I have had a hankering lately to try my hand at a tin whistle (I grew up playing a Boehm flute and my dad plays whistles and the Irish flute) but for various reasons I don’t want to order one online. I’m not particular about the whistle, I just want to give it a try and it seems like there must be some place in Seattle that sells whistles. I tried calling a couple of places but they said they didn’t have any.
I live on Bainbridge Island and am selling off a few of the whistles I no longer play. I return around Thanksgiving and would be happy to have you play a few.
Thanks for all the help, guys! I ended up wandering over to Fremont to check out Dusty Strings and it is AMAZING! They have so much stuff and the people were really nice. I got myself a Generation D whistle (which I’m hoping is a good place to start) so now I just have to learn to play it!
Too late to help you out, but in case someone else finds this-- will area music stores not order whistles in for you? I’ve had a local music store that didn’t keep whistles in stock, but they were more than happy to order what I wanted, and others have made the offer too when I’ve asked.
Of course, you don’t get it right away, but you don’t have to do the online ordering yourself/pay the shipping. Or, wait for the Celtic festivals if you have one coming up near you-- at least one of the vendors usually stocks at least a couple whistles.
The Gen is a good one. But let me pass on some suggestions I wish I had received with my first whistle. Remove any plastic “flash” left over from the manufacturing process. Make sure the tube and windway are clear. And after playing it a bit, you may want to fill in the void under the windway in the mouthpiece. This is well described in the tweak discussion at the top of the list.