I’ve never owned a tin whistle, but I’ve had the opportunity to try them from time to time.
Now I do think it’s time to get one.
What I’m looking for is a whistle that has low volume, without being airy.
Don’t really know what I’m looking for with tonal quality. Bb key would be preferred, but D okay if there are no good Bb options matching my requirements.
Thx
Hi,
The generation Bb is i think the best key they make, and well worth the cheap price
Chris
I’ve heard a bit about their Bb, but does it belong in the low-volume group of whistles?
sweetones are quiet-ish, if you want it really quiet try this maybe: http://www.bigwhistle.co.uk/shop_results.asp?prod_id=690
Mack Hoover, on this board, will hand-make a whistle for you, able to play at any volume you wish - at a completely fair price. Contact him, here:
Best.
Byll
Mack Hoover has quiet whistles. Also my Sindt is on the quiet side. Sweetones are quiet and the new Jerry Freeman Blackbird seems to be a quiet one.
Cool, now I got some options to investigate.
Thx.
Yeah Bb Sindt would be my favorite, but there’s other good options as stated above. I’m sure a Bb generation in brass, if well tuned, would be a good cheap alternative.
I would love a Sindt, but it’s too expensive for a whistle at the moment.
I’m leaning towards said Generation Bb. But what do you mean with “if well tuned”? Why wouldn’t they be well-tuned if they’re tuneable?
Just get two.
They come in nickel and brass.
I wouldn’t worry much about the tuning.
I’m pretty sure he’s talking about them being in tune with themselves across the scale.
They’ll be fine enough.
You can get the head to slide if glued and just make sure there isn’t extra plastic in the windways.
You’ll be good to go.
Yeah I meant in tune with itself, but since you’re just starting to play, as Anvil is saying, it’s no problem. But the day you start playing with people, your tuning will be more important but until then, just have fun! 
Yeah, and once you start playing with others, you’ll want a D since that’s the most common key for sessions.
The Generation Bb is one of the very few whistles I can play without earplugs, and it won’t harm me, all the way up to the highest second-octave note. I can also play it among people without worrying about irritating people with the shrillness of a high D whistle in the upper octaves.
Hello FluteDude,
I’m with Riverman and ALL the other great advice on this thread. I love my off-the-shelf Bb Generation brass whistle. From a geezer newbie…have fun in your explorations, acquisitions and playing!
Dennis
This newbie has collected a few Ds and a couple of Cs, plus the Gen Bb.
The Gen Bb is so cheap, everyone should have one. Sounds good too, but it’s not the quietest in the bunch.
Of the Ds, my Feadogs, Gens & Waltons are all significantly louder than my Dixon trad D. The Clarke MEG & Sweetone are fairly quiet.
The Dixon is very good indeed, as frequently mentioned here.
I had some success using the poster putty trick on my Feadog. It made it very quiet. Also calmed it down considerably and lost most of its instability. I needed very careful breath control for this.
(I mean the mod where a third to a half of the window is covered making it narrow. Several tries were needed to get the right effect. It’s surprising how very small changes in the shape and position of the putty made dramatic changes to the sound of the whistle).
My SweeTone isn’t very quiet. My husband prefers my attempts at learning the fiddle to my playing a tune on the sweetone 
Says it goes straight through him
There’s no accounting for some people is there 
My first post here, but have been lurking for a few months! For a quiet whistle I purchased a Jim Becker Bb(which is a very nice pvc whistle for $8 shipped) and experimented with making a mute for it from a 15 cent pvc coupler. I just measured the windway and used a hacksaw to cut a ring off the coupler, then made a little cutout for the windway with a dremel tool. This took about 15 minutes. The ring slides right on and by rotating it you can mute the sound to almost a whisper. My wife finally likes the sound it makes(in that she can’t hear it anymore).
I’m so pleased by it that I’m looking into a Parks Everywhistle or Walkabout which is done by an expert, can be tuned, and broken down for travel. I’d attach a picture, but haven’t quite figured out how to do that here. I’ve also done the paperclip method on my Sweetone and that works too, but not as quiet as the muted Becker.
Well, they do have pointy ends
You can always use a mute. I usually use electrical tape, like this. The width of the tape controls how much muting you get.
Well, whaddya know? 
That’s the simplest, most effective mute I’ve ever tried. Brings any one of my whistles down to a mere whisper. And it’s totally adjustable. Thanks, BoneQuint! 