alba whistles
jazzwhistle
any other?
cheers, Amar.
I had never heard of a jazzwhistle till just now. Wow.
cranberry, sure you have, check out the site: http://www.jazzwhistle.com/
So Misha Somerville makes the best whistles in the world. I have that on the best authority—he told me himself.
Seriously, has anybody put these claims to the test and played these instruments? The reviews page was looking mighty empty when I checked just a minute ago.
hmmm…a bit strange blade…
A couple of things jump out at me from his descriptions:
A bore that tapers slightly towards the mouthpiece could mean a Boehm-type taper; if everything else is lined out right, this whistle might have a reasonably-well-tuned third octave. Or it might not…
A curved and tapered windway is likely to mean medium tight to very tight voicing, so lots of resistance, possibly some edge or ring to the sound, and should have pretty decent volume along with moderate to low air requirements.
I also agree the blade looks a bit odd, but the photos of the whistles taken as a whole are quite attractive.
Has anyone tried one of these?
–James
One More. the new kid on the block, I have one here,looks great but its abit of an Alba look a like 
Me I would give it five out of ten 
but then what do I know 
Yup funny place Scotland
Damm and I thought Bernard had come up with his design him self
It obviously has a fipple, as have Alba whistles, and probably six holes.
Really, I don’t understand what this is all about. There’s only a finite number of possibilities how to direct an airstream onto a blade, and an instrument that has been built and played by humans for hundreds or thousands of years is nothing you can claim to have invented.
Sonja
In my personnal experience, the better the web design, the crappiest the whistle. This scottish maker has the nicest whistle web site I’ve seen, after McHaffie (of course!).
I like Alba’s site best. It’s just lovely to look around.
Its all in the way ha windway is cut, And right enough On the alba web site it shows how we cut the wind way and Blade its there for all to see. 
But frankly my dear I don’t give a damm who copies who, but with a huge amount of ways to make a whistle, you would think some might have a go at something different. 
The part I can see clearly that looks like a knock-off of Stacey’s design is the way the windcutter blade is configured. Except for one other obvious copy posted awhile back, I haven’t seen any other whistles (except for the willow bark whistles we used to make as kids) that use that approach.
Stacey, what is the effect of cutting the blade that way? My understanding is that the closer the blade is to the end of the windway, the more it favors the upper register; the further away it is, the more it favors the lower register. I don’t have one of your whistles to try out, so I can only try to imagine what kind of voicing that configuration creates.
Best wishes,
Jerry
I don’t have one of your whistles to try out, so I can only try to imagine what kind of voicing that configuration creates.
Best wishes,
Jerry[/quote]
Hi Jerry
Well I suppose its a bit like Dale said MM&JFK. 
So how is it possable for the Q1 to work it has no edge all 
That’s exactly my point.
Sonja
Stacey, you’re so mysterious!
Sonja,
Even though we used to make willow-bark whistles by cutting a notch in the tube at an angle like Stacey’s whistles, I’ve never seen a pennywhistle made that way. Hers are the only ones, except for the direct copies she posted about a few months ago.
Best wishes,
Jerry
Shaw whistles also originate in Scotland.
I’ve tried Misha’s whistles and have made a comment or two in the past. They are a good whistle… “best”, no. Good, yes. Maybe even very good. But it has been over a year now that I’ve tried them so I wouldn’t put any more qualifiers on it. I remember them being particularly well made.
Erik
David Shaw is based in County Durham, quite close to the border of England and Scotland but certainly in England.
It’s another pretty whistle. It looks as if it will play well. I don’t have one, so I really don’t know. What I do know is that yep, there are about a million and three ways to make a whistle that works, but only a million and one of them sound any good to anybody, and none of 'em sound any good to everybody.
Nobody makes whistles exactly like Elfsong’s or Alba’s or Serpent’s or Busman’s whistles. All four of those designs are very, very good - in the 99.9th percentile of good-sounding, easy-playing whistledom. But aspects of each are shared by the others, and with the rest of the crowd.
Listen to the sound files
Buy one you like
Play it for a while
If you don’t continue to like it, send it back
I don’t know of an honest-to-gosh whistlesmith who doesn’t believe in his/her product, and all of those mentioned, plus others not mentioned, have money-back guarantees. Anyone who doesn’t should be laughed right out of business.
My 2p
serpent