Dear Skye,

This is a very nice letter with good information on the thumb ring. Thanks Crystal!

Hi Rod,

The Ultra Bb arrived safely and quickly became my favorite whistle! The first thing I thought when I saw the mouthpiece was, “This thing

is a work of genious!” And it is. I have 3 other whistles, different brands and different keys, and they’re all hard to clean and not

nearly as comfortable to play. I also love the thumb rings. I use one for each hand, and I never realized how tense I got playing all holes

open, until I didn’t have to worry about it anymore. Whistling is the great joy I always thought it could be, thanks to your wonderful

whistle! Thank you, and feel free to publish this if you like.

Crystal

The following post comes from Beryl Branin, who is building a blog with news and music to download.

Hi Folks .

I’m still a’whistlin’ and having a great time — thank you. Just thought you might be interested in reading the March post I’ve put on my blog.

Gura mile maith, Beryl Branin

https://www.grammbo.typepad.com/grammbosramblings/ > grams blog banner

Dear Beryl,

My wife Nadiene and I are very impressed with your blog and the time you have taken to let us know you like your whistles. I will post your email on the WhistleSmith blog so others can read your note in “What people say”

Your email has certainly made our day while we have been cooped up with three days of very bad winter weather. Thanks again for your note, Rod Brewer, The WhistleSmith

The post What People Say for Spring and Summer ’09 appeared first on The Whistlesmith.

I have been busy making inventory this winter and one instrument that has been consistently in demand is the slide flute. The Pennywhistle and Symphony Slide Flutes have both been found to be very satisfactory instruments for children and adults with Down Syndrome.

These folks love music and the interaction that it gives them with others. Playing the slide flute is a good therapy for improved breathing and an inexpensive way to provide an instrument that is easy to play and fits into family activities.

Because the slide flute can be played very loudly, I am providing extra poly plugs to limit volume and allow a quieter more mellow sound if required. Inserting the poly plugs also cuts down on the amount of air required to play the flute.

An adjustable poly plug on the slide rod now allows adjustment to the tension of the slide. You can adjust the size of the plug with a common Phillips head screwdriver for best fit in the flute bore. Lubrication of the whistle remains a single drop of olive oil.

From information that I have recently received, I understand that the slide flute works best when the person learning to play starts out with making as many different sounds as possible. The sliding sounds are at first most popular. It is best if the person who is instructing tries to mimic the student’s lead on the sounds being played.

After a session or two, the student generally begins to be confident enough to try blowing notes that are like the instructor. Making up tunes of their own is a large part of the fun and should be included in the daily routine. Loud and unexpected sounds are also very pleasing to the student and a part of relaxing and enjoying the music.

As sessions with the slide flute progress the student will become inventive and spend more time with the instrument. The instructor should encourage outdoor playing situations and search out some interesting settings where there are good acoustics. Echoes from the slide flute are especially nice sounds and the student will be encouraged by the improved music sounds they are getting from their slide flute.

Other ideas, like the student playing a rhythm line using a set single note and the instructor playing a tune that is familiar can produce wonderful results. Part of the fun is finding the perfect note for the student to play along with the instructor’s tune. As time progresses, the student can reverse the role and play the tune and the instructor can play the drone and rhythm line.

The post Slide Flute finds New Friends and Places to Play! appeared first on The Whistlesmith.

1. Don’t buy second hand unless you can physically play the whistle and find out if it fits you and the type of music you are playing. Many whistles that are second hand have been modified by previous owners and may not be the same sounding instrument as it was when new. If the seller doesn’t want the instrument and is trying to sell it, maybe you won’t want it either. Would you buy a car without trying it out?…same deal with a whistle or anything else.

2. Do not put your faith in on line reviews that are out of date or based on second hand instruments that were once owned by the writer and are now traded off. Don’t take anyone’s word on how a particular brand plays or how wonderful it is. They are basing their opinion on one instrument out of perhaps hundreds of dozens made by the same whistle maker. Stradivarius when making violins surely didn’t make every instrument with the same sound. Whistle makers usually have several models in the same key, so find the
one that suits you best.

3. If you are a professional musician and are looking for an instrument that has a specific sound, go to the maker and play instruments until you find what you are looking for. The cost is minimal and whistlers should be as picky as a guitarist (play on words) or a violin player.

I get dozens of folks that drop by in the run of a year that are looking for a specific instrument. These folks are looking for their specific sound and they usually find an instrument that suits their needs. Often times they switch from a whistle to a flute or fife to get the sound they require. I sometimes regret I am off the path in Northern Maine as I’m sure many more folks would show up if the shop was farther south. But there again, I would miss all my Canadian friends that come by on their vacations and
play a tune and purchase instruments.

4. Don’t take chat room advice on buying whistles. It is entertaining to a degree to chat with others interested the same things you are interested in. However, many “chatters” will say they own or owned a particular whistle or flute and give it a thumbs up or down in favor of another brand. This is not always the truth and you have no way of verifying anything the “chatter” tells you.

5. No whistle maker wants to sell you an incorrectly made whistle or a whistle that does not fit your type of music. I see and handle dozens of instruments from other makers each year.The only thing that is consistently wrong with these instruments is a problem anyone can fix. Without fail, the instrument has simply never been cleaned!

6. Check to see if the instrument you are going to purchase is still being made. Many online stores are selling old inventory,unpopular models or the maker is out of business or deceased and has been for some time. Warranties are no good to you if there is no one home anymore to make them valid.

7. Check the web site you are reading to see if the postings are current and really valid. If the web site is a cemetery of old information, Antique Reviews and long gone makers, let the writer know in a kindly manner to put those entries in an RIP (rest in peace) directory so everyone is reading valid, up to date information.

