Whistles I've Never Played, and Those I Have

Whistle
1

I’ve been playing whistle for around seven years.

I’ve Never Played:

Meg
Oak
Acorn
Susato
Shaw
Clare/Eagle
Feadóg
Little Black Whistle
Guinness
Copeland
Overton
Chieftain
Kerry
Hoover
Abell
Sweetheart
Burke
BrewerPaul
Sindt
Thin Weasel/Water Weasel
Reyburn
Dixon
Laughing Whistle
Tully
Rose
Parkhurst

Every Whistle I’ve Ever Played:

Walton/Soodlum (brass D and Golden Tone)
Clarke (original and Sweetone)
Cooperman
Asarkar
Generation (brass C and nickel tabor pipe)

2

i’ve only done waltons, clarke’s sweetone and the feadóg. the latter’s my favourite at the moment :smiley: if i had the $ i’d buy all the whistles on this planet. but of course…i’m only human.

Chih
“A whistle a day keeps the doctor away”

edited because i spelt a whistle name wrong. can you believe it? :confused:

[ This Message was edited by: psychih on 2002-07-23 04:57 ]

3

Golly Walden! I don’t know if you should be proud or embarrassed! How many different breakfast cereals have you tried?

I have played almost every cheap whistle easily available in the UK or Ireland, plus low A, F and D whistles, and I’ve been playing seriously for less than a year.

I think playing different types of whistles is akin to driving different makes and models of car - it helps accustom you to the differences, and make adjustments quickly if you need to play something unfamiliar.

Some days I feel in a Clarke mood, some days in a Dixon mood. Today I brought in my GenR/Doolin hybrid, just for fun, plus my 2-piece Clare, which is always good when travelling. Every whistle is different, and there are few makes or types I wouldn’t go back to happily, and to see if my playing has improved enough to allow for a particular models eccenticities.

One small fries short of a Happy Meal…

[ This Message was edited by: Martin Milner on 2002-07-23 05:29 ]

4

On 2002-07-23 05:27, Martin Milner wrote:
Golly Walden! I don’t know if you should be proud or embarrassed! How many different breakfast cereals have you tried?

Cheerios
Tasteeos
Toastios
Honey Toastios
Honey Nut Cheerios
puffed wheat
Honeycomb
Grapenuts
Corn Flakes
Frosted Flakes
Sugar Pops
Super Sugar Crisp
Frosted Lucky Charms
Lucky Stars
raisin bran
Chex
Cap’n Crunch
Halfsies
Rice Krispies
Pebbles
Coco Puffs
Frankenberry
granola
Almond Delight
Honey Bunches of Oats
Honey Smacks
shredded wheat
Toasted Oatmeal
Applejacks
Crakerjack Cereal
Reese’s Cereal
Total
Donut Cereal
Alpha Bits
Product 19
Hot cereals: oatmeal, cornmeal mush, farina, Malt-o-Meal

As for makes of car, I’ve driven,

Ford
Mercury
Chevrolet
Pontiac
Buick

Walden

Walden is blue at one time and green at another, even from the same point of view. Lying between the earth and the heavens, it partakes of the color of both. —Thoreau

[ This Message was edited by: Walden on 2002-07-23 06:06 ]

5

boo hoo…i’ve never played:

…all…

(not for long)

6

On 2002-07-23 05:57, Walden wrote:

On 2002-07-23 05:27, Martin Milner wrote:
Golly Walden! I don’t know if you should be proud or embarrassed! How many different breakfast cereals have you tried?

Cheerios
Tasteeos
Toastios
Honey Toastios
Honey Nut Cheerios
puffed wheat
Honeycomb
Grapenuts
Corn Flakes
Frosted Flakes
Sugar Pops
Super Sugar Crisp
Frosted Lucky Charms
Lucky Stars
raisin bran
Chex
Cap’n Crunch
Halfsies
Rice Krispies
Pebbles
Coco Puffs
Frankenberry
granola
Almond Delight
Honey Bunches of Oats
Honey Smacks
shredded wheat
Toasted Oatmeal
Applejacks
Crakerjack Cereal
Reese’s Cereal
Total
Donut Cereal
Alpha Bits
Product 19
Hot cereals: oatmeal, cornmeal mush, farina, Malt-o-Meal




I’m a Cinnamon Grahams man myself these days, though sometimes Special K with dried fruti bits

One small fries short of a Happy Meal…

[ This Message was edited by: Martin Milner on 2002-07-23 07:29 ]

7

What is this thing called Whoa?
A whistle is a whistle is a whistle!

