Any idea who made this?

[Roland of Gilead]

I came across this whistle recently and have been struggling to find anything that identifies it. It has stylized "M" or "W" depending on how you look at it, possibly a lightning bolt, and the body design vaguely resembles an older Sweet. I momentarily considered the possibility that it was an older Walt Sweet, but I think that's probably unlikely. It also has a stamp of "12-97" on the back, which seems like a month and year.

Any ideas?

[Roland of Gilead]

Additional photos:








Could be just a random one off from someone who wanted to make a whistle, possibly a now well known maker whos work is quite different now, who knows? I'm quite curious though. I hope someone has some information

[Flageolet]

How does it sound?

[RoberTunes]

The general design and the 12-97 mark look exactly like a Sweetheart whistle I once had. 1990's era. I just looked online at Sweetheart whistle designs and I'd say it's a match. There would of course be slight design variations over time, so search for the year of manufacture and see what shows up.

The quality of the finish seems a less than on the one I had, which was really impressive, but just a regularly ordered whistle at the time, direct from the maker.

[Roland of Gilead]

Its one piece, non tunable and upon receiving it a while back I can't say if it's a sweetheart with any kind of confidence. The windway is reaaally tall, so the airstream is not focused well at all. It plays but it's super breathy and takes a tremendous amount of air. I don't know what early sweetheart whistles were like but I kinda doubt this is the same maker. This might have been someones attempt at emulating Ralph Sweet perhaps.

[Jayhawk]

I don't think Ralph ever used that lightening bolt as a maker's mark. Looks like a Sweet, but I wonder if it's someone else's imitation of one.

Eric