Help yourself and help everyone else at the same time by letting others know the information they are reading is current.

You may also want to read the best places to play your whistle.

The post Tips about Antique Reviews – Second Hand Instruments – RIP Archives appeared first on The Whistlesmith.

Carry the “Rover” Auto Fife and Save Your Life!
The “Rover” Auto Fife is the perfect companion for a mountain trail hike or an evening of music around the campfire. Its compact, rugged design lets you take it anywhere with confidence.

Versatile and Safe

• Keep bears at bay—play marching music so they hear you coming down the trail.
• Even if you stub your toe and fall, rest assured that the “Rover” won’t harm you.
• Reenact historical events with an instrument that’s authentically styled for the period.
• In an emergency, blow your fife to carry your sound over a long distance. Learn SOS in Morse Code and you’ll be ready for any situation!

Our Story
One spring day in 1984, a gentleman from Mystic, Connecticut, approached me with a challenge: create a wind- and waterproof fife that wouldn’t break the bank. His fife and drum corps competed nationally, but wooden fifes couldn’t stay in tune in cold weather. I took the Auto Flute, refined its size, and the Mystic Auto Fife was born—helping his corps stay in tune and win many events.

Built with Expertise
The “Rover Auto Fife” has been developed over many years with input from musicians around the world. This genuine six-hole fife is offered at a very reasonable price!

Product Details

• Size & Design: A full-size, 18-inch, six-hole fife played in the transverse (horizontal) position.
• Materials: Made from high-grade grey polymer with a glass-smooth finish in the bore, ensuring reliable performance in cold weather and wind. The tone body features R3 insulation to stay warm and dry.
• Construction: A one-piece body ensures clean airflow, and a reamed foot increases volume.
• Mouthpiece: The automatic mouthpiece delivers sharp, clear, in-tune notes. Blowing into the left hole directs your breath sideways over the sound hole for perfect pitch and clarity every time.
• Sound Enhancement: A single blocking plug in the bore prevents air leaks, increases volume, and improves sound clarity. The sound hole faces your dominant right ear, making it easy to hear when playing with other instruments.
• Player-Friendly Features:
  • Ideal for experienced players dealing with embouchure challenges from dental work or other issues.
  • Perfect for close microphone recording since there’s no forward air movement.
  • The airway can be silently cleared by covering the sound hole and blowing moisture out of the bore.
  • “Easy Reach” finger holes are set for small hands.

Every “Rover Auto Fife” is handcrafted, electronically tuned, and rigorously checked before shipping. Designed for right-hand players (right-hand bottom, left-hand top), each fife ships with a fingering chart, care and playing instructions, and a quality handmade cleaning rod for maintenance.

Exclusively from WhistleSmith
Sold only at www.whistlesmith.com, our flutes and fifes combine quality with affordability. With Buy Direct pricing and strategic inventory management, we offer top-notch, handcrafted instruments at unbeatable prices—even in the face of rising shipping and material costs. Choose WhistleSmith for your journey into the vibrant world of Irish music—where quality meets value.

Ready to buy your whistle? Checkout below to get your whistle right away!

Not sure yet? Visit our Hear Our Whistles page to listen to sound files of our whistles before making your decision. We’ll send the files directly to you for the whistles you’re interested in.

Enjoy your musical adventures with the “Rover” Auto Fife!

This instrument is no longer available.

The post The Rover Auto Fife – Save Your Life! appeared first on The Whistlesmith.

Last ride of the season on November the sixth. Temperature was 55 degrees in the afternoon for about two hours and I had to dress warm to be comfortable. By evening, we had snow on the ground again.

After the barn wreck this spring, Nadiene and I needed to replace the two SUVs that had been totaled in the building. I thought that we could do fine with one vehicle since our business is here at home and the price of gas was over $4.00 a gallon. We have always had a motorcycle or four wheeler around and I used them to go to work in the summer and run errands. This time I opted for a scooter and after some shopping around, we bought a Yamaha Zuma. I really had no idea that I would like the scooter so much and how handy it turned out to be for doing errands. After a few trips around the area, I started looking forward to a ride before supper and on the weekends, I would try to squeeze out an hour or two for a good long ride and would come home feeling really refreshed. Summer this year was rain, rain, rain with a two hour break in the afternoon with wind and then more rain at night. I dodged a bunch of thunderstorms by having some places to stop by laying out various roads to ride that fit into how much time I had for the trip.

I jokingly told my friends that I was finding the best scooter roads in Aroostook county so I could take visitors for a tour when we had company. The more riding I did, the more I discovered great places to play the whistle. Natural spots with lots of echo and amplification from the surrounding hills are not too hard to find here in the “County”. I usually make a brief stop and do a loud shout or two and if the sound is good, I will open the under seat storage, break out a whistle and give it a try. If the terrain shouts back, you generally have an amphitheater made by Mother Nature! One of the best spots is the Blackstone Bluff in Perham, Maine. The bluff is an abrupt stone drop into a twenty five mile long valley that has lots of stone faced hills facing you as you play. There is so much resonance from this arrangement of hills, that you music keeps playing back way after you have stopped.

The Bluff is also the home of a fair sized cemetery on one end that originally belonged to the Blackstone family, hence the name. Several times, I pulled into the opposite end of the bluff and played for a few minutes and then continued on my scootering. Of course, the play back from the hills bounces into the cemetery and it sounds like it was coming right out of the air in front of you. My playing apparently didn’t go unnoticed as some folks visiting the cemetery started asking around about who was playing all the music and where was it coming from. When no one knew who the whistler was, a legend was immediately born about the Whistler of Blackstone Bluff. How cool is that? Celebrity status without trying.

