best cheap whistles to buy for a new club

[daiv]

i am starting an irish music club at my university. nowadays, i play burke whistles and a low-D chieftain, so i have no idea what the low end market is like. i have an old feadog i like, but i remember trying the newer feadogs a few years ago and didn't like them (but i hear they redesigined again). i bought some generation whistles a couple years ago, and they were ok.

i am looking to buy probably 5 whistles or so, just to give to people who join the club. i don't want to spend more than 5 or 10 dollars per whistle. so... what brand and material comes recommended? i'd love to just get some tweaked generations, but i'll save that for when i get some funding from the university, or people buy their own whistles.

[Latticino]

I've been pretty happy with an Oak (though I did the typical hot water, pull off whistle head, add bluetack - actually polymer clay, but who is checking... - and file off burr to make it tunable tweak). The nice thing about these for a club is they seem to be a heavier wall with a thicker nickle plating and almost indestructable. Should be in your price range.

Another good choice would be to make some CPVC whistles following Dr. Gs plans. Pretty easy, material cost under $2 each, and your club members will have a more intimate connection with their instruments after making them. I've made a couple, loosely following the plans, and the sound and tuning are quite good.

[JTC111]

Another option may be the tweaked Clarke Sweetone @ $13.80 each. I have one and when I was just starting found it much easier to play than the other cheaper whistles I had including a Generation and a Walton.
Info here: http://www.thewhistleshop.com/catalog/w ... weaked.htm

[Bothrops]

You can get MEG's which are, I think, the cheapest whistles. I have one and I like it quite a bit.
Another good options are, in my opinion, Feadóg or Walton's.

[Kem]

Yeah...I would say Megs. A store in my neighbourhood also carries Woodstocks, which seem to be Megs in pretty colours. I've bought several Woodstocks for my friends, and they've been pretty consistent so far.

[ubizmo]

I'd say either Clarke Meg, or Walton's Little Black Whistle. Both are cheap, easy to play, and sound good. Neither is particularly loud. The LBW, in particular, is very easy to play in the second octave, without it screaming at you. And you can get them cheap if you shop around.

Ubizmo

[Feadoggie]

Wow, this is cool! As usual folks have made a lot of good suggestions. Daiv, I have done a few beginner workshops and have tried a few things that might help. I should say that I was dealing primarily with children and an occasional adult so your needs might differ. I found the Clarke Sweetone to be a very consistent and usable whistle for young first timers, as others have said. I bought the unpainted ones by the dozen and got a good price from a retailer. I have not tried the Meg as an alternative but it is the same design just a different country of origin, AFAIK. The Sweetone has smaller holes and a slightly shorter spread for the fingers. So it's friendly for those with small fingers or those that have never been confronted by a wind instrument before. I do like Oaks, Gens and Feadogs too. If you are working with adlults, I'd suggest going with one of those particularly if they have some background with other instruments. Use whatever you can source at a good price. Just cull out any "stinkers" before you hand them to a new player.

I did try the DIY whistle route also, as Latticino suggested. In fact that's what got me started in making whistles. I designed a simple CPVC whistle and made the components ahead of time and the players assembled their own whistles from kits. We spent a lot of time fiddling with each whistle to get them working as well as they could. I enjoyed that effort but it didn't seem to add much to folks learning to play the whistle. So now I just make the whistles I would use for a workshop ahead of time. While I am one of those people that is curious about what makes a whistle work, others find themsleves full-up just learning to blow properly and to cover the holes without crushing the whistle. Your experience may be different.

Let us know how things turn out.

Feadoggie

[JTC111]

I'd say either Clarke Meg, or Walton's Little Black Whistle. Both are cheap, easy to play, and sound good. Neither is particularly loud. The LBW, in particular, is very easy to play in the second octave, without it screaming at you. And you can get them cheap if you shop around.

Ubizmo

The LBW is a good candidate for a bit of simple tweaking. I followed the instructions on this page: http://www.chiffandfipple.com/tweak.html (although, I used putty rather than wax). It was very easy to do, took about 20 minutes or so, and the whistle became much easier to play afterward. I still like the tweaked Clarke Sweetone better as a beginner whistle, but if you're trying to keep the cost down, tweaking a Little Black Whistle yourself is a really good option.

