Wood whistles: Any advice to a beginner's search? :)

[JayDoc]

I'd second the Tommy Dion suggestion. I have one and it's very reasonably priced, and nice sounding, a little quiter than some, which I like since I play around the house. Great guy, too.
Jaydoc

[sverretheflute]

I already have several non wood tin whistles.

What non-wood whistles do you have?

I have two "Generation" in C and D. And I have two Clarke Sweetone in C and D. The Clarke are easy to get to the upper octave, but does not have a very expressive sound. The Generation in D is in brass or something, and does not give me a satisfying sound. The Generation C is best, but very unforgiving…, I feel I have to play it with great confidence to get something soulful out of it…

I also plan to buy a low D pen whistle, probably a Shaw.

I also have some pakistan Dobani whistles, that is not in solid wood, but bamboo. I have them in low D, low F and low A. They are not bad tuned, but vary in quality. The low D is maybe my favorite whistle!

With this price range you can possibly look at sopilka - a Ukrainian folk flute. The fingering is different, but the sound it produces is pleasant.
Here is a link to some e-bay sopilkas: http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid= ... a&_sacat=0

Thanks! They seem nice, but I don't want to change my technique to 5 holes in the middle of my learning.

I have this one http://www.ebay.com/itm/PROFESSIONAL-WO ... 27c6f9b04d, and enjoy playing it.

Seems really like a interesting whistle, maybe some time.

The other option (6 fingering holes) would be Serbian frula.

YOU HIT RIGHT ON THE SPOT HERE! I will return to this in a separate response post below.

And there's the rub. Inexpensive wood recorders are generally not well tuned and do not have a fully playable range, often missing much of the higher end.

My very cheap pakistan bamboo "Dobani" whistles are quite well tuned. I have an digital tuner app, but I don't know how much difference that is acceptable. My low D whistle is often not more than 1% off the tune. Others are up around 2,5% off the tune.

The bamboo whistles are quite easy to get in higher octave, the low d goes 2,5 octaves! But the other whistles I have…, I would love to play them in two octaves, and understand that it's not a matter about technique only, but also price…

At the low-price end of the wood whistle range, you'll find Tyrone Head and Simon Styles (Weston Whistles UK).

I would be remiss if I didn't mention that Tommy Dion, who posts here and for whom you can search for "whistles of wood", makes a very decent whistle that is low priced and well made.

Any others I'm aware of will be much more costly than these.

Thank you,ecohawk, I think that you give me a really good overview, there. I think I some time will consider one of these, but right now I'm into Balkan… (Se later response under.)

In wood whistles, you get what you pay for IMHO.

I'm still a bit stubborn and unwilling to learn that. But I guess life will tell me. I also need to look around, and find the type of whistles I like first, and I can't do that at the high end.

I'd second the Tommy Dion suggestion. I have one and it's very reasonably priced, and nice sounding, a little quiter than some, which I like since I play around the house. Great guy, too.
Jaydoc

Thanks JayDoc! I'll listen to that. I would love to hear some sound excamples, but maybe youtube have them already.



Thanks a lot, everyone!

[sverretheflute]

I FOUND IT! THIS FORUM IS REALLY HELPFUL!

Thank you so much, Zabava77 for giving me the tip about the Serbian frula!

The other option (6 fingering holes) would be Serbian frula.

Actually, this really is my "albanian" whistle! When I started to google Serbian frula, I soon found pictures of exactly the same souvenir whistle (with the same paintings) as I bought in albania. It was not an albanian whistle, but a Serbian frula!

I found a company that seems serious, with frulas in a wide price range.
http://souve-nirs.shopmania.biz/catalog/frule-287
All of the frulas are said to be in tune and of professional standard. They are used by traditional serbian musicians. I've just ordered a one-piece E-whistle.

The price is just above 25 USD. Bu it's actually not as much about the price: I want the sound and type of whistle I already found and fell in love with. I hope it will be with the similar feeling as with my souvenir "albanian" whistle, but cleaner tuned and better in upper octave.

This video shows a frula in action that looks like the one of the company above. I won't play the serbian way, but find my own north sea way…
http://youtu.be/hJw82UNVOTU


On my way to this final answer for my search, I was through Bulgaria… And I found another shepherds traditional instrument (which these whistles originally were), made of a maker that seems serious.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... OC:US:3160
It's in flat B, and seems to be quite close to the frula in style. I have some expectations.

[Zabava77]

I FOUND IT! THIS FORUM IS REALLY HELPFUL!

Thank you so much, Zabava77 for giving me the tip about the Serbian frula!

Actually, this really is my "albanian" whistle! When I started to google Serbian frula, I soon found pictures of exactly the same souvenir whistle (with the same paintings) as I bought in albania. It was not an albanian whistle, but a Serbian frula!

I found a company that seems serious, with frulas in a wide price range.
http://souve-nirs.shopmania.biz/catalog/frule-287
All of the frulas are said to be in tune and of professional standard. They are used by traditional serbian musicians. I've just ordered a one-piece E-whistle.

I am glad you found your whistle! Please, let us know how you like it.

As far as Bulgarian flutes, Zdravko Beshendzhiev makes them http://kaba-gaida.com/duduk. I ordered another instrument from him, a Romanian kaval.

[sverretheflute]

I am glad you found your whistle! Please, let us know how you like it.

As far as Bulgarian flutes, Zdravko Beshendzhiev makes them http://kaba-gaida.com/duduk. I ordered another instrument from him, a Romanian kaval.

Thank you! I will tell. I considered one of the flutes of Zdravko Beshendzhiev, but it was just above the norewgian tax limit, that would raise my costs. Therefore I chose aother one, and hope it would be a good one.

sverretheflute