Has anyone had any unfoturnate accidents with one of their precious whistles? Like, stepped on one, dented one in, or broken one. Anything like that. Anyways, just curious.
I went on holiday with my Abell D whistle. My all time favorite whistle. It is Africian blackwood with sterling silver for the mouthpiece, band for connectors, and has a sterling silver ring at the end for decoration.
On the way home from the airport I had it in my lap to protect it.
When I arrived home, I got out of the car forgetting that it was there and it fell out on the driveway to my horror.
When I examined it, there as a dent on the ring end and two on the mouthpiece. I was depressed to say the least.
I immediately phoned Chris Abell and told him what had happened.
He told me to send him the whistle and he would repair it for me at no cost! Not only did he do that, but he sent it back without any charges for postage or anything.
Now that’s what I call great customer service! Way to go Chris!
I am much more careful with my whistle now.
Cheers! Richard
I left a brass Generation D on the front seat of the car while I went into the grocery store. It was August, which can be brutal in Kansas, so I made sure I left the windows rolled down. I was only in the store for about 20 mnutes, but when I got back, I found that someone had put two more brass Generations Ds and a nickel B flat on the seat with it.
Needless to say, now I’m better about locking the car.
I (stupidly) swung a tunable Overton Low D by the bottom end to clear some water (I had just washed it out after playing it). Predictably, the head came off and struck the floor and dented the tuning slide.
A local music store that has a band instrument repair person took the dent out. The fellow did it for free because “he had always wanted to see one of those Riverdance flutes in person.”
Best, John
gonzo914 did that really happen to you? Wow, how strange! What’d you do with the extra whistles?
I’m guessing the story is apocryphal, you know, as in it was found on ancient papyrus scrolls flaking into dust in an old Twinkies box found under the floorboards of his toolshed.
Loren
The worse thing that happened was performing on stage to a small audience and totally crashing and burning in a reel I didn’t know well enough (but that’s a different kind of horror story).
Once, I shook condensation out of an aluminum Harper and it flew out of my hand and hit (luckily) a carpet in front of a surprised group of 4th graders. No harm done.
Then, I shook a Burke brass high d and smacked the end on a picnic table bench. Small bend in end of tube. Fixed it myself (mostly). Felt nauseated when I did that.
(So, look before you shake!)
Shook a blackwood Abell A when the humidity was low and the silver end ring flew off and rolled under a big desk with boxes stored under it. Took me numerous tries to locate it, which I did.
I had my Copeland low d brass (grand finale worse thing) resting upright against a swiveling chair at Weekender’s house. I rotated the chair and pinched the tube against the chair putting a painful looking crease in the tube. Sent it to Copeland for a $50 fix. (Took the opportunity to get it revoiced, which was nice.) So now, no one will be loaning me any whistles.
Tony
Clearly, a lot of these horror stories result from flinging whistles around to rid them of moisture.
We need centrifuges.
Somebody get on it.
I used them to stake some pothos, but I really prefer to use a Walton’s LBW for that because it is aluminum and won’t rust.
Gosh, emmline, the word “apocryphal” sounds so . . . so . . . so untrue and carries with it such negative connotations. I much prefer to call it “allegorical hyperbole.”
When my mom used to shake down the mercury in the thermometer, she always stood over the couch to do it.
Now there’s an idea, maybe someone could come up with a combination high G/thermometer for home health care. One that whistles when the temp goes above 98.6… 
One of my summer camp whistle students brought me a whistle which had been shut in a door, a brass Generation. A major kink in it, but it still played.
Jennie
Now that I think about it, I believe I bought that whistle from you when I lived in Maine. Not only is the repair undetectable, it plays better; and it was a really great whistle before.
Bb Generation on a long weekend.. .. it came out of the bag afterwards with a sort of oval shape at the bottom. I squeezed it back into the round. Then noticed the nice crack along the head at the other end. Black electrical tape fixed that. Then noticed it was playing a bit funny, despite the yellotack inside, so sanded its hump and finally put a piece of scotch tape cellotape 
over the blade. It plays.. but whooshes the air out like its’ trying to catch a bus!
A friend of mine had just finished mucking out her horse’s stall when her Generation D fell out of her back pocket and the horse stepped right on it as she led him back in. After that she joked that she now had a D-flat whistle.
I lost a good whistle one time when I was playing it in a swimming hole in a river in Vermont. My girlfriend at the time was swimming at the surface and decided to dive to the bottom of the hole; her foot kicked up as she dove, knocking the whistle right out of my hand and sending it flying…it landed farther downriver and sank in 15 feet of water; we never did find it.
My then 1-year-old dropped an Oak on its head. It shattered into many many bits. I kept that tube on a Feadog head for awhile. I later sent it to another listmember whose Oak tube had gotten damaged.
Dude, THAT was the whistle you dropped?!?! Man, I wouldn’t have laughed if I’d known it was that whistle 
Ah well, at least it was an Overton (hard to kill) and all ended well. I gotta stop selling my best whistles to you people though, you’re a bunch of gorillas! 
Loren
my accident was backwards from all yours. when i first started playing the whistle, i put the whistle (upside down) in the middle console of my car. when i reached around to hook my seatbelt, the end of the whistle (it was brass) scraped the longest hunk of skin off my hand. boy the blood. whistles don’t go there anymore.
OW.
A little different storry…
Last year at a festival. A player comes to the stand. “My whistle does not want to play anymore, it clogs up very quickly now” Colin looks into the windway and says “Could probably need a little clean out” Puts the head into a cup with water, shakes it a little and pushes the scraper through the windway. Out comes a brown liquid gunch. Uah… Colin puts head again in the cup and shakes a little and pushes another time. Out comes again brown liquid gunch. Player starts getting red in his face. After a little while of repeating this procedure with amazement, it is clean again and plays fine. “What do you do when you play it?” “I play alot at sessions and I don’t drink but I eat wine gums” I was sure it looked alive at places…
Brigitte
not really a “whistle” story, but..
one day before marching band rehearsal, we were stretching and stuff. like normal, we all put our instruments on the ground in conspicuous unoccupied places. but. not like normal, the band director came out and didn’t see my teeny tiny little piccolo on the pavement… and he stepped on it!
some of the keys were a little crunched, resulting in some notes not playing.
he paid for the repair, though.