By the way, my scoot will hold an orchestra of whistles or enough Chinese Take Out for two days under the seat . I get over a hundred miles to the gallon, so it turns out to be economical way to travel and a great way to find a place to play your whistle.

The post The Whistler of Blackstone Bluff appeared first on The Whistlesmith.

I received this note from Mark Hanson and thought you might like to hear about the work he is doing with his Low D whistle.

Hi thought you might want to hear your whistles in action . My album named The Lonely Traveler on I-tunes is live and features use of your low d whistle through out the album. Hope you like it. Mark Hanson [ aka Mark Perry ] God Bless

I must apologize to Jason Hoopes for misplacing his letter and not getting it posted until now.

Rod,

I wanted to take a moment to tell you how amazing this Low D whistle has been. I have had the opportunity to play it in warm weather, and cold now, and the tone has never been anything but perfect, warm and as airy as can be. I’ve put this lovely thing through it’s paces, and whether performing a slow piece or a speedy jig on the upper pitches, the whistle performs as it should. The tuning slide is such a delight, making it easier than ever to achieve just the sound I need for whichever piece I happen to be playing.

Numerous times I’ve had neighbors stop by my window or front lawn to listen to the melodies that comes from this enchanting whistle, and although I have much to learn yet, the ease of playing even such a large whistle just boggles the mind.

I want to commend you on the craftsmanship that goes into these beauties, for if every whistle is as meticulous as this one then you have most certainly the finest traditional workshop in America.

Sincerely Jason L. Hoopes

Founder, Think Design Studies

The post What People said November of ’08 appeared first on The Whistlesmith.

Dear Sir,

I have received your Flute via UPS. This morning. I was able to play Concierto de Aranjuez by Rodrigo, Malaguena, O Danny Boy, and the beautiful tune Rose of Tralee.

I am more a singer ( light Tenor ) than a flutist but I love the sound of the Tin Whistle, I guess genes inherited through my grand mother Rose O’Neil.

Never the less to tell you, Your Flute is not Good. * It is excellent* you are truly and artisan and I take my hat unto you. The instrument has a mellow sound that is haunting. It has two full octaves, you can not go wrong with it.

Have you considered making them out of hardwood or metal using the same concept? A very innovative design. I only wish it will have a 7th hole to add a lower note.

But, of course then it will not be an Irish whistle. It will be a sophisticated recorder.

The thumb ring is quite an addition as it is the mouth piece, a wonderful concept.. It remind me a bit of the Native American Flute.

Thank you again, Godspeed…

Luis Alberto

Another person who purchased a whistle inquired about obtaining beeswax that I had mentioned for several uses on whistles. Beeswax candles are available in almost every candle shop. Rubbing beeswax on the slide joint of your whistle will make it tighten up, but is easy to remove if necessary by warming the joint with hot water. Rubbing beeswax on the inside edges of the whistle mouthpiece will make it stick in place, but allows fine adjustment if you need to align the mouthpiece. Again the top cap of the mouthpiece
can be easily moved by warming with hot water if necessary.

Burt’s Bees makes a chapstick type product for chapped lips from beeswax and this is very good for a very tight joint that you need to slip easily, but the joint is too tight to use beeswax. When applying beeswax to the whistle joint, rub the wax on the male part of the fitting and spin the fitting together to distribute the wax evenly. If the fit is too tight, remove a little of the beeswax . Try the fit of the joint until it has a good firm fit, but is not jammed or over tight. I really like using beeswax for
joints and you seldom have to replace it. “O” rings are technically fine, but they tend to break at the wrong time and the right size is often hard to find.

Oh yes! you can share you candle with all your whistling friends as it takes very little wax to do the job. One small candle will last a lifetime if you don’t share!

I inform buyers from other countries by Email that the USPS shipping charge to Canada and especially Europe is high, but as low as can be afforded to insure delivery and tracking of the package. I also warn buyers that the Brokerage fees charged are not included for them to get their whistle. Brokerage fees to Canada are very high and are charged by the individual items in the package. The VAT to the United Kingdom is another charge that is expensive. WhistleSmith is not responsible for these charges and can
only tell buyers they should be prepared to pay them to get delivery of their items. So much for free trade…

A lady in Florida wrote to remind me of shipping costs here in the States.

” Please remind you customers that you will ship two whistles at a time for the same rate. I forgot to order the thumbring for my Low D on my first purchase from your website. Thank for shipping everything in one package on my second order. When you are retired and on a budget, everything helps out. By the way, I really love my new Low F, very nice sound.”

Will you be selling your whistles on ebay this next year!

I recently shipped two Low D whistles that were purchased on ebay to Tasmania and another pair to the Czech Republic. We will be running the ebay store and Buy It Now auctions for another year. The category for WhistleSmith products is Musical Instruments/Woodwinds/Whistles. Prices for all items is uniform here on the website and with those for sale on ebay. Many customers find their way to this website from ebay and it is always good to shop online where you are most comfortable. If you have special requests
for your order, it is best to order here on the website and to use the 1-800-675-4206 toll free line to discuss your purchase.

I hope you will read the news on Proto 1, the new slide flute that can be played with just the use of your head. This will allow thousands of folks with disabilitiessto play a musical instrument for the first time.

All for now, but please keep writing so I can post your comments, questions and information.

The post What Folks are Saying in September ’08 appeared first on The Whistlesmith.

“Why does my whistle get wet when I practice, but not when I play in church?”

