John McHaffie - Alive and Whistlesmithing!

[billw]

Well, finally I got to meet the man who was my nemesis early on in my first experience with Chiff and Fipple! John is one of the nicest, most fun people I've met in a long time. He makes a great whistle - pretty, and most of all, soundin' good. We're going to swap - he gets a Serpent Thunder (High D, formerly Dreadnought), I get a McHaffie High D. I think it's a cool trade.

Speaking as a whistlesmith, I have nothing but admiration for John's work. His whistles are nothing short of beautiful, both in sound and in appearance. John's meticulous about both aspects, and it shows and you can hear it.

I know I'm supposed to be hawking my own stuff, but this man is making a comeback, and a well-deserved one. Go see his website
http://www.mcwhistles.com
John makes and sells marvellous whistles! You need at least one!
Go get 'em, John!
Bill Whedon
Serpent Music

[Chuck_Clark]

Have you had a chance to compare to any of his older ones? I have a C/D set I got before his 'troubles' and I've always thought they were adequate but not exceptional. The copper bodies tend to tarnish rather badly.

Here's wishing him the best - everybody deserves a second chance.

[Daniel_Bingamon]

According to the photos on the web site, these new whistle are apparently not all copper like the older ones. They appear to have copper on the tuning coupler and windshroud.

Is that aluminum with the copper?

[billw]

John's whistles are hard-anodized (commercial) aluminum in the bodies, with tuning slide and windshroud of copper. Very well-made, very pretty, and very good-sounding. Not much chiff unless you specify that you want chiff, in which case John can provide it. I think his variable-loudness mouthpiece is intriguing. You can read more about these things, and see his new whistles on his website, listed earlier.

I'm not on here to be John's ad agent - he can do that for himself. I just wanted to let everyone know that I met him, I like him, and I like his work, and his ethics. John's a good guy who makes good whistles, and I wish him the best. (and I can hardly wait to get my McHaffie!)
Best wishes,
Bill Whedon
Serpent Music

[glauber]

Son of a gun, this will restart my WhOA!

[vomitbunny]

I've read a bit of praise about his whistles. How are his low Ds?
I've just taken out a huge life insurance policy on my mother, and she looks very accident prone right now. I could possible be in the market for a few more whistles.
You can buy these in some stores? I'll be darn if I don't have relatives that come through that area a couple of times a year.

[McHaffie]

HOWEVER!! Mr. McHaffie has just a few more orders to fill before public production again.

It shouldn't be too much longer, but feel free to email me for updates anytime and I'm anxious to have at it here very soon!

I've still got to get Claus and Mick their orders out and then I'll be good to go I believe.

And yes, you were asking what my current whistles are made of and they are in fact an anodized aluminum, with copper tuning fitting and mouthpiece.

Chuck... they are quite an improvement over the originals, the aluminum won't tarnish due to being anodized aside from the very top edges where they slide in and out of the copper tuning slide and over time you will have two small tracks develop where the mouthpiece slides right at the very top.. although this of course is not noticeable during play or show while the mouthpiece is on. And can be easily kept up.

The fittings are a higher grade copper and take much longer to tarnish than standard copper water tubing. Very easy to simply twist a couple of times in steel wool and be beautiful and bright. I'd probably spray coat the copper for a small fee, but it's just a preference issue. I like it natural.


I've always been very careful not to toot my own horn and be very supportive of other makers and their products before my own, but since we're talking about it .... I have to say that overall I've had really good response to them when I was making them before, and wherever I go and play my personal set I get a lot of compliments and requests.

SO THERE!!! I finally did it. I supported my own whistles.

I really appreciate everyones support on me getting started again, even though it's taken me time. It's all finally starting to fall in place even though it took longer than I thought.

And don't let Bill fool ya... he's got some durned nice whistles himself. I kow I played a couple he brought down with him that played quite nicely indeed! I've got a picture of Bill and I going up on my website this week!

Take care all!!!
John

P.S. two whistlesmiths in the same place at the same time is dangerously fun.

[adriancarrington]

Nice looking whistles, John.

Well done, and best of luck!

Best wishes, Adrian

[vomitbunny]

Wow. I used to live only a couple hours from there.

[glauber]

I already ordered one! Everybody else get in line and behave, please!

[billw]

I already ordered one! Everybody else get in line and behave, please!

HEY! Glauber Pinto Etcetera Canis Familiaris Ribroast! You can't order a whistle from John till I get mine! What the heck are you doing here anyhow? You're MY customer, consarn it! As Zoobster might say, you're switching boats in mid-horse??

(But Seriously, folks...) You're gonna LOVE your new McHaffie!

Cheers,
Bill Whedon
Serpent Music

[McHaffie]

Well, apparently this thread has been taken out of context by some people.

I wouldn't have posted this here since this was brought to my attention personally, but it was in relation to this thread and I want to make sure everyone understands........

I think this has already been sufficiently and nicely stated, but here it is again a little more to the point.

I am NOT going to start filling new orders until the ones I have are completed and confirmed as delivered! I'm not going to take the backorder notice off of my website until my duties are complete and that's that.

So however a few people placing orders, or not being able to wait till they got one, got turned into "I'm opened back up for business" or "I see you're back up and running, so ....." etc, etc... I'm not for sure, but obviously people need to take the time to read better or not read just what they want to see perhaps? I'm not sure.

Sorry for taking up the space and for my out-of-charachter post.
It's very late and I'm very tired, so hopefully this came out somewhat coherent! I'll check it out tomorrow and edit it if need be.

Thanks very much again everyone!! I really appreciate the compliments and support.

Take care,
John

[Zubivka]

As Zoobster might say, you're switching boats in mid-horse??

I might my harse! My English may be sinfully Gallic, but I seldom mix methadrine in amphors... Do I?