Chiff and Fipple Forums

I wonder if you are all aware of this page https://www.irishflutestore.com/collect ... ned?page=2. Some interesting stuff comes up for sale but today I notice these Copelands. Too rich for my blood but they may interest someone on the forum.

I wonder how they play. I've played fantastic Copelands and horrid Copelands.

Good grief; going by those prices my three Sindts are worth around $1450. Leaps and bounds more than I paid for them.

Adrian W. wrote:Good grief; going by those prices my three Sindts are worth around $1450. Leaps and bounds more than I paid for them.

Yeah. Same here. Except I've already sold my Sindt. I sold it to someone who will appreciate it more than I did, so I'm perfectly satisfied.

Crazy prices...

pancelticpiper wrote:I've played fantastic Copelands and horrid Copelands.

If they are horrid, send them back to Michael for tweaking. The Eb Sterling Silver Copeland I had was horrible when I bought it but after a trip back to Michael's shop it came back being absolutely perfect.

ahogrelius wrote:
If they are horrid, send them back to Michael for tweaking.

I sent it back and got a refund. I can't imagine why a maker would send out a whistle to a customer that was voiced that poorly, especially at that price. (I can't remember but I think it was around $700.)

Yes about the Sindts, I picked up a used Sindt set, three bodies in A, Bb, and B, one head, for $300. They played exceptionally well.

pancelticpiper wrote:

ahogrelius wrote:
If they are horrid, send them back to Michael for tweaking.

I sent it back and got a refund. I can't imagine why a maker would send out a whistle to a customer that was voiced that poorly, especially at that price. (I can't remember but I think it was around $700.)

Did you purchase whistle new and directly from MC? Or was it a used whistle that the secondary market often moves whistles that have been tampered with, (ahem), tweaked to suit the current owner.

$700.00 how long ago was your purchase and refund? Copelands haven't always been $700.00.

Yep, Copeland & Sindts have been selling at strong prices these days. Prices at IFS are set by the current market demand which is researched via eBay, other online forums, past sales history from W&D and IFS, etc...

I'll occasionally hear of folks who have had a "bad" Copeland but in all our years working with Michael directly ( we used to carry them at Whistle & Drum ) and now offering them second had at Irish Flute Store, I've yet to come across one (a bad one that is...) I'll let you know here when I do as any time we get a whistle that's behaving badly, we return them back to the consignor. I'm sure it's quite possible though. I once played a "not so great" Olwell flute years ago - and that could have had more to do with how it was cared for. I've probably played 100+ Olwells - impressive his attention to detail with every flute!

pancelticpiper wrote:I wonder how they play. I've played fantastic Copelands and horrid Copelands.

I bought the nickel copeland D. It arrived last week.

Its the 3rd high D Copeland that I've owned. I previously owned one made of brass and one of nickel. The brass one was a bit of a beast in terms of the breath pressure required to make it perform properly in the second octave, but it was a good whistle once you got used to the requirements and had great harmonics. The nickel one was sweeter and easier to play, and was more pure sounding. I loved them both (but ended up having to sell them for various reasons).

This new one is somewhere between the two. Not quite as sweet and easy as my first nickel copeland. Not quite as brash as my brass one. It's easily the best* whistle I now own. But, like every Copeland I've ever owned, it needs the duponol treatment--it clogs extremely fast without it.

Either the previous owner or the Irish Flute Store folks had polished it with a chemical polish. It was a bit 'oily' feeling, and I recognized the smell. The head joint was stuck as a result, but with a little care and some jar openers, I got it apart, wiped everything down judiciously, and it's working great. I know that some folks around here have strong opinions about the prices of high-end whistles, but I consider it worth what I paid for it, and hopefully won't ever have to give this one up.

*in terms of what I want out of a whistle, naturally.

ytliek wrote: Did you purchase whistle new and directly from MC?

Yes.

ytliek wrote:
how long ago was your purchase and refund?

It was ten years ago. That's when I decided to give up fluteplaying. I sold all my flutes and with the resulting pile of money I went on a Low D Whistle buying binge. I must have bought 20 or 30 different Low Ds to evaluate.

Do you know about the fantastic piper and whistleplayer David Brewer? I've probably mentioned him before. His Copeland Low D is the best Low D I've ever heard. Doesn't hurt that he's a superb player! I recall walking around a festival and hearing what I though was a recording of Matt Molloy playing flute, only to see it was Brewer up on stage playing his Copeland Low D!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPpD2mJN8es

He says he dropped it once, it landed on one side of the beak, and dented or crushed it inward. He thought "oh, no!" but it actually improved the tone, making it "more like a flute".

While I don't doubt you had a copeland low d 10 years ago, they were running $475 new and $300 - $400 on the after market at that time because they weren't difficult to get new. The price really didn't start getting crazy until Mr. Copeland semi-retired.

I've owned 2 Copeland low D's. I had to sell the first during the tech bubble crash in 2000. I loved that whistle. The second, my wife got me, and I had to sell to help fund the move to Virginia. I was less fond of the second whistle. It was very touchy about its breath requirements in the first octave, and I squawked it often because I didn't really spend enough time with it to get to know it better.

I owned 2 Copeland Low Whistles: a low D and a low F. Both were wonderful to watch (the most beautiful low whistles I ever owned and seen), but less wonderful for me to play. I bought those ones In 2010 or 2011, the Low D For 650 USD if my memory is good.

I love the look, the original sound, the conical bore, but I didn't like the "taste" of the brass in the mouth. Then, sound was great, but too easy blowing for me. 2nd octave was too easy to reach, so I sent them first to Michael Copeland himself to tweak them. Unfortunately, even if it was a little better, it wasn't enough, so I decided to sold them.

Michael is a very kind man (difficult to reach though!) and a fantastic maker, but Copeland whistles are definitely not for me, and in my opinion, prices for Copeland whistles in the second hand market are way too high: they have now a mythic status, but they are for me a bit overvalued. But I'd like to play an other Copeland's low whistle becaue theay are so gorgeous!

In all fairness, I didn't care for my brass Copeland high D when I first got it. At the time, I liked whistles that were much easier to play, and didn't require as much aggression in the second octave.

But in 2003, I sold every high-end whistle I owned to keep the family fed. The only one I kept was the Copeland.

I used that whistle for band performances and for playing a grueling 9 week schedule at the Texas Renaissance Festival. Grueling because we were "lane performers" and not "stage magicians", so we didn't have a set schedule. And since it was my only job at the time, I was playing open-to-close, stopping only for restroom breaks, to make as much money as i could.

After that kind of intense getting-to-know-you period, I got along with the whistle very well, and was sorry to see it go when I eventually sold it.