What's The Longest You've Stayed With One Whistle

[PhilO]

Through the years I've bought and played and traded many whistles and have noticed that for varying periods of time I've been stuck on one or another almost exclusively. I'd like to limit discussion to soprano Ds only and this is not meant to imply one whistle is better than another.

As an example, the Burke brass extended tip D was my everyday whistle for a couple of years at one point. Most recently, over the last 6 or 7 months, I've only been playing my Sindt (with sterling silver body, brass head and black delrin fipple). Now. I've had a Sindt in all brass for years and love it, but prefer the voicing of this one a bit more. I pick up others occasionally and put them right back down - loosely it seems to be some combination of tone and responsiveness that fits me just so.

Or is it just temporary habit each time?

Philo

[NicoMoreno]

Walton's Guinness Whistle - umm... a couple years maybe? First whistle I ever bought.
Bunch of trying different whistles for a while in here...
Walton's Mellow D for about 1.5 years (early on when I started)

The longest is:
Feadog (Brass, I guess a mk3) for about 3 years.
Another Feadog which is identical to the above is going strong for the last 7 months, and as long as I don't lose it, will probably continue to serve me well for a long time to come.

[eskin]

I've had my brass Copeland D for about 10 years, its the one I always play in sessions.

[Achill]

Dixon tunable D since I began (approx. couple years), prefer to pretty much all others I've tried in the under 50 bucks range. I actually reach for it before my Burke and Alba more often than not...

[tin tin]

Thinking through the seven years since I began playing ITM, I see that I've been quite fickle with my fipples. I'm not sure I've ever kept a whistle more than a year. However, the flute is my primary instrument, and I actually stopped playing whistle for the past couple of years. Recently, I've been playing whistle occasionally, and I just got a lovely narrow bore brass Burke. I'm quite taken with it and plan on keeping it for years to come. (I've had my current flute since 2004, and no changes are on the horizon.)

[jmiller]

I got my Silver Sindt D (with brass head) a little over a year ago and have since sold everything else. After more than a dozen years trying almost all of high enders I found the "one".

[jim stone]

This is about the whistle I've had longest, since 2002:

'Lately when my trainer, Davy Gamble, bounces a medicine ball off my gut while I do situps, something inside me emits a tone of considerable purity and sweetness. Finally I brought an electronic tuner to the gym--the note is a C, spot on.

I decided to have it checked out. Dr.
Weintraub, an expert endoscopist at Barnes
Jewish Hospital, performed the procedure,
assisted by two muscular nurses, Gertrude
and Brunhilde, who held me in place as the
scope navigated my innards.

"I see something up ahead," Dr. Weintraub
announced, peering at the TV monitor. "It looks like a tube, with four,
no, six holes. There's a red mouthpiece
and a logo: 'G' 'E' 'N'..."

"I know!" I exclaimed. "It was the philosophy and neuroscience picnic. I was
guzzling beer and playing my high G whistle
at the same time. Later I couldn't find the
whistle..."

"Well, it's lodged in your duodenum pretty
good" Dr. Weintraub said. "I can't budge it
with the scope."

"I don't want it out. I want to control
the pitch."

"Maybe we can arrange that much.
Cross your right leg over your left leg
and swivel your hips. Good! Brunhilde,
punch Professor Stone in the solar plexus,
please."

Whack!

Tweet!

"That was a D!"

"OK, now reverse, the left leg over the
right one.."

Whack!

Tweet!

"That was an A! Thanks, Doc! Let's
try for the second octave!"

"This is one for the journals, alright."

So there you have it. My digestive
system now doubles as a bagpipe. When
Davy bounces the ball of my gut I can
play B.B. King tunes, which really cracks
him up. Also I can sing duets with myself.
I do have to gyrate my hips, but, hey,
so did Elvis.

Next week Dr. Weintraub, Gertrude,
Brunhilde and I are going to work
on crans.'

[Ballyshannon]

Burke composite C: 10+ yrs

[ctilbury]

'bout 1 or 2 days. Then I make another one that is my new favorite. Drives my wife crazy....

[brianholton]

I have a Generation nickel C and a brass Bb that I bought in 1973 or 1974, and I still play them. Is that a record?

Mostly, though, I'll rotate around whistles - especially d ones, of which I have a few - every few months.

b

[eran]

O'brien improved feadog .
almost 6 years till i lost it on the beach 2 months ago...

[pancelticpiper]

Yep Brian you got me beat. I got my D Feadog and C Generation probably around 1978 or 1979. They're still my go-to whistles in those keys.
I also bought several of the early Susatos (machined out of PVC tubing, with wood fipples) in the early 80's though I don't play those much anymore.
I still play the uilleann chanter and bodhran I bought in 1978.

[straycat82]

The longest I've ever stuck with one whistle was a green top (folk) Generation that I played for several years. I don't know what it was about that one but I've not heard another green top that sounded like it. It even motivated me to sell my Freeman tweaked Gen.
In the last two or three years I've pooled various parts from the same two or three Feadog models (mixed and matched) and have landed on an O'Brien tweaked green top with a nickel body. I think this one will definitely set the new record and, so long as I don't drop it or lose it, should keep me satisfied.

[burnsbyrne]

I have played my Sindt high D almost exclusively for the past 2-3 years. I occasionally pick up my Generation C and Bb for a few minutes and then back to the Sindt.
Mike

[Tim2723]

Well, if you make a distinction between owning a whistle for a long time while playing it once in a while versus using one whistle that's played constantly, I might have a minor record. I've been playing the same Sweetheart D as my primary whistle since 1985. That's what, 24 years of continuous service?