If I were to describe the tonal quality of the GFM, it would be "flute-like." By this, I don't mean some imaginary and impossibly "pure" tone, the way many people use the term. I'm talking about the actual sound of the instrument. For example, if you've ever been at a symphony concert, think of the sounds of the orchestra tuning up. You can generally make out, above all the rest, the unmistakable sounds of a flute player doing figures and scales. That is very much what the GFM sounds like.
Previously, on this board, I have been critical of instruments that had too "pure" a tone. It always seemed to me that they sounded like r*******s being played without articulating each note. Not a bad sound...if you're playing a r******r. But not really whistle-like.
The GFM definitely does <i>not</i> fall into that category. Although the tone is very clean, there's no doubt that you're playing a metal instrument. There's a certain structure of the overtones that says "metal," not "wood" or "plastic." And there's a subtle chiff to each note, a breathiness before the full tone kicks in. By the same token, though, there is a purity (or, as I put it, a cleanness) to the sound. Compared with the GFM, all of my admittedly lower-priced instruments (including my beloved Mellow Dog) have a roughness, a tonal fuzziness, that seems to come from the delrin fipple, lending a plastic-y quality that makes the instrument sound cheaper and less-refined.
The GFM is a heavier, wider instrument than I'm used to, but it balances well after a few minutes of adjustment. In terms of playability, it is very quick and responsive at ornamentation, at least for someone of my less-than-stellar playing ability.
Now, for my complaints: as others have noted, the bell-note is rather weak. I also found the next note (E) to be somewhat problematic. The GFM is not a whistle that requires a great deal of air; as a matter of fact, it is easy to overblow it. This adds to the problems on the bottom -- too much pressure, and you'll get a break into the upper octave; too little, and you'll get some sort of out-of-tune "blat," or nothing at all.
By contrast, the high G is somewhat overbearing; given the same amount of air, the jump in volume from F# to G is quite noticable and requires some careful breath control to save your listeners from ear-bleed.
But these are minor issues compared with the far-more-serious flaws afflicting many of the whistles that will make up the GFM's main competition. As I've said earlier, many of the sub-$100 instruments, possibly in a bid to avoid the roughness of truly cheap whistles, manage to sound so characterless that they become, to me, quite boring. The GFM does not fall into that trap, but blends musicality and character in a very appealing package.
As a final example, I often ask my wife, as she is passing by, what she thinks about a given whistle. By now, she has gotten to the point of stopping these questions by saying that she can never tell the difference between one whistle and another, and that they all sound equally nice to her. So it was, again, the first time I asked about the GFM. But, a few minutes later, as I was still playing, she came back again to listen, and then to try the GFM out for herself, noting that this one sounded <i>really</i> nice. (Of course, she is a long-time r******r player, so some here might be tempted to dismiss her opinion out of hand.)
My only other compaint is one voiced by a previous poster: the finish on this instrument is far from professional, with a mottled surface texture, a number of shallow scratches, and even visible part numbers on the tubing used for the slide. From previous replies, I understand that this was a necessary evil caused by needing to get the review whistles out in a hurry. This is good news, since it means that the GFM whistle I'll be ordering for myself should be even better.