8

I’ve also been playing around 7 years…
These are the whistles I’ve played, along with my quickie impressions (note, I haven’t necessarily owned all of these, but have had exposure to them):

  • Feadan–probably the best ‘generation-style cheapie’ whistle I own.
  • Oak – a bit scratchy, otherwise nothing notable
  • Acorn – out of tune (& with itself). Got this with a “Play Pennywhistle Now” CD
  • Susato D, A, low G, low D – D whistle:loud, 2nd octave B and A can be painful. A whistle: weak bell tone, kind of rich sounding, otherwise. (I think I have the kind they don’t make any more). Low G: as D. Low D–Fairly uninspiring compared to the Chieftain or the Copeland.
  • Shaw – My 2nd whistle too breathy, takes too much air. Loud. Otherwise similar in characteristic to a Clarke traditional (except fipple is a harder wood)
  • Little Black Whistle – chiffy, sprightly, responsive. Coming close to my 2rd or 3rd favorite cheap whistle. Sounds ‘aluminum-y’ in a way that none of my other whistles do.
  • Guinness – close to identical to the LBW
  • Copeland – sweety and easy playing, D. The low D requires a lack of timidity, but is buttery smooth.
  • Chieftain --love the low D, dislike the soprano D (too much air pressure required).
  • Overton low D – I only got to toot on Lee Marsh’s like once for a short time. I didn’t get a chance to savor it, and so only noted that it was quite similar to my Chieftain low D. Please don’t shoot me. :wink:
  • Hoover – sweet sounding and quiet. Out of tune, but in tune with itself.
  • Abell – similar to a thin weasel, but a bit easier-blowing. I only got to toot on one once, so I don’t have a lot of experience.
  • Sweetheart – big breath diff between the 1st and second octave
  • Burke – composite D could easily become my fave house whistle, if Lee would give it to me. :wink:
  • Thin Weasel/Water Weasel – Very nice, professional-sounding. Wood-sounding. Would still have today if I hadn’t needed the $$$
  • Laughing Whistle – Very little chiff. Bright and happy sounding. Quickly gets played out. By this, I mean that after playing a goodly while (hour or two), the fipple swells, or something happens, and the whistle just doesn’t respond well thereafter until it’s been given some ‘down time’.
  • Soodlum --squawky
  • Clarke original – nice chiff, my 1st whistle. Dislike the softwood fipple. Took too much air at the time (I was still a smoker). Mangled 3 trying to learn to ‘tweak’. Also plays out quickly.
  • Clarke Sweetone – My 5th whistle or so. Not much chiff, ‘full toned’ and clear, not flat-sounding. Cured me of Whoa for over a year.
  • Generation D, Eb, F, G. I’ve only bought 1 (out of like 12 or 15) generation D’s that were in some semblance of tune. The F is mostly in tune, and I use it in my band. The G I reserve for riot control. It’s shrill. Our guitar player keeps having me pull it out, thinking we’ll find a use for it..I guess the pain is so traumatic she keeps forgetting what it sounded like last time. I use the Eb to play along with some piper tunes on some CD’s I own.
  • Erik the Flutemaker Bamboo Tinwhistle – These look like Susato heads on bamboo bodies. I’ve never been very thrilled with the 2nd octave in any of Erik’s whistles or flutes. He seems to do fine when demonstrating. I do considerably less well.
  • Silkstone PVC D and Bb–Pure and clean sounding. No chiff, very easy breath requirements. People often stunned that it’s ‘PLASTIC’ after hearing them. These are my workhorse whistles in my band.
  • Silkston Alloy D–A bit more substantial sounding than the PVC. But similar characteristics. Responds better to the high B. Clogs more than my PVC whistle.
  • McHaffie D–Looks like a craft project, not very professional. The one I have is evidently better quality than some that have been reported on. Not great, but better than a lot of my cheapies. Able to play so quiet you can’t hear it outside of the room, making it perfect for baby-napping-practice.
  • cheap import wooden whistles in various keys. I usually play a ton of these at ren-fairs (there’s always at least one shop that has them by the dozen), and find about one out of about eighty are in tune. When I find one of the ‘good ones’, I buy it, becuase they have a nice rich tone, and it only costs me $3.00. :wink:

[ This Message was edited by: Wandering_Whistler on 2002-07-23 09:45 ]

9

Another reason to have a C&F regional convention, Walden!!! Get together with your pals and try em all.

I am not nearly as curious as some but am intrigued by fancy-pants wooden whistles like the Rose that I haven;t yet won.I heard TonyHiggins playin on one but I am not sure what it was. It really cut through everything in a session.

I also would sincerely like to try or own an all-silver whistle someday.

10

I’ve played:

sweetone
meg
oak
clare 2pc
generation

I haven’t played:

everything else…

11

Walden, I’m worried that you don’t have enough to do between eating cereal and playing whistle.

Wandering_Whistler-is Kenneally’s Pub still around?It used to be the only place in Houston to hear real Irish acts.