I can remember having to play my battered old trumpet in front of the congregation when I was a kid. I could barely wet my lips because my mouth was so dry! Playing at home is comfortable and lots of things might make you salivate, like an anticipation of lunch. In church or in front of a group, plain old stage fright will make you so dry you have no saliva left at all. So…probably church is the best place to play a whistle.

I received this note from a very nice lady in Vancouver, Canada who took the time to send me a special card. I couldn’t wait to add it to What People Say! because what she says is so special.

“My husband gave me one of your low D whistles last year for my birthday. I just wanted you to know what a nice whistle I think it is. I love its voice and play it nearly every day.” T. Cannon

Several folks e-mailed and wanted to know why all the whistles and flutes cost $49.95and the Low D costs $69.95?

Well………It’s bigger, fancier, comes in colors , weighs more, plays lower and has more parts. Oh, I forgot! Its the hardest whistle to make.

It’s always interesting to hear what kind of music people are playing on the whistle.

Dear Mr. Brewer, I have a low G whistle that was a present from a friend and I use it to play New Orleans style jazz. When my buddy that plays clarinet got the flu and couldn’t play, I filled in on the whistle and it was just great! I am working on more tunes and after seeing the special of Woody Allen playing his clarinet on tour in Europe, I think I might have found what I want to do, at least for a while. I will be ordering an A in a few days to fill in the gaps in my whistle collection. S. Boyd

The post What People Say and Play ! appeared first on The Whistlesmith.

When you receive your whistle or flute it will be easier to play if you warm the instrument up first. Winter shipping makes for some pretty cold temperatures inside the box and a good warmup will prevent the instrument from holding onto all the moisture you are blowing inside the bore. If you do not warm up the instrument, it will respond by bogging down and not having the volume or tone that it should have. The only remedy is to clean the whistle and dry it
out even though it is brand new. I have noticed several makers have started specifying a warm up for their whistles before playing.

If you are playing in a room or outdoors and it is colder than 65 degrees, use some method to keep your whistle warm between sets.

Putting your whistle in your sleeve is one method that works well. When playing outdoors in cold weather, I have a dress coat with a long pocket sewed into the sleeve that will hold up to a Low D size whistle. My neighbor made the alteration to the coat for me and it works just great. I think a pocket that used velcro and could be removed would be a great idea.

If you blow the whistle backward from the bottom, the barrel will warm up and the moisture if any will be in the very bottom of the instrument where gravity will make it go away naturally.

I have recommended turning the mouthpiece upside down when playing in windy or cold conditions in several tips articles. Finally, several e-mails have been received telling me what a help this technique is! The amazing thing about inverting the mouthpiece is that the whistle does not know the mouthpiece is upside down and may even sound better! The mouthpiece does not feel funny when turned over and several people have said that it feels more comfortable than
the regular position. An added benefit in inverting the mouthpiece is moisture gets pushed by your breath and pulled by gravity out the sound hole and your whistle plays much drier.

The post Tips for Weatherizing your Wicked Good Whistle! appeared first on The Whistlesmith.

There are new categories at the top of the blog to help you find your way around and older articles have been archived to make everything neater and easier to find. Due to the nature of the blog format, be sure to scroll all the way down to find all the entries and pictures in each category. Suggestions from readers on additional information on the whistle and flutes is being added. Here are several new items that should be helpful.

Stock Whistle Colors:

Available stock whistle colors are Jet Black, Dark Brown, Dark Green, Deep Maroon and Dark Navy Blue. The color swatches may appear differently on some computer video and are posted for reference only. These vinyl colors are airbrushed on the whistle and contrast nicely with the silver striping. The Low D now has a band of silver stippling on the tone body to accent the whistle.

TUNING LENGTHS for Whistles & Flutes:

Measurements are made from the bottom of the sound hole to the absolute end of the whistle. Measurement must be made with a precise ruler such as an engineers scale. Hi-D=10.25″, Hi-C=11.7″, Bb=13.7″, Low A=14″, Low G=15.6″, Low F=17.75″, Low D=21″ These measurements will put your instrument within five cents of tune (plus or minus on each note). You must use the correct fingering on the whistle chart that comes packed
with all WhistleSmith instruments. Moving the slide the width of a piece of paper will change pitch Up when shortening the instrument and pitch Down when lengthening the instrument. These measurements are printed on the fingering chart that comes with your instrument on the bottom right side.

How to fix BREATHY SOUND and LACK OF VOLUME on your whistle!

Clean the Whistle! using the instructions that came with your instrument. A whistle bore that is full of moisture absorbs sound and will make the instrument lose its volume. If the bottom two notes on your whistle go flat or sound drops off, you must clean the whistle. Tongue the whistle on every individual note while playing the scale until you play sharp, clear notes. Breathy notes come from lack of air and the only correction on your whistle or flute is to tongue the whistle properly.
You should play the scale from top to bottom and repeat until you can tongue correctly. See article on playing with confidence

The post Wicked Important DiVinci Code Whistle Info appeared first on The Whistlesmith.

The post What People Say This Fall! appeared first on The Whistlesmith.

The following comments are just some of the many made about the WhistleSmith Ultra D, C and Bb.

This is a well made and designed whistle. The whistle plays best when I play it aggressively and with assurance. I would say this is a technical whistle in that you have many fractional adjustment available to set the whistle up for the way you play. At first I thought that would be a nuisance, but the setup and adjustment is really simple after I read the instructions. When all else fails, you should read the instructions! Anyway, I am very satisfied with my purchase and will be buying again . J. Williams, CA.

I bought the Ultra D for my husband and it wasn’t what he wanted. However, I really like it and have decided he can buy his own whistle and I will keep this one. The volume is impressive and I love the tone. I think this whistle is perfect for me! Jane B.

