Imported a Warbl into the UK

[Tiposx]

Hello
I thought I would let other would - be Warbl whistlers know what was involved, and what it cost me to buy a new Warbl midi whistle, shipped to the north east of England. This is for information only, and no criticisms are intended or implied. I have imported from and exported things to the US before, so I had a fair idea of what to expect.
I ordered my Warbl on 11th January via the maker's website and paid using PayPal. Including USPS shipping it cost £221.48. I understood that there could be up to a two week lead time to despatch.
I was able to track progress of the parcel throughout it's long journey from Oregon.
It was picked up by the carrier on 13th January and arrived at Heathrow airport on 18th January. From there it went through Customs Clearance and then up to a delivery depot on 24th January. I received a letter from Parcel force UK on Saturday 26th January with an invoice for £63.80 for customs duty, import vat and clearance fee. I paid this online and the parcel arrived on Tuesday 29th January. The parcel and its contents were in excellent condition.
So - a long winded way of saying it took 18 days and cost me £285 to get my hands on the Warbl. I hope this helps someone else out there.
Regards
Tiposx

[PB+J]

Hello
I thought I would let other would - be Warbl whistlers know what was involved, and what it cost me to buy a new Warbl midi whistle, shipped to the north east of England. This is for information only, and no criticisms are intended or implied. I have imported from and exported things to the US before, so I had a fair idea of what to expect.
I ordered my Warbl on 11th January via the maker's website and paid using PayPal. Including USPS shipping it cost £221.48. I understood that there could be up to a two week lead time to despatch.
I was able to track progress of the parcel throughout it's long journey from Oregon.
It was picked up by the carrier on 13th January and arrived at Heathrow airport on 18th January. From there it went through Customs Clearance and then up to a delivery depot on 24th January. I received a letter from Parcel force UK on Saturday 26th January with an invoice for £63.80 for customs duty, import vat and clearance fee. I paid this online and the parcel arrived on Tuesday 29th January. The parcel and its contents were in excellent condition.
So - a long winded way of saying it took 18 days and cost me £285 to get my hands on the Warbl. I hope this helps someone else out there.
Regards
Tiposx

It's a great tool, I think you will enjoy it.

[Andro]

That sounds really excellent. What Irish flute MIDI software is there for this instrument? Any recommendations? Pardon my ignorance, I am a complete novice to EWI's.

[PB+J]

That sounds really excellent. What Irish flute MIDI software is there for this instrument? Any recommendations? Pardon my ignorance, I am a complete novice to EWI's.

The "Celtic Sounds" software for IOS is really good. It was made by Michael Eskin, a guy who plays whistle in an Irish music context and really understands what the whistle should do. He posts here fairly often. I tend not to use WARBL with the phone, because you can't use headphones while the WARBL is using the lightning port. But it's the best I've tried in terms of behaving like a whistle.

Since I'm in the Apple universe I use the whistle built into Logic, which is only fair in terms of whistle like-playability. I have Native instruments Kontakt, which has a slightly better whistle as part of its default library. To be honest I often use some of the flute samples, like the bansuri sample in Logic. A lot of what i do with Warbl is learn tunes while the family sleeps.

There are several more expensive whistle sample packages, with demos that sound great, but they are usually playing new-agey kind of stuff rather than the more traditonal ITM. I've come close to buying the Efimov library a couple times

[Tiposx]

I use a 2019 Ipad 10.2 with Celtic Sounds app. This works very well.
My Android devices are too dated to work with the app.

[WayneC]

[Thread revival. - Mod]

I've bought a WARBL this week, ordered from the website in the US and delivered to the UK. Much to my surprise, it was cleared through customs without being held and with no import charges or tax. All I had to pay was the advertised price and delivery cost. I'm still not sure how or why this has happened. It took just seven days from the order being placed to delivery to my home in Manchester and arrived in perfect condition. I'm pleased with the speed and process of delivery.

And the WARBL itself? I'm still getting used to it, but it does what it's supposed to do and offers versality as a practice instrument and possibly for performance as well. I'm still working out how to get the best out of it on Android systems, it has more compatibility with Apple products.

[skarp]

[Thread revived again - Mod]

Update for folks thinking of buying one July 2022

Ordered mine yesterday 28 July 2022

WARBL USB MIDI Wind Controller$250.00 USD
Collapsible water bottle for bagpipe bag $10.00 USD
Bell sensor for uilleann pipes $25.00 USD
WARBL Mouthpiece 15.00 USD
Postage and packaging $28.00 USD


Total was $328.00 USD so a bit more expensive than previous orders, that's £284.30 GBP at current exchange

Has already been dispatched - it's got as far as Cincinnati and DHL have asked for and been paid an additional GBP £59.74 for taxes (which is a little less than others have paid). Since this is DHL rather than UK customs asking for money that may well change. I may even get lucky and pay none.

Delivery is scheduled for 5 August 2022. I suspect around here that may be later.

Can't wait. I'm a little anxious how well it will work with my Android phone but looking forward to silent practice. I've not really picked up the whistle in the past 10 years or so.

[Dog Whistler]

Hello Skarp,

I would be interested to hear your thoughts on your WARBL (assuming you received it!).

With the financial carnage of the last few days, I'm currently wondering if I dithered too long, and have now lost my chance at getting one at a reasonable price.