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They're just hard to blow, and the differential between the low notes and high notes is extremely wide, leading to squawking at some note transitions as the airstream changes speed. Is it possible to play these instruments with the grace and speed associated with Irish traditional whistle? Usually. Is it an enjoyable experience? For me, no
About a decade ago we had visits from a musicologist doing field work for a book she was working on. She had an Abell, which she thought the bee's knees. Problem was, the whistle was, as you say, very loud and she just wasn't used blowing it and for that reason played her octaves extremely out of tune. But ofcourse she was the one with the most expensive whistle so when things sounded horrible, the rest of the company got the dirty looks (from her). Two years later she returned and had settled into playing the thing and played it in tune but was still obnoxiously loud.
Something similar could be said about an old local whistleplayer who had emigrated from here to the US during the late forties. His local comhaltas branch over there gave him an Abell to record him with (some fifteen years ago). The results were not very nice at all. Octave transitions were a struggle, tone and volume didn't suit his music at all. He did well on the Generation and the flute though.
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There are few absolutes in life, so I'm sure there are strong players who do prefer wooden high D whistles, but (perhaps tellingly) when a new face comes to my session and pulls out a wooden whistle, my first thought is, "Oh sh*t."
There are a few people who can make them work, playing on their own. But in my experience the majority of wooden whisltes I get to hear have an edge to their tone that for some reason makes them unable to blend with other instruments. I was at a concert a few weeks ago where someone played a wooden D, the player could play but the sound of it was just obnoxious.