I received my Bb whistle I purchased from your website and it arrived in first class condition. When you told me that I could get my Low D completely refurbished for $10. and postage, I couldn’t believe it! I had this whistle for a couple of years before it was damaged. (Ray laid it on a hot ceramic stove top by accident) . The whistle you sent me is just a great player and I am really surprised and pleased. Thanks so MUCH!. Ray T., Fla.

I was very happy with the Low D whistle I purchased from you on ebay about a year ago. When you mentioned on the phone that there was a substantial improvement in volume on the low end and that I could upgrade the whistle for a small fee, ($10. and postage) for a new whistle head, I was impressed. The whistle came back home yesterday looking like brand new and I really am impressed. This whistle is a whole new ball game! Great sound and lots of volume. I liked my original whistle but, this one makes my day! Thanks!
Ben Waters, PA

The set of seven whistles came today and the matching color and striping make them look terrific. I have played them all for a brief period and they are more than I expected. The Bb with the wide mouthpiece is exceptional for a smaller bore whistle and has a lot more volume than I had expected. The low F is my unexpected favorite of them all and is very even through two octaves. Will email you an update after I have put them through their paces… All for now, J. Bell

Your package and packaging are first class. The whistle plays beautifully and is well tuned. It is an easy play in both octaves and is simple to clean and setup. I recommend that anyone receiving this whistle read the instructions as they are clearly written and make playing very simple. I will be purchasing again, Thank you. May Baily

I was wondering if the increased cost in shipping would be affecting the amount WhistleSmith products cost and if you will be raising prices this fall? I am saving up for a couple of more low whistles and thought I would ask. Please don’t think I’m trying to get a scoop, I just need to keep my budget straight. Dave C.

The cost of WhistleSmith Wicked Good Whistles will remain the same for the foreseeable future. This was made possible by making the entire line of whistles modular. That means more uniformity in production with less setups and machining time going to waste when making parts. By getting this part of the production worked out, I can now spend more time tuning and assembling whistles and less time on making a lot of different parts for each style whistle. You get a better whistle for your money and I save a lot
of time making the parts.

The post Comments and Questions from some Wicked Good Web Customers appeared first on The Whistlesmith.

Fife and Flute Tuning notes

I recently spent the entire afternoon trying to recreate how you could put a little D fife completely out of tune. A customer in Connecticut had called and said he had a problem with his fife with the tuning. The instrument had played perfectly when he had received it, but after cleaning, the fife was completely out of tune and was not cooperating on going back into tune at all! I consider these instruments to be bullet proof and they just never have problems. I thought it wasn’t worth the cost of postage to
and from the shop just to tune the fife, so I said I could figure out what was going on and I would call him back with an answer.

Once before, I had a fife sent back because it lost tuning ability, but after checking it out and cleaning, the instrument had played perfectly and I had returned it to the owner with a clean bill of health. I didn’t hear from him again, so I calculated that perhaps something was in the airway and cleaning had corrected the problem.

So I pulled out a brand new fife, played it against the tuning program and a key board to verify it was in tune. I took the fife apart and pushed out the poly plugs, made sure it was entirely clean and put it back together. The fife played fine and the tuning was dead on. Since you can change the tuning buy moving the tone body and the mouthpiece slide, I tried moving the instrument in and out of tune by moving them. When I put the pieces back on the index marks, the fife went back into tune!

Then it occurred to me that the poly plugs move. So what if the primary plug was pushed too far away from the sound hole? I always have set this plug as close to the sound hole as possible just like a fipple plug is set on a whistle. When the plug was moved up and away from the sound hole, the fife went completely out of tune and no amount of persuasion could make it go into tune.

Then it occurred to me that regular fifes use these plugs for all of their tuning…too much head variable and that was the problem! I had simply never set the plugs differently on the fifes or flutes when I assembled them and when I checked my plans, I had instructed people to assemble them that way too.

I called the gentleman back and explained what was going on and he was in tune in less than a minute.

The diagram of the fife also pertains to flutes made on this plan and is included with your instrument when you receive it. Be sure to read all the instructions to make your start on the auto fife is a good playing experience.

Comments on Kids

I have had a reoccurring experience in the shop when children visit with their parents and decide they would like to play a whistle. The parents immediately ask “How much do they cost?” as if this were really a consideration. This is followed by some inquiry about “How much noise do they make?”

Whistle Comments for March

Dozens of people this past year have mentioned that “I used to play the sax (or some other instrument), but I think I’d like to try playing the whistle.” I think there is a huge return to things that are a bit simpler and more familiar.

One lady told me that whistle playing was addictive and second only to the excitement of adding whistles to her collection. Apparently she searched for new and unusual keys and types of whistles and had given up clothes and shoe collecting entirely. Anyway, she was having a very good time and was whistle shopping for souvenirs to take home for her friends and family.

Good and Plenty whistle

I received an email from a whistle buyer in Pennsylvania who lives near Lancaster in the midst of Amish country. Here is an excerpt of his letter with a story and a bit of humor. “I recently was waiting for my wife to do some shopping in a road side furniture store near Lancaster, PA. I got tired of sitting in the car , so I ambled over to where there were some rocking chairs for sale and took my whistle along for company. I bought the Traveler, Low A in October and I carry it on the road while I call on accounts.

Italian One Man Band

I recently had a Mr. Di Pantaleo buy a slide flute on the eBay store. We shipped it to Italy and he was very happy with his purchase. It turns out he is a one man band and has added a WhistleSmith slide flute to his repertoire, so we are now in an orchestra in Italy. How cool is that? You can see the one man band in person if you go to www.onemanband.org. Here is a picture from the website with the one man band in action.

