I’m currently studying and practicing a lot now and basically just using two whistles, Burke D and Sindt C; but, I’m not that famous. 
I’ve never been at all interested in what whistles others play, but I’ve loved to collect and play lots of different whistles myself.
Philo
Paddy Moloney is playing a brass Generation Bb, a Sindt D, and I believe a Burke Low - can’t recall if it was F or D. Carlos Nuniez was playing Swayne whistles I believe I heard him say…could easily be wrong there though.
Can they?
Tom Doorley (when he plays whistle) uses Burkes. Anybody know what Low D (I know he uses Gens for the High D) Rory Cambell from Old Blind Dogs plays?
I don’t know what make whistle any ‘famous’ players use – but I like the idea of having a list, like Wanderer is suggesting. I always look on my CD covers to see if the brand of whistle is mentioned. If I like the sound on one song, but don’t care for the tone of another, it would be helpful to know what whistle is producing the sound I like. (Yes, I know I wouldn’t get that same sound … 
)
Besides … I get curious. I can’t recognize many whistles at a glance. A few weeks ago James Galway had a TV special on an NPR station here. He played a black whistle with what seemed to be silver fittings (not sure - the TV set’s color is kinda wanky). So … was it a O’Riordan? or what? Enquiring minds would like to know. 
Joanie Madden plays Burkes (among others, probably) … doesn’t she?
~Judy
i believe in general most famous musicians appreciate both expensive and inexpensive whistles
when it comes to high whistles, there’s not much difference there.
but there isn’t that much to choose from when it comes to low whistles,
the cheap low whistes are like practice flutes, so they buy expensives kinds.
Does Mary Bergin’s playing have the same tonal quality as Micho Russell?
But go for it, get a Generation eflat and see which of them you’ll resemble. 
I am almost certain that Elvis did not play Generations.
I was just reading an interview with Paul McCartney. He tells of a bass player recognising him in a shop and asking him what strings he used. He thought for a bit and answered ‘long shiny ones.’
Perhaps I’m gullible, but I’m inclined to believe the story. Some people are gear heads and some people just aren’t.
That said, the right gear can make a difference. When I was fairly new to guitar, I tried for over a year to get the sound I was after out of an electric guitar I owned without success. I even had one of the pickups changed but still no luck. I sold it and bought another guitar. As soon as I plugged it into an amp (before buying), there was the sound I was after. It isn’t always the player. In a similar vein, I defy anyone to play well on a leaky and unresponsive concertina.
So, you’ll be switching to a Sweetone then?
Which is it, Peter? The whistle makes a difference, or the whistle doesn’t make a difference?
Your initial post stated you wanted a list for people who might be shopping for whistles or to “dispel myths”
If a professional musician plays a Susato in a performance one would assume that at least part of the reason is its volume. It tells me nothing about what they may or may not play in the kitchen at home. Thus, knowing what someone plays in a concert you’ve attended might tell you more about what that player feels is a concert-appropriate whistle for him/her than what’s a great whistle for the average person playing tunes at the local pub.
And if I’m entranced by the “quality” of a whistle sound off a CD, I’d think engineering might have at least something to do with it and probably wouldn’t rush right out to buy a whistle that would sound like that.
And has been said over and over, and I’ll reiterate one more time: aside from having a poor/damaged instrument, buying an Overton isn’t going to make me play any better.
This thread is about there being some advantage to knowing what whistles professional musicians use. Every time it’s discussed it causes problems (for one thing, any two people seeing Lunasa play at any different time might see them playing different instruments, so we have the useless discussion about who saw them playing what). I personally just don’t see the importance of it. Learn to play the whistle well (geez, buy 8 or 10 of them if you’re not sure the one you’ve got is up to par) and forget what whistle somebody said they saw Joanie Madden playing in her last concert.
(And I really don’t think there are that many “myths” around about what whistles certain musicians play that we need to worry about dispelling them.)
Susan
I think it’s true that not eveyone should have a quality instrument.
Although, anyone who’s witnessed a professional trying to play one of your whistles, and politely laying it aside, after the first measure or two, should be open to the possibility there’s much more to understand about what makes a good whistle. It does matter and will likely affect your state of well-being once you understand. But it requires more than having just a superficial understanding of tone to know and appreciate the difference.
How many beginners have given up on an instrument partly because they didn’t have the encouragement of a quality instrument?
