What would be the best choice for one’s first whistle and where would you buy it? Travis.
What are you looking for? Give us some details…ease of playability? Sound? Volume? Color?
Let us know and it will be easier to help…
Cees
You should buy an Oak, a Clarke Original, a Guiness LBW, a Clarke SweetTone, a Feadog, and, of course, a Generation, all in D, as your first set of whistles. 
Seriously, if you don’t have a music shop that will let you try whistles, and you don’t have friends with whistles, it’s going to be really hard to tell you what to get. The only real way to understand the differences is to play them.
My guess would be you should get an Oak, a Feadog, or a Clarke SweeTone… of the low end whistles, those are the most loved… but those that love one of them usually do not love the others.
A lot of people love their generation, but the problem with generations is that they’re very inconsistent… you really need to be able to pick one out of a group, which means either a shop that will let you try them, or buying a bunch.
You should poke around the main website, I’m sure there’s some stuff that tries to explain the differences between all the different low end whistles… I still think you need to play them to really understand the difference, but you can try reading.
–Chris
Welcome to whistles.
IMHO, I think you should start with a high D. Stay away from the low Ds until you are sure that you want to invest the money.
The nice thing about high Ds is that you can get really good ones for dirt cheap. Go around to your local music stores and look around. I have an Acorn that I love (same as an Oak, with a different sticker). Take a look at the inexpensive whistles on this site and if you run into any of the good ones, pick one up.
You should also get a book that will show you the fingerings and some tunes. If the book comes with a CD with examples of the tunes in the book, the better.
I started down the whistle path with an Acorn and a little intro book for about $20. Hell of a lot cheaper than getting started in banjo.
I must humbly disagree that the Acorn and the Oak are the same… the Acorn has a thinner body, of a different material, and a completely different head, and a very thin sound.
The one (and only) thing I like about the Acorn is that if you buy five of them, they’re all going to be in tune with each other without adjustment. Or maybe I was lucky. Of course, as soon as you loosen the head, this benefit goes away…
–Chris
Opinions in musical instruments are like opinions in politics. They vary widely. Expect 10 different types of whistles to be listed in this tread as “must haves” with counter points to each.
It is going to be your first whistle, get what you can (avoid the really bad ones). There are many music stores around my area that don’t even carry whistles. Chances are, you are going to upgrade to something better before you march out to play with others anyway.
The problem with whistles is, if you like them, you will soon have a collection of them. If you don’t like them, then you can chock up the $10 loss as something to tell your grandkids that you tried.
My first whistle was a brass Walton/Soodlum in D, and it’s a great whistle: easy to play, clear tone, nasty coating that peels off. Get them at your local music shop, or, as I did, order from Mel Bay.
Probably nobody’s with me on this, but I like them. Some say they’re inconsistent, but there is inconsistency among most every make of mass-produced whistle.
While I agree that a first whistle should be a soprano D, I guess I differ from most as to which brand. My first was a Clarke original and I still love it. (OK, so the wooden fipple may clog and the conical metallic seam may cause an unpleasant indent in your thumb - but the authenticity, the feel, the ambience, the chiff…ahhh)I’d also recommend any Walton or Soodlum. Enjoy. Philo
I’d agree that the Clarke original is a fine whistle.
It may not have a lot of volume, but the tone is enchanting, the octaves are nicely balanced, it doesn’t get shrill on the high end, it has nice chiff, and has that “good whistle” feel to it: it’s hard to put down, and you find yourself thinking, “well, just one more tune…”
I also like the Waltons brass whistles, especially the wide-bore ones.
Susato also makes a fine whistle, though it is a little different beast from the other inexpensive whistles, and I know lots of folks don’t like them. For someone who learned other instruments first, the Susato is attractive because of its very precise tuning.
–James
http://www.flutesite.com
The Guinness Black whistle is the worst I’ve ever tried. Don’t buy one.
Chris
Check out “The Whistle Shop” web site. Thom has a great package that he offers called a “deluxe beginners package” which includes 2 whistles - so you can get an appreciation of the differences while having some great resource material to lean from. Great price, great package, good value.
Hi Travis,
but you never expected such a discussion over one simple question, huh?
Where do you live? You give no clues in your profile or post. The reason I ask is that if you go into a local music store, they’ll probably have a choice of one whistle make, 2 or 3 if you’re lucky. Buy one of those (or all 3).
In London, it’d usually be a Generation.
My first whistle was a Sweetone D, and it’s still the best choice. I’ve never heard a legitimate bad word about them and they’re only $8.00, so it’s not a heavy investment. You can find many places to buy one under “buy whistles on the internet” on this same website.
FWIW, here’s my attempt to be mostly objective, with caveats about my bias.
Oak is my favorite whistle; it has the cylindrical bore/plastic head of most low end whistles, and a ‘richer’ sound; some don’t like the overtones, don’t like the ‘buzz’ in the low notes, and don’t like the amount that notes can be bent (slight variation in breath makes a variation in pitch…) No glue on the head, but a very tight fit; cork grease -required- to make them tuneable.
Acorns have the same holes as the Oak, but are made of a much thinner wall and have a very different mouthpiece. They have a very thin sound to my ear, but also a pure sound, which I think is the tradeoff. If you want a clean sound with a minimum of overtones, you want to be here. They don’t bend notes as easily as an Oak, making it easier to stay in tune if they’re in tune, harder to blow into tune. The glueless heads are not as snug as an oak, but still require cork grease.
