Sorry bout this, have searched thro several hundred posts and cant find the answer to my question.
My husband has always wanted to play the whistle and i bought him one for just a few quid and he has taken to it really well, even tho he has never played an instrument before. It’s his birthday soon and it would be nice to have a decent one but i am totally flummoxed by all the different varieties; high pitch / low d /low c. . ??? what influences choice and what does anyone recommend?
Oh my honey. That’s one big question you’re asking and you’re not going to get a simple answer. Before anyone could even hope to answer your question, we would have to ask a whole bunch more questions. Then we’d have to know your husband’s individual preferences. To give this an attempt, here are the questions that I’m asking:
Other people will have other questions. Next month is the 24th wedding anniversary of my wife and I. What we’ve been doing for quite a few years is make wish lists and then we suprise each other with something off the list. Every whistle player knows which whistles they are coveting (bamboo flute in my case) you should consider going to the one person who is going to benefit the most. Since you are a violin player, would you like someone to surprise you with a violin or would you like to have some input into their selection?
Let us know what you decide. We’re nosey.
Give him a home-made gift certificate, entitling him to the whistle of his choice. The research, shopping and ordering of a new whistle are a big part of the fun.
The standard whistle for Irish music is a soprano whistle in the key of D, so odds are you are
going to want one of those.
Irish music is the spine of the whistle repertoire. Also a D whistle is good for folk music in general.
There are very good inexpensive whistles that are often favored by professionals,
so you don’t have to spend lots of money to get something good. I like
Jerry Freeman’s tweaked whistles. You can search on these. Here you can in
fact afford several, in keys like D, C and Bb, which should keep your husband
occupied and happy. Hard to go wrong with these.
Doc Jones at The Irish Flute Store (online) is a lovely fellow who has lots
of good whistles both used and new and can give you good advice too.
He has pictures of the freeman’s too.
There are more expensive whistles that are quite nice and popular, e.g. Burke whistles,
Sindt whistles, Chris Abell whistles (which are wooden) and many others.
The Burkes are going for about 190 dollars, the Sindts (which are very good but
require a wait) for about 115.
Hope this is a start.
I’ll muddy the water by adding that a whistle bought for a few quid can be a decent whistle. Spending more money isn’t necessarily going to get you a “better” whistle, or rather it isn’t going to turn a beginner playing a cheap whistle into a virtuoso performer (particularly if this your hubby’s first musical instrument) .
I’ve only been playing for about three years, but I’m happy with my Dixon Trad whistle, which cost around £15. Before that, a Clarke Sweetone (less than a fiver) was good enough for me to play some gigs and do some recording. Maybe one day I’ll move up to a more expensive whistle, but I’ll give it plenty of time.
There are lots of other whistle-related gifts available. How about a CD or DVD, possibly with that homemade gift certificate for a more expensive whistle if and when he feels he needs one.
Hey Hoopy, did Peter L pass you the ‘stay cheap’ badge of honour before he departed? 
I love my Copeland high D - I’m pants but it isn’t and it makes me less pants although I drool a bit more when I pick it up.
But, yep - try a freeman mellow dog or something before that kinda outlay…
First, welcome to the forum! I think it’s quite nice of you to get him a whistle. As you can see already, you’re not going to get a simple answer. This is a very big question.
I especially like the idea of a gift certificate. And along with that set up an account for him here to discuss it. All the research is an important part of a whistler’s education. A whistle is a very personal choice, but half the fun is in finding out all about them.
Ah, I wonder what he’s doing now. Happy memories…
My love of cheap instruments goes back a long way. At school, I took great pleasure in being able to play cornet better than many other kids who had more expensive instruments. I didn’t have music lessons either. My wife says that I have a “poverty mentality” which I take as a great compliment.
The only thing I regret about cheap whistles is not being able to find one in a key other than D that I really like, but I’m getting more used to my Dixon in C. Maybe it’s worth spending more money on whistles in keys other than D, but seeing as they are played less often (by me at least) I’m loathed to do it.
Oh yeah, and it reminds me of when I bought a mandolin. There’s a really good music shop here in Nottm where they just won’t sell you the top of the range instrument unless you can convince them that it’ll be worth it. I went in with the intention of spending some serious money on a mandolin, but they talked me out of it. Would I play it that often? Would it be my main instrument? Would I really appreciate the marginal difference in tone that I could generate on it compared against the model that was £300 cheaper? It’s a wonder that they’re still in business!
How funny. Are the shop owners French by any chance? It sounds like a very French approach to business. “I am sorry monsieur, but you are not worthy of our crême brulée! May I suggest a dry toast instead?” 
Quite charming, really …
Thank you everyone, you’re very kind. That has certainly given me some thoughts to whistle to! Will have a think and let you know.
BTW— are you just a violin player, or are you a fiddle player too?