We know what they say about the word “assume”
I’ve played extremely quiet whistles in performances. If you’re amplified, who cares how loud your whistle is? Why wouldn’t it be just as valid to assume they just like Susatos? You are making a “Complex](http://www.datanation.com/fallacies/complex.htm%22%3E%22Complex) Cause” fallacy here.
And perhaps Joanie plays recorders in the shower. :roll:
This doesn’t have anything to do with anything. Unless I’ve heard someone play a whistle in their kitchen at home, how would I know what it sounded like?
I think you’ve come to some fundamental misunderstanding about why I thought this list might be interesting. Not based upon what I said, of course, but evidently about one of thse “assumptions”. Based upon the rest of your post, this seems to be true, anyway. I never said I cared what a famous whistler thought about their whistles, whether at home, in the pub, in the shower, or in the subway.
Mostly, I think it’d be nice to have a list so that someone can say “well, gee, I like the complex reediness of Mary’s whistle when she plays Seolfaimid Aran na Géanna Romhainn on Feadóga Stáin 2, I wonder what whistle that was?” but I guess according to some people, it doesn’t matter. It could have been a Meg and sounded exactly the same.
Of course, that’s complete bunk. And if I wanted a whistle with that same tonal quality, it might be handy to know what that whistle was.
So, are you truly suggesting that Mary’s playing would sound exactly the same if I she played a Cooperman whistle on her CDs? Or perhaps one of those bamboo whistles from India. I’d love to give her one in my whistle drawer and see if it truly sounded exactly the same when she played the Flogging Reel.
Please let’s not insult the intelligence of most of the people who read this board. Sure, engineering (condensing, adding reverb, sweetening, etc) may have “at least something” to do with it. I am sure that the make of the whistle does too. This is a Fallacy](http://www.datanation.com/fallacies/exclus.htm%22%3EFallacy) of Exclusion.
When I got a New Range Chieftain low D, it sounded almost just like what Phil Hardy plays on his CD’s, though obviously some post-production has been done on the recordings. My Susato Low D sure never sounded like that, no matter what engineering I did with it with my sound software. So, if I wanted a whistle that sounded like the low whistle on Phil’s CD’s, why would I buy a Susato?
(shrug) no one suggested it did. This is a straw](http://www.datanation.com/fallacies/straw.htm%22%3Estraw) man argument. The most that was suggested was that certain instruments may give you a sound you are looking for. Or even that having a better-sounding instrument may inspire you to work harder at becoming a better player.
What problems? The only problems I see are from the folks using specious arguments to discount the utility of such a list. This is a Appeal](http://www.datanation.com/fallacies/conseq.htm%22%3EAppeal) to Consequences fallacy.
Ah, this is what I mean by strawmen and specious arguments. Again, we’re not talking about buying whistles to make us better players. Now, if you don’t care what whistle Tom Doorley plays, that’s fine. Other people do, for reasons that have nothing to do with your rant.
Tell ya what, I’ll trade all of your whistles for the bamboo one in my whistle drawer. You won’t mind, will ya? I mean, after all, it’s 100% about playing that whistle well, and not the whistle itself, right? I’ll even pay your share of postage, so you’re not out anything.
That’s funny..because until relatively recently “Mary Bergin only plays Generations” was certainly waved about here as some kind of banner. And then, for a while, it was “She only plays Generations and Sindts, which are like Generations” And it’s a myth, obviously, since she seems quite taken with a Copeland A…which I think most of us can agree is nothing like a Generation.
Now, after all this deconstruction, I think what you’re saying boils down to is this:
There is a logical fallacy known as <a href=http://www.datanation.com/fallacies/aa.htm">"improper appeal to authority". Basically it says that just because someone famous or in authority says something doesn’t make it true. When I bought glasses, they told me that I should get a certain pair, because Jeff Bagwell bought the same ones. That’s improper appeal to authority.
However, not all appeals to authority are improper. My response on the glasses question was “So? Is he an optometrist on the side?” See, if an optometrist told me that a certain set of glasses was better, I might be more inclined to listen. Because one assumes that they know what they’re talking about.
Likewise, if a doctor tells me I shouldn’t eat certain foods (due to cholesterol, diabetes, whatever) I should be more inclined to listen to him over what my Aunt Debbie may say. And if a musician you like prefers certain instruments, there’s no reason why that can’t factor into a whistle purchase if you’re going to be buying one. One can assume they know something about what they’re talking about. I’m sure there’s a reason I’ve never seen a Cooperman whistle listed on a CD.