The post Wicked Good March Info & Italian One Man Band appeared first on The Whistlesmith.

Then in late January, I got several phone calls and email from folks who could not understand how the mouthpiece worked. Apparently they threw the instructions away with their Christmas tree and had never read them. When I was discussing the problem with one of my lady test players, she began to laugh out loud and then she told me about her experience with the auto flute.

She took her flute along with her during the holidays and during the course of events, several relatives and friends asked if they could try the instrument. She was not carrying the technical sheet so she had to instruct the new player on how the instrument worked.

She explained to me that at first not one of them could play the mouthpiece because they insisted on puckering up and trying to blow into the wrong hole. Apparently a hole is not a hole unless you can see down into it, and the idea of how you blow a flute in ingrained deeply into our mind. You MUST pucker up and blow into a little hole or there can be no flute music! That is the Rule!

She also explained that once one person got the idea and could play the flute, it became a contest to see who could show the next player what they were doing wrong. She concluded her story by telling me to put a sign on the correct hole in the mouthpiece and just say Blow into this Hole!

Good advise is good advise. When you receive your flute or fife, it now comes with this wrap around sheet on the mouthpiece.

I don’t think I have published the brand name of any other makers products on these pages before. I’m sure you will excuse Don Simcocks enthusiasm for his new whistle and I did promise him I would post his letter. I am humbled by his praise, what can I say…when a whistler is happy, well, they are happy!

This also proves that the good old US mail does deliver and pretty fast too if you use Global Priority Mail.

Rod,

Cannot believe the speed of arrival of my Traveler! 11 AM on the 9th….that’s quicker than some internal letters take to reach me. Thrilled by tone…really “breathy”, as good as my “Chieftain”, at a fraction of the price!
I am appointing myself your “volunteer publicist” for the UK (and anywhere else!)
Please use this in your “What people think” page!

Best wishes to all your folks, Don Simcock

The email for the past month has been loaded with inquiries about the Low D whistle. Most of the email contains at least one reference such as, “Can people with small hands REALLY play the Low D whistle like you describe it on your website?” And I repeatedly reply “YES” unless you can’t reach 2.3″ or you have arthritis and cannot stretch your hands with a minimal amount of grip to seal the holes.”

It is a fact that the Low D is playable by anyone from ten to a hundred and ten if you can just reach that

2.3″ requirement for your right hand.

You will also notice that I have Low D whistles for all you left handed players now. When you purchase a Low G Auto Flute, Low G whistle or Low D whistle, you will be asked if you want a right or left handed model. This is because these whistles have offset finger holes to make them more comfortable to play.

I have had some absolutely fabulous letters describing where folks hold their hands and fingers when they play the whistle and are they right or left handed? If you play with your right hand on the BOTTOM three holes of the whistle and your LEFT hand on the TOP three holes of the whistle, you are a RIGHT HANDED whistler.

Then there is the letter explaining that “I am left handed, but I play the whistle the regular right handed way. Okay, you are a RIGHT HANDED WHISTLE PLAYER!

The best answer so far has been…I think I play right handed, but my friend says if I was a surfer, I would be “Goofy Footed:” on my surfboard. What does that mean? Will I not be able to play the Low D now that I have found this out?

No, you will be okay because…It is a fact that the Low D is playable by anyone from ten to a hundred and ten if you can just reach that 2.3″ requirement for your right hand.

The Low F is ready to go! I just have to decide a couple of more details before I can post up the description and a finished price. I have a five gallon pail of these cute little critters put together up in the shop and they will be ready to go before the end of the month. I promise.

I played the Low F prototype over the Christmas holiday and I really like this whistle key. The range of this whistle is very nice and I found it to be easy on air and played very economically. Not a big as a Low D and longer than the Low G, it has a very smooth voice. I would guess that the Low F is going to be a perfect practice whistle for a lot of players and I find it an interesting whistle to play. Small bore and low whistle don’t always go together well, but I think this whistle has something going for
it. We will see!

The post Am I a Right or Left Handed Wicked Good Whistler? appeared first on The Whistlesmith.

When company comes unannounced and there is a large crowd to feed quickly, it is a big help to have a way to take care of the situation.

I like to run down to my favorite grocer and get a nice fresh turkey. The one in the picture is about thirteen pounds and is just right to Texas Fry in my cooker. All you have to do is wash the turkey inside and out and dry it well to remove as much moisture from the bird as possible. Remember to take that funny little packet out of the bird before washing.

Nadiene usually gives the bird a good rub on the outside with fresh garlic juice and pepper and then injects it with marinade and her big marinade needle. The marinade is a available in all kinds of flavors and it makes the bird extra tasty and tender. Make sure the wings are opened up so the oil can flow under them and not leave an uncooked spot on the bottom of the breast meat.

The post Whistle Up a Texas Fried Turkey! appeared first on The Whistlesmith.

While the snow snows and the wind blows steadily from the North Pole. We Mainers like to touch up the landing strip for the four wheel drive.

Ebay auctions are interesting and you receive a lot of questions about your auction item. I have found that most buyers are concerned that the details of the whistle or flute on auction are clear, factual and truthful. I have probably said that I feel the buyers on eBay are not looking for a cheap instrument, but a good quality instrument with features that are important to them at a reasonable price. So, here are some quotes and answers from eBay buyers and a few from the website as well.

My favorite recent feedback on a Low D whistle comes from Australia.

Received my whistle on the 4th. Excellent service, awesome sound. Many thanks.The koalas on the back trees love it too. Beauty mate!

