Houston, we have a problem… well, maybe we do and maybe we don’t! 
My newest prototype whistle heads look so much like Sindts that I fear being called a copycat unless I change the design somehow.
The recent post about the copycat Alba whistles has made me more than a little bit paranoid about my own whistles resembling someone else’s.
The real problem is that by changing them so they don’t look like Sindts makes them look like somebody else’s design! 
By not using a thicker windway sleeve, they look like Mack Hoover’s ‘Whitecaps’ or sawed off heads from Glenn Schultz’s ‘Water Weasels’.
By using a thicker windway sleeve that extends beyond the window and blade, they look sawed off Susato heads.
Even my discontinued ‘Copperheads’ were essentially a 50/50 hybrid between a Burke and a Silkstone… I’m beginning to think that this venture is much like trying to re-invent the wheel! 
I originally intended to just port my ‘Copperhead’ design over to a more suitable material, but I have since invested in the necessary equipment to accurately mill more the more traditional sloping blades.
The new prototypes have a much brighter tone and significantly more volume than the old ‘Copperheads’, so I have no intention of reverting to that design.
Ah, but then we come back to the whole issue of being a copycat… and I shudder to think that all my long hours of work and significant monetary investment will come to naught because I am rejected by the whistle community for being thought a copycat! 
Hate to say it, but there’s only so much you can do to a whistle design. Don’t sweat it. Just make good whistles, let people make their own judgements.
As far as I can tell, the materials and tooling have a tendency to drive the design to enough of an extent that there are a relatively few truly workable whistlehead designs possible. The question I have is, do they sound like Sindts or do they sound like Humphreys? If they’ve their own, not copycat, sound I would say, go ahead. You might still look for ways to make them different appearing, possibly by using a different color of polymer, if it’s available and looks apt for a whistle.
Best wishes,
Jerry
P.S. I just took another listen to your clip of “Hector the Hero.” Beautifully played, and it’s nice to hear your Overton low D again as I’m learning more about whistle voicing. I read the story of the man the tune was written for. It’s so very sad, and your playing of it really captures the sense of it.
[Edited to add that it looks like Sam and I were typing essentially the same message at the same time.]
[Edited again to add that even if they sound exactly like Sindts, if they’ll play a cross fingered Cnat, you’ve got a marketable whistle.]
I agree, I don’t think - especially since you’re already an appreciated individual in this field - you’re going to need to fear the copycat syndrome. And like its been said, there is only so much you can do as far as the appearance of a design concept, and it’s hard for some people to see those unoticeable changes that sometimes make all the difference!
Heck, it’s hard for ME to see why one of my mouthpieces sounds so darn different from all the others until I study it for a while and figure out the plug is ever so slightly longer or the depth is a couple thousandths off or something! 
So anyway, after enough tangents and ramblings, I say go for it, sounds like you’ve come up with your own individual sound and you never know… in the process you may find something that just looks a little different but retains your working design.
Take care,
John
gary, what about all of the plastic headed whistles, they sure are a close resembalance, at least to the untrained eye. i would think if there were the slightest hair of a milimeter of difference you would be free of copying.
look at guitars, i know you are not trying to copy but to make a very good whistle that will please us, to do that the whistle has to have all the body parts and in all the right places 
have you any photos of your new work?
best, tansy
No photos yet since everything is still in the prototype stages, and therefore subject to change at any time.
The success of the design I tried today has got me seriously considering giving up just making retrofit heads for standard tubes, and diving head first into making complete whistles instead.
I’ve been retrofitting a Water Weasel D tube with various head designs made from the same knid of CPVC Glenn Schultz uses, and found that the same rule applies to CPVC tubes that applies to metal tubes - a variety of tonal characteristics can be obtained from the same tube via different heads.
I found a local source of thick walled black PVC, which is excellent for making windway sleeves, tuning slides and trim rings.
The combination of black PVC trim on cream colored CPVC body is extremely attractive, and I now have this vision of a more streamlined Susato-type design.
Of course mine will have better tuning slides and will not have the ear splitting upper register that plagues Susatos… and won’t be chunky either! 
They should also look somewhat different… probably enough so as not to be considered copycat Susatos! 
I’ve got to stop trying new ideas at some point though, and actually begin production… but not until I’m 100% satisfied with the end result of my labor, and I’m very often told that I’m too much of a perfectionist! 
Soon though… very soon… before Christmas, I promise!
Gary,
As a well pleased owner of your Copperhead line of whistles, I would like to say,
HEY! JUST DO THE WHISTLE! 
Seriously though, the Alba copies on the other thread appear to be exactly that. Whistles made with an effort to appear like an Alba. You have made it obvious that your desire is NOT to copy. Let the design for good sound mitigate the physical design and go with it.
Frank
Ah, but then we come back to the whole issue of being a copycat… and I shudder to think that all my long hours of work and significant monetary investment will come to naught because I am rejected by the whistle community for being thought a copycat! [/quote]
Gary
When I started making whistles there was only 3 other high end makers whistles available for the most part, so I did not have the problems of seeing lots of new idea’s I had to look to the past and see what’s gone before, Bernard had already snapped up one of the best ways of getting a windway / blade combo and because of the way the cards fell Phil’s was inside similar, flat windways have a problem with moisture, so I went for an old recorder number that used e a curved wind way.
After sorting out all the bugs on how to make my whistle from the material I had selected and having made and sold lots! I saw a susato and went ahaa 
but they were in plastic and only came in soprano D at the time
and as mine was different enough I thought it was fine.
Come up with a logo put it on what you make be proud take good idea’s
and improve on them, and try always to do your own thing,thats my maxim an you can copy that if you like
Similarities are inevitable. I say go for it!
Tres
What counts is that you design the whistle on your own without taking measurements from someone else whistles. If you do that, it’s less likely that you’ll intrude on someone else design.
Don’t get tired of exploring new ideas.
Uh, folks?
A whistle’s a whistle. A tube with a partially plugged end and six holes in the side. Depending on its key, its external measurements are rather tightly constrained - if you vary them too much, it DON’T WORK!
Frankly, I didn’t really ‘get’ the flap over what I thought I understood to be Alba lookalikes. So? Not only is imitation supposedly the sincerest form of flattery, but its also rather inevitable in two whistles using the same materials. Too much like the Overton/Chieftain hassles.
Make your whistles. So what if they look like someone else’s? As far as I’m concerned a Hoover CPVC looks rather like a Water Weasel, but no one’s accusing Mack or Glenn Schultz of “plagierwhistling” (that I know of, anyway).
Any competition should be in playing characteristics, not appearance (as long as you don’t copy someone else’s name or label, anyway). If yours is better, great. If they’re both good, even better.