I recently received a lovely handmade rosewood high D whistle from another board member - chas http://forums.chiffandfipple.com/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=446. I’ve been told that he is going to go into limited production and will be selling these in the under $100 range. All I can say is get in line guys. Though this is my first wooden whistle I can give a very good report after getting to play it for just about a month. The whistle is extremely light, on par with a Susanto, even though it has a full brass slide and brass ring fittings, so it is very comfortable to play for an extended period of time. The tuning, which I tested with the AP Tuner application, is spot on, even with C nat my preferred OXXOOO. It has medium backpressure due to a thin and very precisely formed windway (clearly Chas has some machinist background as the tolerances for matching parts are held very closely and the wood tube wall thickness is in the 1/16" range) and the fipple window appears to be handcut to a clean bevel. Physically the beak is well formed and the whistle diameter or about 5/8" is comfortable to hold as well. Tone is excellent, on par with the best I’ve played, and there is just enough chiff to remind you that this is a whistle, not a recorder. I highly recommend these for anyone who has always wanted to try a wooden whistle but been put off by price. The only cons I can relate are that he currently uses a wooden fipple which could use a slightly better water seal and that it is not quite as loud as my Sindt (though clearly loud enough for session play).
BTW this is an unsolicited review.
Please bear with my mediocre pictures and address any questions to Chas