12

It’s still around, but only gets celtic music around St. Paddy’s Day. It’s not a driving force of celtic music. Hasn’t been for nearly a decade or more. But, there are lots of Irish pubs in town (easily over 40…heck, the guy that owns Mollys owns 18 of them, each of them a quaint ‘neighborhood’ irish bar), and a lot of them have acts. McGonigels Mucky Duck seems to get more irish acts on a regular basis than most other places.

You can get a list of a lot of 'em here at the KPFT](http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Irish_Aires/houstons.htm%22%3EKPFT) Irish Aires website (I proudly point out my band, Echoes of Ireland, on that list..hee!)

On 2002-07-23 11:54, janice wrote:
Wandering_Whistler-is Kenneally’s Pub still around?It used to be the only place in Houston to hear real Irish acts.

13

I’ve played:

Generations, both nickel and brass, in F and Eb. My brass Gen Eb was my favorite whistle until about four years ago, when I got my Feadog D, but all of them have been fairly decent instruments (though I should point out that they’re all older Generations…I think I got the newest of the lot sometime around 1986, and the brass Eb, my first whistle, I got sometime around 1975.

Feadog D. Got this one about 4 years ago, and it was love at first toot.

Clarke Original, in D. Got this at the same time as the Feadog, but have never liked it. It’s in tune, which is about the only good thing I can say about it.

Walton “Mellow” D. Yuck. Thing doesn’t even come close to being in tune, and is as breathy as the Clarke.

Clare D. Not bad; not great.

Susato “Dublin” in D. After a brief, slightly frustrating honeymoon period, I’ve grown to like this one quite a lot. The mouthpiece felt odd at first, but has grown to be quite comfortable. It has a clean, round tone that I really like (and I don’t think it sounds a thing like a recorder), and of all my whistles, it’s the most responsive to half-holing. I did eventually throw away the free “thumb rest,” finding it more annoying than helpful. Currently my “second favorite.”

Clarke “Meg”. Pleasant little whistle. So much better than the Clarke original, there’s really no comparison. Has an almost “woody” tone that’s nice on some airs. Too soft for playing with other instruments, for the most part, but lovely for around the campfire :slight_smile:

Cillian O Briain “improved”. Currently my favorite whistle. The voice is pure and sweet, it’s beautifully in tune, and the upper octave is, if anything, sweeter than the lower. Does require some care not to overblow (switching between the Susato and this one is like switching between a Hummer and a Ferrari), and is probably too soft-voiced for much play with other instruments, but it’s pure joy to practice on.

Whistles I haven’t played, but hope to someday:

Dixon tunable (with the brass tuning slide)

Silkstone PVC

One of BrewerPaul’s pretty wooden whistles

I’d also love to try a silver whistle, but I don’t know if I’d want to own one, having spent too many hours polishing silver to be too keen on owning another silver object!

Redwolf

14

Who said anything about polishing em?
Hey after a while, it would be the sweetest sounding lil Black whistle anybody ever heard.

But it would be easy without keys like a flute to hit it with the ol rouge cloth.

15

On 2002-07-23 16:14, The Weekenders wrote:
Who said anything about polishing em?
Hey after a while, it would be the sweetest sounding lil Black whistle anybody ever heard.

But it would be easy without keys like a flute to hit it with the ol rouge cloth.

I have a silver clarinet (got it for $25 a few years ago from Lark in the Morning mail order). Those keys do make polishing difficult, if not impossible.

I’ve been playing clarinet some lately.

16

Ugh…have you ever smelled silver tarnish? And it rubs off onto your fingers…nasty stuff!

Would be easier to polish than a flute or a clarinet, however…that’s for sure (unless it was engraved).

Redwolf

17

Hey don’t spoil my silver fantasy!

And I won’t let on that a rat is different than a mini-Golden Retriever!! ( :

18

You know what would be seriously cool? A jade whistle! Can’t you just picture it? Of course, even if someone were to attempt such a thing, the cost would probably make a silver whistle (and a full-time servant to polish it) seem downright cheap.

Seriously though…a whistle made of some kind of stone might have quite a lovely tone…I wonder if anyone’s tried it?

Redwolf

P.S. I’ll grant you that rats aren’t QUITE like mini Golden Retrievers…for one thing, they make pathetic guide dogs, being rather short-sighted themselves, and trying to get them to retrieve a dead duck is an exercise in futility :wink:

19

I think there are jade whistles in China. They have jade flutes and Pandean pipes too. They are fragile and break easily (redundancy stresses point).

20

I have a jade flute my wife got me for my birthday one year. And yes, they are fragile. sniffle

On 2002-07-24 05:16, Walden wrote:
I think there are jade whistles in China. They have jade flutes and Pandean pipes too. They are fragile and break easily (redundancy stresses point).