As a beginner, I think a whistle tutorial kit is the way for you to go. There is one you can buy with a Clarke Original or Meg enclosed, a book and a CD. I begain with a Walton’s whistle–book–CD kit. I ended up not favoring the whistle, but the kit was a REALLY good start.
Along with whatever else you purchase, get a Feadog. Try it once, decide you don’t like it and put it away for a year. Pull it out and discover that whistles, like wine, improve with age.
Ooooo…I gotta have one!
Which would be better…equal temperment or just intonation? (I failed music theory)
Redwolf
Equal Temperament is used for (western) instruments/music.
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal_temperament
Just Intonation: the practice of choosing pitches
according to whole-number ratios between frequencies,
almost necessarily resulting in scales with unequal scale steps.
Equal Temperament: the practice of dividing the octave
into an equal number of parts, or of making up a scale
from equal-sized steps.
KAC
If you get equal temperment (the normal thing you get when you buy a whistle) you will be able to play along with people who tune to the typical electronic tuner or a piano etc. Which includes most sessions. So I’d suggest you get equal temperment. But, for playing solo, espeically airs, I think the just intonation it quite good. That because if you don’t have a reference for tuning and you tune so the notes sound good together you end up with nice round fractions for the intervals. But we live in an equal temperment world.
If it helps, my ET tube is always on the whistle, and the JI tube I play with from time to time. For 8 bucks, get both. Heck, 8 more and you have a C whistle too. But if it’s just one, go with the equal temperment (the default).
Cheers,
Carey
They are great, Redwolf, especially for practising at night or when you want to play the same - old - thing - over - and - over until everyone else knows it and is begging you to stop! Why did no one design a mute before?
I am anticipating a hospital stay shortly (aagh) and think I could take, and play, my Every whistle without causing havoc!
I started on a Little Black but i dont really like it. Then I got an Oak, it rocks. Gens are good but I think it depends on luck to get a good one. A new player won’t know its the whistle’s problem or his, a slightly better whistle will do him better.
What comes to mind is the Dixon new trad.
This is not really thought through very well: ‘people who tune to a tuner’ , including sessions do not (re-)tune their whole scale before playing, they tune one (or two) reference notes to ensure their instruments are all at A=440 (or another but at least all at the same pitch), this has nothing to do with what temperament the scale of their instruments is tuned to.
Also assuming all instruments come in equal temperament disregards the variety of mean tone tunings concertinas may have, the intonations of the piper, the fiddler and the fluteplayer etc etc. The sessions I attend are, thankfully, not equal tempered ones.
Dixon Trad is great.
My own personal favourite is another cheapie: the Feadog.
Trouble with a question like the OP’s is that we all have different experiences and different favourites.
Overall, I’d recommend getting half a dozen cheapish ones and see which works for you.
Perhaps try:
Generation
Feadog
Clarke Original
Oak
Dixon Trad
and maybe a Clarke Sweetone or Meg
Okay, so I’m sure some people on here might be upset that I did this, but after thinking it all over, I decided I didn’t want to wait for something to come in the mail. I went to a local little music shop, and all they had were Clarke Sweetones. So I bought one ($8, not too bad). I get home and start playing around. I look at some fingering charts online (yes, I’m a complete newbie!), and ran across Ryan Duns, SJ on youtube somehow. Let me just say, I am HOOKED now. The Sweetone isn’t perfect, but it does the trick for now… I think I will be purchasing many more whistles in the future. Probably the very near future.
Thanks again for all the replies, I am sure I’ll be using more than a few of the suggestions in this thread for my next whistle purchases.
My first whistle was a Sweetone. There’s not a thing wrong with your choice. It’s a great whistle for a beginner to learn on for cheap! Might I suggest that you still try a Dixon Trad for $25 once you’ve played the Sweetone for a couple of months. You’ll feel like Heaven itself fell upon you. 
Cool. The Sweetone is my second favorite whistle at the moment.
KAC
I have a Sweetone that a friend of this forum gave it to me, and I’m happy with it. I have some other whistles with a purer sound, but that is the reason because I like the Sweetone, it’s different to the others.
I think it’s very nice to start with, you didn’t make a bad choice. Now, start practicing and have fun!
Cheers,
Martin