[daiv]

thanks everybody for the good advice! i have a LBW that i actually like, and agree on the low volume. i'll carefully look over all the suggestions and links, and then busy some whistles to get started. i think over time, i'll try out all the suggestions so i can be well educated. my problem is that i am very finicky, and i don't have the time or money to buy all the cheap whistles and see which i like, so i am glad that there are so many knowledgeable people here that can offer their input to help me make my decision.

for those who might be interested, can elaborate on the whole situation.

these whistles are for college-age students, and many of them will be music majors on other instruments. i myself am a grad student in psychology, but one of my students is a music major, and she is going to help me start the club at our university, and has already generated some buzz in the music school. it might be a while before we'll get approval from the university for funds to buy whistles or rent accordions / whistles / etc., so i need to get something new to give to the wind players who obviously can't play a trumpet or clarinet in Irish music (at least not in my club! ).

as for the project as a whole, we're going for a club that emphasizes experiencing irish music in the real world. we're going to bring in one or two big-name musicians to do a workshop and concert every semester, and get lesser-known musicians to do workshops and master classes in between. as our university is located a little over an hour from chicago, there are a lot of musicians that we can get that we won't have to pay to fly in! we are also going to push heavily to bring our members to sessions, so they can experience irish music in its (current) native habitat. our advisor is a professor and expert in baroque music, and she learned irish music when she was in grad school in new york, so fully supports our desire to teach exclusively by ear, and supports our ambitious aims for the
club.

i myself am a concertina player, who was a whistle and flute player before i was converted to free reeds. although i do try to keep my chops up and improve on the flute and whistle, nowadays i am much better versed in the minute differences and playing characteristics of concertina models at every price range, than i am of tin whistles (in fact, these days, i am only really familiar with the burke models, and have not played another maker's whistle besides my low-D chieftain in many years!). for flutes, i play a jon c. boosey pratten copey, or a david copley wooden headjoint for silver flute, and occasionally a gisborne 8-key from 1864 in cocus, fully restored by jon c.

thanks again all for your input! i'll be checking back for any more comments, and update anyone who is interested in what i think of the whistles, and the progression of the new club.

[Tucson Whistler]

What a great idea for a club, it sounds like a lot of fun. I would love to have something like that at the UofA.

[MTGuru]

Just to add a note on sourcing ...

Musician's Friend also offer Waltons whistles at good prices. For example, at $3.99 the LBW is a nicer whistle than the Meg/Sweetone, IMO.

http://folk-instruments.musiciansfriend ... 222+202673

Other Chiffboard-friendly sources for bulk whistles include:

Whistle and Drum: http://www.whistleanddrum.com/
The Whistle Shop: http://www.thewhistleshop.com/
Oz Whistles: http://www.ozwhistles.com/

[AlBrown]

I have always preferred plain old wood fipple Clarkes, which have the added virtue of being rather soft in tone, and in tune with one another, which helps reduce the 'cringe factor' that inevitably results when multiple people play whistle together.
If a brass tube whistle is purchased, make sure everyone loosens the heads so that they can tune to each other.
Q: How do you get two whistle players to play in tune?
A: Shoot one.
Q: What does the musical term 'minor second' refer to?
A: Two whistles playing in unison.

[FJohnSharp]

I don't recommend Clark wooden fipple whistles for beginners. I find the air management issues to be an extra thing to have to deal with while also learning fingering and tunes and tongueing etc.

[AlBrown]

Air management issues? I find that they play easier and smoother through the two octaves for a beginner than many other whistles.

[s1m0n]

I don't recommend Clark wooden fipple whistles for beginners. I find the air management issues to be an extra thing to have to deal with while also learning fingering and tunes and tongueing etc.

I've never got the air complaint. A clarke tin whistle uses less air than practically any other musical instrument barring a cylindrical-tube whistle. If that's where you start, you will have no wind management 'issues'. These are purely a matter of what you're used to. My start was a Bill Ochs Clarke C whistle, book + tape pack, and I doubt that I faced any greater difficulty than I would have with a gen or feodog in D, (the other options at the time). And I was still a smoker back then, now that I think of it.