Received my BECKER & FOSTER whistles.

[MichaelRS]

.Okay, for those of you that think I would complain if they cut off my head with a golden axe, here's something positive...

I received my Becker and Foster PVC whistles today and I like them.

Okay actually the Foster is not really called a Foster. It's by Mark Foster and the name of his company is My Whistle and Flute and can be found at MyWhostleAndFlute.com. he also has YouTube videos under that name for people to review a demonstration of his PVC products.
I can't speak to the flutes (because I have no skills in that area yet. I am ordering a low D one at the first of the month) but his high D whistle seems to be one of the best of its kind.
He has great customer service and a super great guarantee on his products.

I also received two whistles, a high D and an Eb, from James Becker, who actually does call his whistles Beckers. His site is Beckerwhistles.com and he has a few older videos on YouTube to demonstrate his whistles.
On the homepage of his website he has a YouTube video posted of a fellow who recently reviewed one of his whistles, in fact that's how I was directed to the Becker whistles, and I have to agree that the whistle is pretty much as represented in that video. I like both the D and the Eb that I received.

If you order from him and you are in the US you can save a couple of bucks on the postage by contacting him directly through his site. If you order off the site it will charge you $13.50 for EACH whistle. The $10 basic price of the whistle (a little more for the larger/lower whistles) plus 3.50 for mailing. But if you contact James directly by email he'll probably shave a couple of dollars off that for ordering more than one whistle.
Obviously if your order is International you're going to have to contact him anyway to inquire about the postage and such.

And yes, I know the medium that these guys are working in is PVC with all the limitations inherent of turning a hunk of plumbing pipe into a musical instrument. I'm just saying that if you're interested in craft instruments of this type, check these guys out. I think they've done one of the best jobs one can in that regard.

[PB+J]

Keep us posted.

I don’t think there is any reason to object to pvc as a material. It’s cheap, readily available, extremely durable, and in common use for water pipes. I have two pvc whistles, a Parks D and a susato low F. They aren’t my favorites but I don’t think it has anything to do with pvc, it has to do with the way they’re voiced. But every time I pick up the parks whislte I think “this is a nice little virtually indestructible musical instrument.” The susato low F has an unpleasantly huge mouthpiece but otherwise sounds loud and strong.

Good luck and happy whistling

[ecadre]

Keep us posted.

I don’t think there is any reason to object to pvc as a material. It’s cheap, readily available, extremely durable, and in common use for water pipes. I have two pvc whistles, a Parks D and a susato low F. They aren’t my favorites but I don’t think it has anything to do with pvc, it has to do with the way they’re voiced. But every time I pick up the parks whislte I think “this is a nice little virtually indestructible musical instrument.” The susato low F has an unpleasantly huge mouthpiece but otherwise sounds loud and strong.

Good luck and happy whistling

Interesting ... excepting the fact that neither Parks or Susato whistles are made out of PVC

Parks whistles are made out of CPVC (yes, it is a different material, somewhat related but not the same), and Susatos are moulded out of ABS plastic and have nothing to do with either PVC or CPVC piping.

Edited to add: OK the black Parks whistles are PVC ... ah well.

[PB+J]

Keep us posted.

I don’t think there is any reason to object to pvc as a material. It’s cheap, readily available, extremely durable, and in common use for water pipes. I have two pvc whistles, a Parks D and a susato low F. They aren’t my favorites but I don’t think it has anything to do with pvc, it has to do with the way they’re voiced. But every time I pick up the parks whislte I think “this is a nice little virtually indestructible musical instrument.” The susato low F has an unpleasantly huge mouthpiece but otherwise sounds loud and strong.

Good luck and happy whistling

Interesting ... excepting the fact that neither Parks or Susato whistles are made out of PVC

Parks whistles are made out of CPVC (yes, it is a different material, somewhat related but not the same), and Susatos are moulded out of ABS plastic and have nothing to do with either PVC or CPVC piping.

Edited to add: OK the black Parks whistles are PVC ... ah well.

So yes, Parks are PVC. I have done a great deal of work with PVC pipe in my day and I'm pretty sure the particular susato I have is PVC, but my original point was that I don't think the material matters much to the sound.

[MichaelRS]

Just to be clear, what I'm talking about in this case when I say PVC is the stuff that starts out life as a 10 foot (3 meters if you like) or whatever length of plastic water pipe that you get from the big box home improvement store or some such place.
Then you take it to your home workshop where you chop it up and drill it out and polish it and so forth to turn it into a whistle or flute.

[ecadre]

Keep us posted.

I don’t think there is any reason to object to pvc as a material. It’s cheap, readily available, extremely durable, and in common use for water pipes. I have two pvc whistles, a Parks D and a susato low F. They aren’t my favorites but I don’t think it has anything to do with pvc, it has to do with the way they’re voiced. But every time I pick up the parks whislte I think “this is a nice little virtually indestructible musical instrument.” The susato low F has an unpleasantly huge mouthpiece but otherwise sounds loud and strong.

Good luck and happy whistling

Interesting ... excepting the fact that neither Parks or Susato whistles are made out of PVC

Parks whistles are made out of CPVC (yes, it is a different material, somewhat related but not the same), and Susatos are moulded out of ABS plastic and have nothing to do with either PVC or CPVC piping.

Edited to add: OK the black Parks whistles are PVC ... ah well.

So yes, Parks are PVC. I have done a great deal of work with PVC pipe in my day and I'm pretty sure the particular susato I have is PVC, but my original point was that I don't think the material matters much to the sound.

I agree that the material (considering that it's suitable to construct whistles) matters little, except in the design parameters it imposes and things like all-metal whistles tending to clog more.

For example all of those Becker whistles from the soprano (sopranino?) G down to the soprano C are made from the same bore of pipe. That's a pretty radical thing to do, but probably imposed by the available bores of CPVC piping.

PS. You have an ancient Susato whistle made out of PVC/CPVC off the shelf piping? OK. Does it have a wood block? Susatos haven't been made like that for a very long time though. They're made from ABS plastic. I seem to remember buying a Kildare D whistle in the early 90s and they had been around white a while by then.