Try before you buy

[Joatamon]

As someone new to the world of the whistle, I have a question. Is it standard to purchase whistles purely on reputation, rather than trying them first? I admit to having already done so, basing the several purchases I've made on what I've read, along with sound clips from various sources. Yet, as a guitar player, I wouldn't consider buying a guitar without playing it first. Other than trying someone's whistle at a session or at another gathering of whistle players, are there any venues for giving whistles a try before buying? I assume not, or there wouldn't be so many whistles available for resale. Comments?

[plunk111]

I know Michael Burke will be at the Dublin (Ohio) Irish Festival this weekend. You can probably do a "try-before-buy" at any of the big festivals - that's one avenue.

[Darce]

I can't speak for others but I know I like to hear a sound clip of the whistle before I buy it. Sometimes a whistle maker will point you in the direction of a famous whistler who plays their whistle. Pat O'Riordan pointed me in the direction of Micho Russell and Mary Bergin for example. It's not really feasable for a maker of high end whistles to send you an instrument to try out as it could get lost/damaged in some way. Also, the whistles are made to order and the high end makers don't keep a stock of ready made whistles for people to try.

[Doc Jones]

Not to toot my own tooter...

I am happy to send as many whistles/flutes as you like. You can then send back the ones that don't float yer boat for a full refund. It's the principle reason I started the store. I went through the whole buy 'em, try 'em sell 'em ordeal for years and decided there ought to be a better way.

Alternatively, if you're ever criusing through Idaho on I-84. Pop in and say howdy. We'll swap some tunes. Whistlers are scarce in these parts and I'm always happy to meet one.

Best

Doc
Irishflutestore.com

PS Mods, feel free to count this as my July CP.

[syn whistles]

Doc,
what's your thoughts on cleaning whistles between players? At festivals I do a dip, rinse and shake once someone has played a whistle but that is probably not an option in a retail store for people who want to try whistles. They have little bellows to use with harmonicas to check them instore. Do you have a cleaning regime for used flutes and whistles?

[MTGuru]

FWIW Eric, I usually carry a supply of individually packaged alcohol swabs with me to sessions or festivals where there's a chance to try out whistles. It raises some eyebrows, but seems to work for me. I once got very ill from trying a sick friend's whistle, but not once since routine swabbing. I've heard that Mike Burke uses swabs at his festival stands, too. I haven't yet tried walking into a retail store that prohibits trying whistles, and seeing if offering up the swabs convinces them to relax their rule.

Of course, I'm careful not to inhale on swabbed whistles. And I wouldn't swab or try a wood-tipped whistle, for fear of damaging the finish.

Back in the day when I worked in music retail, including band instrument rentals, we used some disinfectant goo/dip that was marketed to the retail trade for sanitizing brass and hard rubber mouthpieces. Don't know if that's still available or used.

[MTGuru]

as a guitar player, I wouldn't consider buying a guitar without playing it first.

But you might if you knew that $10 might buy you an excellent, top-notch guitar.

[Dain]

Does wet (sanitary) tissues work as disinfectants?

Recently i was in an opportunity to try a number of whistles, but being the swine flu time i had some reserves, not to mention the house rules. So i didn't. However, lady luck smiled upon me and i got pretty decent Gen C.

[plunk111]

I do the same as our fearless leader (MTGuru). You can buy a box of the individual disinfectant wipes in any pharmacy - their "real" purpose is to swab an area for a diabetic to inject insulin (I think). They're cheap... I'll be carrying some to Dublin (Ohio) this Saturday...

Pat

[Doc Jones]

As a veterinarian, I have ready access to many serious disinfectants.

Mechanical cleaning with alcohol is as good as anything IMO.

I don't think you need to worry about flutes as much as they don't actually go in the mouth and don't offer a particularly sutable surface for bacterial, let alone viral, propogation.

If you're at a session swapping flutes it's different as the aerosolized critters could still be floating around in the tooter long enough to give you a nice case of H1N1.

So, my unapproved and inappropriate veterinary advice is to:

A. Not swap instruments with sick people at sessions
B. Swab pre-owned whistles (you buy from individuals) with alcohol wipes before poking them into yer mouth.
C. Be sure to stay current on your distemper, parvo and kennel cough vaccines.

