One of these beauties arrived today in my mailbox, as a result of my ill-gotten gains during the Ficus Gig. I'm currently test-driving it -- I made myself promise that if it wasn't actually $400 worth of whistle, I'd return it during its 30-day window.
However, it's really a fine, fine instrument. It doesn't feel like laminate at all; the only way you can tell is if you look inside one of the vertical cuts on the holes and see all the little sandwich-layers. It sounds absolutely gorgeous, and is darn near indistinguishable from a wood flute, to my ear. You can do all sorts of neat overblowing effects with it, and it takes the third-octave high-d like a champ. Low breath requirements, relatively easy fingerings, and little snap-on plastic thumbrest that's a real life-saver for my right hand.
I just played it for about an hour, and my hands ache, which unfortunately is a real negative. I'm going to play it over the next few days and see if my hands ache less as they stretch to the instrument. If not, well, it may have to go back anyway. But dang, I really hope my hands conform; it sounds like everything I ever wanted out of a low-d, or rather, out of a flute -- I've tried and tried, but my embouchure is just not up to playing Irish flute, so I'm stuck on whistle, and this is the best, most flutey low-d I've ever heard -- warm, woody without being recordery, clear sweet high end, and loud enough to stand up to a session if you push it.
Plus, it'll inspire me to practice, which is a good thing.
The sample on the website has a nice mellow sweet sound!
I have always loved listening to a well-played, good quality low-D whistle. I hope that the ache goes away so that you can keep it! But when playing an instrument hurts, it isn't worth it. I nearly had to quit fiddle from Carpal Tunnel.. thank GOODNESS I had a teacher that changed how I played so I wouldn't have numb hands all the time.
Hope to see you playing it!
Glad something good came from the Ficus Gig. You're right that having a good instrument is a great inspiration to practice. When I replaced my old plywood guitar (one guy called it a GSO--Guitar Shaped Object) with a spiffy new Martin, I couldn't believe how fast my playing improved, just because I was playing it so much more. (Also, because after spending the big bucks, I was determined to get my money's worth!)
Hope your hands get used to it--sounds like a keeper.
(And for the uninitiated, what's the difference between a whistle and an Irish flute?)
So far so good -- I've had it two days and have practiced more than I have in years, already! The difference between this whistle (Which is the only solid wood low-d I've ever seen -- as opposed to bamboo) and a flute is the headjoint. This whistle gets air in through a notched mouthpiece, just like a toy pennywhistle or recorder. An Irish flute, just like a silver (aka 'concert') flute, has a transverse hole across which you blow to produce sound. Bit of trivia -- the flute became a popular part of Irish music around the time when 'concert' flutes, with their many keys, appeared in the UK. Rich people sold their old, wooden, "German-style" flutes and 'upgraded' to the keyed silver flutes. Less-affluent musicians snapped up the old flutes and hey presto, the flute became a bigger part of trad music than they'd been before, just out of sheer affordability. Irish flutes typically have no keys at all, just a mouthpiece and six holes. However, more accomplished musicians will usually have a couple other keys added to make it easier to play in keys other than D and G.
Also, since this instrument is essentially a flute in every other way save for the mouthpiece, you can also buy a separate flute-head for it so that you can play it as either a whistle or flute interchangeably. Neato!