If you’ve been mainly playing classical violin, you might want to give traditional fiddle music a whirl. It’s tons of fun and it would be something you and your husband could play together. Most of the fiddle tunes fall just about in the same range as a D whistle so you can both play the same music.
Two words, GENERATION Bb!
(technically I don’t think “Bb” passes for a word but you get the idea!)
violinplayer,
The above isn’t a bad suggestion, however, if your man is as new to the instrument as you suggest then he likely won’t have much to base a decision on other than looks. Since it is such an inexpensive instrument, why not pick him up a small bunch to try out for himself? Let him get a feel for the different characteristics of three or four different models and then next time you’re ready to make a purchase he’ll be more educated on what exactly he is looking for.
If you do this, you should still do some research before buying every whistle you see to make your effort more fruitful. Some untweaked whistles aren’t very playable out of the box. For example, I’ve never played a stock Waltons Mellow D that didn’t have a noticably sharp bell note, and Clarke whistles, while they are easy to get a nice sound out of as a newbie, are typically not very well in tune to themselves. Other than tuning issues, whistle characteristics are left to personal taste and you’ll end up with a different suggestion from anyone you ask. Your husband really needs to spend some time* with each whistle before judging it as he will need to adjust his playing to suit each whistle before really getting to know what it can do.
Good luck,
johnny
*at least a few weeks or so
Nah, that one doesn’t work for me. Even with a poster putty tweak I find it too fragile in the second octave. But I know that it works for many other people.
Well, as Makar noted, I like Clarke whistles. Check the link in my sig and listen to Skye Boat Song. That’s a Clarke Sweetone. Hopefully my playing has improved since we did that recording, but it sounds (mostly) in tune to me.
I think that intonation isn’t the main issue with cheap whistles. We’ve done the good Gen / bad Gen discussion many times. With modern manufacturing methods it’s highly unlikely that there would be significant difference is hole size and placement within a batch of whistles. Why would a manufacturer make a whistle that was consistently out of tune? What does vary a bit is the quality of the injection moulded head (or for the Clarke original and the Shaw whistles, maybe the wooden fipple plug can vary in goodness of fit and finish). Look at Jerry’s tweaks; ok, there’s some tube swapping involved, but mostly it’s about improving the head.
Cheapies can be difficult to play, perhaps more so than expensive whistles, but I’m not qualified to make that judgement - I haven’t played anything more expensive than a Dixon trad - but I have played several of the cheapies on the market and can get a passable tune out of most of then, although some take more practice and breath control than others.
I think stability in the second octave is more of an issue. I’d be uncomfortable trying to play a gig with my Feadog (and with several other cheapies too) if the tune required anything above an A, but for beginners playing at home for their own enjoyment, sticking to tunes with moderate ranges is probably reasonable advice, especially if there are other people present!
I’ve said too much…
Violin player:
You’ve been given a lot to think about, a lot of good advice.
To make things as straightforward as possible, let’s first of all narrow it down to a high D whistle. It’s the most usual, common, and useful key.
High D whistles basically break down into three categories:
“cheapies”, mass-produced inexpensive whistles such as Generation, Soodlum, Feadog, Waltons, etc etc which can be had for around 5 dollars.
These are played by many good players but the quality control is notoriously bad and it takes someone who knows what they’re doing to pick through dozens of cheapies to find that “diamond in the rough”. Therefore I wouldn’t recommend this route, unless you get a Jerry Freeman “tweaked” cheapie.
mid-price whistles such as Susato. A narrow-bore Susato high D would be a good choice for a person’s first whistle I think. (They come in different bore sizes, and it’s easier to produce high notes on the narrow bore model.) I think that costs around 30 dollars???
expensive “designer” whistles, or high-end whistles, like Burke, Sindt, Overton, etc etc. The narrow-bore aluminum high D by Michael Burke would be, in my opinion, the ideal whistle for someone starting out. The voicing and tuning are reliable, the tone is traditional, and there’s little or no wait for them. It’s going to cost, what, 150 dollars? Which I think is worth it.
There are other great gifts for new whistle players other than instruments themselves. There’s no end of good music books and tutorials available to help him off to a good start, and they work with any whistle. CDs of whistl music are great for getting the ‘feel’ of a certian genre of music. And a free gift you can give is to put together a file of all the best whistle sites - manufacturers, dealers, historical information, videos, lessons, and of course, us!
A lifetime gold membership to Chiff & Fipple might be a nice idea. Dale, how much do those cost these days?
Thank you all for your time, you seem like a nice bunch! I have a lot to consider!
BrewerPaul, I am just a violin player, altho I can play a recorder too! My son plays a cello!
good move with the recorder
butt of the longest running gags on the forum
ya might’a made some points fer not mentioning that you have to know more than 1st position.
(I’m not sure that anyone here knows that the neck goes any farther…)