at the same time. Also marked ‘La’ but I can make the bell note on that a decent G. If they were the only things I had to entertain myself with I would choose the quena.
My wife is bring back a quena for me from Chile tomorrow. I’ll let you know how it plays. I think the breathy sound of the Andean flute is quite wonderful and different from the sound of any other flute. I’m wondering if it’ll sound as good in a VA farmhouse as it does in the Andes.