It’s funny the hypocricy I see on C&F sometimes about appeals to authority. On one hand, in a thread like this, someone can say “Joanie plays O’Riordans, and I gotta have one!” (though I haven’t seen that in this thread). A certain group of people all jump up and say “it’s not the whistle..geeze, grow up and become a real musician some day”. But when the inevitable cheap versus expensive debates happen, many of those same people will say “well, Ian “Crusty Fart” O’Cool only plays generations. It was good enough for him, his parents, and his grandparents. Why buy anything else?” Part of the myth dispelling is because often times Ian “Crusty Fart” O’Cool doesn’t only play generations. And that whistle you may have heard him play–the one that had a sound you have been unable to get out of your generations–may have come from something totally different.
It’s the same hypocricy I see in Peter’s stance here that the whistle doesn’t matter to the tone, but in other threads will absolutely dog the tonal qualities of certain brands of whistles (going so far as to say something along the lines of “I’ve never heard good music out of a Sweetone”).
You may be afraid someone will take this kind of list, run out and buy the exact same whistle that Paddy Maloney plays, thinking it’ll make him a better musican…well, they may just do that. People do the same thing with guitars, you know. But I think anyone who has any dedication to learning any instrument knows that your playing ability won’t improve by doing that. And I haven’t heard anyone here suggest otherwise.
Oh my gosh, you’re right. I’ve been such a flaming idiot. My apologies all around for having been so stupid as to bring in all those “arguments.”
:roll:
On the sleeve notes with the Lunasa “Otherworld” CD it states that Kevin plays Mike Grinter flutes and low whistles and Sean plays a Grinter low whistle. On the notes with their “Merry Sisters of Fate” CD it states that Kevin plays Mike Grinter flutes and low whistle and Cillian plays Chieftain low whistles. A year or so ago Phil Hardy posted links here to a video clip of Kevin and Sean both playing Phil’s Chieftains in a performance. In this thread Blackhawk says Kevin and Sean both play Susatoes.
Why is that and what difference does it make?
(And Mary Bergin playing Generations continues to be the only “myth” apparently existing about who plays what.)
Susan
First, show me where it was said in this thread that a player will sound the same on any whistle. What was said that a player is good he will sound well on any whislte, that you don’t buy quality into your playing by throwing money at whistles.
On tonalquality I did suggest there’s some relativity to this all as Mary Bergin and Micho Russell sound quite like themselves while they do not sound like eachother when playing a Generation E flat, in other words there is something the player brings to this all.
No I have never heard good music played on a Sweetone and I haven’t met a seriously good player who would touch one. For the fun of it I sent you a soundclip this morning, the sweetone I have is the vilest attempt at producing a whistle I have ever come across and I would not consider it a usable musical instument.
Only the best musicians can afford to NOT have a quality instrument. The rest of us hacks tend to benefit from playing a fine instrument. Shouldn’t have to labor to learn all of a whistle’s idiosyncrasies before you can hit a lick with consistent tone, volume and pitch.
I can put my fipples on just about any old length of tubing and get a tune out of it eventually, even without any finger holes. But I wouldn’t consider that the ideal setup for birthing music.
And what about family, friends, neighbors or anyone else that may have to put up with years of our newbie squeaks and squawks? They certainly deserve that each whistler should have a “quality” instrument, even if that instrument may have only cost a few pesos.
What do the pros play in the privacy of their own baths? That’s what I want to know! Hey, get yer mitts off’n my whistle… and if you drop that soap again…?
I think we’re in agreement on this, and I’ve never stated otherwise.
All arguments aside, I am interested in who plays what instrument, and in what venue, purely from a curiosity standpoint.
I don’t see a thing wrong in compiling such a list, and I appreciate Wanderer’s wanting to create one.
–James
geez, that’s a dumb question.
G
You want a list of whistles played by a certain player by tune? This might be difficult, particularly in view what I mentioned in my previous post (to which you haven’t replied):
On the sleeve notes with the Lunasa “Otherworld” CD it states that Kevin plays Mike Grinter flutes and low whistles and Sean plays a Grinter low whistle. On the notes with their “Merry Sisters of Fate” CD it states that Kevin plays Mike Grinter flutes and low whistle and Cillian plays Chieftain low whistles. A year or so ago Phil Hardy posted links here to a video clip of Kevin and Sean both playing Phil’s Chieftains in a performance. In this thread Blackhawk says Kevin and Sean both play Susatoes.
So I’ll ask again: Why is that and what difference does it make?
Susan