The Guiness LBW has a body like the Acorn, slightly different hole placement, and the ones I’ve handled, at least, had very soft head-glue making them almost instantly tuneable; cork grease is not necessary. They play softly in comparison to other low end whistles, with a sharp increase in volume at the top of the second octave, and have a slightly fuller sound than an Acorn.
The Clarke Original has the hardest to bend notes of any whistle I’ve tried, and it’s nearly impossible to get the ‘bad’ squawk from blowing harder-than-first-octave/softer-than-second-octave.
They play fairly softly, with a very airy sound (that is, you can hear a lot of rushing air when you play, and this turbulence adds some unique overtones). They differ greatly from other low-end
whistles in being conical with a wooden fipple plug. They’re impossible to tune, and have a very high air requirement compared to cylindrical whistles. The upper octave takes a lot of air but does not shriek even to the top, the volume difference in conical whistles being less than the volume difference in cylindrical whistles.
The Clarke SweeTone is cylindrical with a plastic mouthpiece, which I’ve not tried to make tuneable (does anyone know if it can be done?). They have a sound similar to the Clarke Original but a little purer, there being less air and more tone from the plastic mouthpiece, as well as requiring less air to play. The upper octave… well, the whole thing, but noticeably the upper octave, is louder than the Clarke Original, but again, doesn’t shriek even to the top.
Walton’s/Soodlum have a lot of variation, and I didn’t get a good one, so I’ll say nothing.
Generation also has a lot of variation, and I’ve not got one in D … on the other hand, all my off-key whistles are generations, and it’s a lot of fun to switch keys. I don’t think any other low-end whistles come in anything but C and D.
Susato is the top of the low end, and is a very strange whistle. The plastic has a totally different sound from metal that I can’t really describe, the head is designed to be tuneable, and works well for this. Volume difference between octaves is small for a cylindrical whistles, but overall volume is very loud. The mouthpiece tends to clog quickly, and when clogged, or when you blow wrongly, the whistle is silent. It’s almost impossible to blow a sour note… for some reason, when you hit ‘wrongly’ the whistle makes no noise. Don’t worry, it’s not broken, it’s either spit-clogged or you blew to softly or in that ‘in-between’ range of squawks. As a result of this behaviour,
notes are pretty well stable, although I’m not entirely sure if that’s because of the way you need to blow or because of internal acoustics.
(Thinking… thinking… )
Feadog, of course; Feadog’s are the same body cut as the Oak and the Acorn, but yet a different head (well, three different heads if you look at old ones, but lets not…);
The have note stability about like the Acorn
(more than an Oak, less than a Clarke). The upper octave seems to take more of an increase in breath pressure than most other cylindrical whistles… I didn’t think it was by very much, but a more-beginner-than-I was put off by it after playing on oaks and acorns. Second octave gets very loud at the A, like an Acorn (and most cylindrical whistles). The tone is richer than an Acorn and thinner than an Oak (or, purer than an Oak and less pure than an Acorn, if you look at it the other way around.)
This is for the standard brass body - I haven’t tried the new bodies (painted, nickle-plated).
Okay. That’s about as good as I can do for actually describing the sound of my whistle collection. I hope other people who want to add to this will try to be descriptive too, since I think all this ‘whistle is good / whistle is bad’ doesn’t help… which I’m as guilty of as anyone, of course, but I’m trying to make up for that now!
–Chris
I don’t have one, but I think the Dixon is the top of the low-end whistles…at $16 or so for the nontunable, I have heard a lot of people say that they would pay a lot more because it’s such a great whistle.
My favorite whistle is my black (nickel) Feadog. The volume is just right–loud enough to be heard but not too loud–and it sounds great in both octaves. It is a more pure sound than some, I think, and it suits me just fine. I love it and the whistles I’ve gotten since have yet to beat it in my “favorite whistles” category. It cost me $7.50 at a local music store.
I was recently given a nickel Generation by a very kind friend and I haven’t had much chance to play it yet, but so far I really like it. I won’t attempt to describe the sound since I haven’t had much experience with it yet. I like the more “ruggged” qualtiy to the sound of it though.
My husband has a Walton’s Little Black D and loves it. He likes how light it is to hold and how easy it is to play.
Martin’s advice was really good–unless you live in a huge city with tons of music store/whistle choices, you are not likely to find much in whistle selection unless you order off the internet. I would take his advice–go to your local store, get what they have, try it, and if you don’t like it, you aren’t out much money. There’s always places like thewhistleshop.com for much more choices later.
Good luck!
Cees
My low-end whistle experience is limited to Oak D and Susato D.
The oak has a great but easily overblown
tone I like, and plays both octaves with sass. The Susato has a much bigger sound and requires more air, making an airy, loud and mellow sound.
- The new Susato VSB (Very Small Bore) is quieter, and may be played late nights without rebellion from your neighbors, as can the Oak. The regular Susato D (“small bore”) is too loud for that, but great for attracting attention outdoors.
The VSB is available from Thom Larson
at The Whistle Shop on the web, and is available in other Soprano keys as well. They sell for $22.00. I have heard one played stunningly by a professional
flutist who keeps its two pieces in his pants pocket for impromptu performances. -Sweet tone and good tuning.
-Good Luck!