When you get a message like this, you have received feedback that lets you know everything you needed to know. Looks like poetry to me!

Another person in Australia wrote me a short letter about her Low D whistle.

Dear Mr. Brewer, I purchased a Low D from you about a year ago and learned to play it in about a month. Recently, I thought I would like a more professional whistle to play and sold the WhistleSmith and ordered another whistle for a lot more money than I paid for yours. By the way, I sold the Low D and made a slight profit on it, even though it was used to my neighbor. She really likes it and plays everyday.

Anyway, my new whistle arrived after four weeks wait and it was everything I had expected. The finish was beautifully done. The aluminum was a nice weight and overall it was as nice as I had expected. The only problem was that I cannot reach the fingering despite trying every thing I can think of. There is no use buying an expensive whistle that looks great if you cannot play it. I would like to order a new Low D in magenta with the silver stippling you do on some of the custom whistles on your website.

And the letter goes on a some length with some requests on voicing. I shipped her the new whistle the same week she ordered it and she has responded that she is very satisfied.

The same questions about the Low D come in every week. Are the facts about playing the Low D factual? What is a whistle with small hands playing sound like? What if I have large hands and will I be able to play the whistle? What is the distance between holes?

I try to answer these questions as clearly as possible. The email that really raises my ears is the one where you repeatedly get asked if your claims about the whistle are FACTUAL? W e l l . . . yes of course they are or why would you bother to type out a great big list of features if it was just something you made up?

I finally realized where this IS IT FACTUAL? query comes from. It is from all those folks who bought a Low whistle that requires BAGPIPE FINGERING. This is the myth that you can play a whistle with huge holes and a long reach for your fingers by using your BAGPIPE FINGERS. I would guess you get BAGPIPE FINGERS by tying your fingers to the bumper of your neighbors car and stretching them until they fit your new Low whistle.

If you have small hands, BAGPIPE FINGERS are not part of your bag of tricks. (How is that for a neat play on words?)

There are thousands of Low whistles available in new and used condition that require BAGPIPE FINGERING in on-line stores and auctions. They are usually accompanied by the sellers sad tale of a lack of time or patience to play the Low whistle and they are now selling the whistle in excellent condition on auction. If it says the whistle requires BAGPIPE FINGERING, please use your ability to solve puzzles and DON’T BUY IT!

A bagpipe uses a big bag full of wind to play. This steady flow of air makes a bagpipe playable. Unless you have the lungs of Goliath, you cannot make a whistle function in the same manner as a bagpipe. Extended fingering is another way of saying BAGPIPE FINGERING. Avoid the word EXTENDED when reading descriptions of whistles, unless it says EXTENDED WARRANTY. Enough said, I am sure you get the point.

While on the subject of Low whistle, I feel I should mention one more time, that you can not dry out and clean the bore on a NEW whistle too many times. I send out a complete sheet about cleaning and how to adjust your WhistleSmith Low whistle. I also repeatedly tell folks to read the instructions before they play their whistle and auto flutes to get the best results. Please read the instructions and you will have fun with your instruments and will give them the attention they need to break in and play properly.
I will tell anyone that has not played a Low D whistle, that it takes two to three hours to get even moderately good at breath control and fingering the whistle. You should clean and dry the whistle a minimum of every half hour while you are breaking it in. That is a minimum of six times in three hours play…if you follow the instructions, you will have a swell playing whistle.

If you do not read the instructions and break the whistle in properly, it will not respond properly until you take the time to read the instructions and BREAK THE WHISTLE IN PROPERLY!

Several folks who have purchased the new Low A Traveler whistle responded with comments. Three of the remarks made by almost everyone is that the whistle has a nice heft to it and that it is accurately tuned and the octaves are well balance. I played this whistle all summer and on vaction and that really sums it up. No unwanted tricks to playing this whistle and people who got an on the road concert liked the sound of the Traveler.

Several dozen Low G Auto Flutes were sold on eBay auction for Christmas presents. Most folks played the automatic mouthpiece right out of the box with no problems. Six people called on the 1-800 line to find out the mystery of how the flute worked and had a good laugh about how easy it was. If you have a serious problem with anything you receive from the WhistleSmith, please just call and Nadiene or I will give you a hand.

And in closing for this week, an individual inquired if I knew where the name WhistleSmith came from and how did I qualify for that title. Well, I made it up to get a website name and it wasn’t my first choice. I suppose that there might have been a Smith that made whistles and they called him The Whistle Smith to separate his identity from the Smith that made tin stuff and was called The Tin Smith. His cousin who lived down the road was called The Black Smith because he was covered with soot from working
the forge in his Black Smith Shop.

A name is a name and WhistleSmith is just something I made up to describe my new business. Did you happen to notice that my WhistleSmith is one word and the S in Smith is capitalized? I never intended to take anything away from anyone else who is a Smith. However, I noticed that my neighbor who is a Smith calls me The Whistlesmith instead of Brewer since I started the website.

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This fall, I finished up some prototypes of a new slide flute. The flute plays in a lower range than the Mystic Slide Flute that I introduced last season. The reason for developing this new lower slide flute was suggested by players who purchased instruments and wanted a lower slide flute for playing two part harmony.

The post Whistle Kids test a Wicked Good Slide Flute appeared first on The Whistlesmith.

This year Nadiene and I spent Christmas with my younger son Jay and his wife Maya. Our newest grandson Ewan Thomas has just turned two months and granddaughter Anya is now heading for three and learning something new every day.