Clearly, the safest recourse is to purchase one of everything from me so that you're not tempted to try other people's tooters and expose yourself needlessly to pernicious pathogens.

Doc

[Joatamon]

Folks,

Thanks for sharing your thoughts with a newbie.

Doc, it's good to know that I have an option to give a whistle a spin around the block. I've already made one small purchase from you, but know that I tend to gravitate toward items that cost more. You're clearly a good guy, and I'd be happy to give you more business. Now to convince my wife that I should have one of everything!

[Mitch]

Try-before-you buy is the ideal way to do it. As has been pointed out - no 2 whistles are exactly alike, what is great for you might not be great for another player. So it is best to play a few tunes before you decide. This is not always possible, and the reputation of the maker is all you have to go on. Part of that reputation might be a willinglness to provide after sales service by way of warranty - not something that comes with a mass produced item.

If you have a chance to try befopre you buy, remember that any vendor who cares about the people who he/she serves will take the time and effort to protect his/her people from pathogens. Those whistles will get dissinfected.

Good old metholated spirit works well when there's no ethanol about - good for metal and plastic whistles. I have been told that isopropyl alcahol is not real good for one's health - perhaps best avoided.

It's not a good idea to dunk a wooden whistle into a solvent - can be disasterous for the grain, but pure sandalwood oil kills anything bacterial or fungal. In extreme circumstances, a quick wipe with ethanol/methanol followed by a sandalwood-oil mix will do OK so long as it is not done too frequently. Iodine mixed with oil might be OK, but will probably stain the wood.

[talasiga]

In my experience, currently, no music store in Oz will let you try a whistle or re****er before you buy. A couple of months a go a I bought a re****er for Wren and was not allowed to try it. Its some sort of national health regulation if I am to believe the retailers.

BTW, the word for regulation or rule in Urdu is QAIDA - pronounced KIEDA. I think people can get pretty fundie about rules. Retailers could take another option of disinfecting tried whistles/re****er*. Pretty soon their sales of these things will go down I reckon.

[Mitch]

In my experience, currently, no music store in Oz will let you try a whistle or re****er before you buy. A couple of months a go a I bought a re****er for Wren and was not allowed to try it. Its some sort of national health regulation if I am to believe the retailers.

BTW, the word for regulation or rule in Urdu is QAIDA - pronounced KIEDA. I think people can get pretty fundie about rules. Retailers could take another option of disinfecting tried whistles/re****er*. Pretty soon their sales of these things will go down I reckon.

I am not sure about "retailers", but salesmen would certainly quote some regulation real or made-up. In reality they do not want to get caught with unplayable whistles/re****ers in the dead-stock bin - the margins are too slim to cover much shrinkage. Retailers like to promote the notion that musical instruments are akin to units of cocacola - identical in every respect and can be treated as a meta-object that has a class but no identity. Such units can be administered in a vacuum with no costly side-affects apart from de-valuing life - and who cares about that right? Thanks to unlimited fossil energy, human life has little value in terms of supply and demand, the supply of humans is inexhaustable - therefore of no value whatsoever. I do note that the erstwhile British government has passed legislation to make the public playing of music subject to license. I suppose that one must invent value where none exists. But wait .. that's just money. Money is a pretty poor representative for value. As for health risks .. there is plenty of literature concerning the need for the body to process pathogens to build the auto imune system - as most pathogens live freely everywhere in the dirt, it would be a little too expensive to eliminate them all. Risk reduction is prudent, risk elimination is insane. The idea that one can insure against risk is almost universally a confidence trick, the downside of which is that folks presume they are not taking risk, when in fact, they have merely paid someone to help them ignore it - in all honesty, one should embrace one's risks and get on with it.

(Edited as an aside: The current "Swine Flu" hysteria has nothing to do with protecting human health - it has to do with protecting pigs - The Swine-Flu can easily spread from humans to pigs, and then "What will happen to Pork-Belly futures!!???" The supply of pigs is somewhat less than the supply of humans.)

[talasiga]

Mitch, why do my posts trigger such fertile and abstruse responses from you?


OOps. let me rephrase that with due deference to the kieda of experiential pschology:
Mitch, how do my posts trigger such fertile and abstruse responses from you?