Because it is a full days drive from Presque Isle to Boston even if the weather is good, we try to swap Christmas destinations every year to even out the travel distances. Rodney Lee, his wife Patty, grand daughter Marilyn, and my grandson Darren (2.5 years and growing) headed out from Mineral, Virginia to visit Uncle Jay in Boston and when everyone arrived the house was full.

We had a great holiday with lots to eat and plenty of homemade cooking. Jay had just finished up the entire basement into a large apartment sized entertainment room with sleeping area and bath, so everyone could move around and have plenty of room to visit. The amount of presents around the tree was pretty incredible and I am certain everyone got what they wanted when Santa arrived.

Of course the weather was the really incredible thing for Christmas. Green grass, 50 degree temperatures and although the sun was missing most of the time it was a good chance to walk around and see the neighborhood. We were actually in Arlington Heights just outside of Boston and the house is on top of the mountain which is capped by the Arlington Standpipe. This is a landmark for folks headed into Boston and is mirrored on the other side of 2A East by the Mormon Temple with its gold weather vane of Gabriel
blowing his horn. It is pretty hard to miss the Arlington Heights turnoff with two giant landmarks like these.

My grand daughter Marilyn and I decided to take our new Christmas whistles and take a walk up to the Standpipe and check out the acoustics of a huge round tower full of water. The Standpipe had a lot of folks going to visit their neighbors and people out for a jog, so we attracted a small group of folks stopping to listen to us play.

The wind was pretty fierce on one side of the Standpipe, but the side facing Boston was less windy and by flipping the whistle mouthpieces over, we managed to play without any problems. Since we had to share the camera duties , I have made a collage of the photos so you can at least tell we were playing on the same location. On a good day, you can see all of Boston from the top of the hill and it is really a spectacular view.

Anyway, Marilyn and I have added the Arlington Heights Standpipe as an interesting place to play your whistle. The tiny person in front of the Standpipe is my Marilyn starting to freeze in the wind. It really is a very big structure!

If you walk around Arlington Heights for even a short period of time, you will note that they have a huge population of gray squirrels. The large silver maples and oak trees are full of squirrel condos and there is nothing to bother the squirrels as they work their territories hiding nuts and looking for berries and seeds. Because the weather was so warm, all the squirrels were out and it didn’t take long to discover the fact that the Heights has a very large population of all Black squirrels. This is a rare
squirrel and is found in small pockets of animals in Canada and in various places in the US.

You can search on line for black squirrels and check out some of the various sightings listed there. Arlington Heights has a large population and sighting a Black squirrel should be no problem. Getting a great photo of one is a problem and especially if it is dark or rainy outside, they just so not show up very much. Leave your camera at the house and they will follow you around, but take the camera and they seem to leave very quickly.

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This is a Port Orford Cedar creation I call The Floating Amphora that you may find interesting. The vessel still retains its wonderful aroma after many years

Wooden whistles are always interesting. I have been involved in wood turning and making urns and artistic pieces on the lathe for over forty years. Because I know a bit about wood and its inherent problems, I have rethought the manufacture of whistles from this material. Some of the opinions I had originally on using wood can be balanced by using new techniques in preparing the wood and replacing the water content even in seasoned and aged wood.

Native Americans basically got it right when they made flutes from cedar which is inherently waterproof due to its high oil content. Lightning struck cedar is the cedar of choice for many makers of these flutes and the crystallizing effect does have a bearing on the instrument. Lightning struck cedar has been made harder than regular cedar and therefore is easier to work than regular cedars that tend to be very soft.

A new way to manufacture wooden whistles along with templates for the design has been developed. This new design whistle is unique and new to whistle making and makes a visually striking instrument. Whistles that I made from Port Orford cedar over the summer, have a lovely sound and are extremely durable. They do not acquire moisture from saliva and will not clog. Because this cedar has been properly aged, it is feather light in weight and the color is clear to a slightly golden color with a very nice grain.

How of many of these whistles will be available for sale? The first one hundred have already been purchased by a private collector on a ship as ready basis. It will be some time before any consideration to further production can be taken into account. Having a benefactor for the WhistleSmith is a very exciting development!

I do have an extensive amount of information on processing wood for turning and some neat tricks for processing raw wood to product that can be a lot of help to anyone who is interested in pursuing this area.

I will be posting individual items on the WhistleSmith News on each of the new developments as things proceed in the next few weeks. Be sure to sign up for the News Letter where you can get immediate updates. I promise you will be entertained by some unique new designs. You never know, The Magic Whistle may show up and you wouldn’t want to miss that!

In the past six month, I have had the privilege to talk and e-mail to dozens of folks who have purchased WhistleSmith whistles and flutes and have received input that is impossible to obtain any other way.

As I have written up the e-mails for posting, there have been some areas that bear listing as a reference for further development. Probably the first item to be taken care of is the matter of whistle colors. White whistles have a number of things going for them and although it might be repetitive, I’m going list them right now.

1. White whistles and flutes do not require the extra work in masking and painting and therefore cost less.
2. White whistles are easy to see if they are misplaced when camping and outside when camping.
3. White whistles play better under very hot conditions and draw very little heat.
4. White whistles are easier for children to maintain because you can see when they need cleaning.

The problem is that folks like color on their whistles and how many of each color whistle or flute do you need to stock and what colors do you need to have on hand? Over the past two years, I have narrowed the color selection down to one that works for almost everyone. Jet Black, Bright Red, Dark Green, Deep Maroon, Dark Brown and Cornflower Blue will still be the major colors that are always offered. Navy Blue,Magenta, Rose Pink, and Orchid Purple will also be offered as additional colors that appeal to a large
group of whistlers. Silver striping will be standard on all white whistles and the decals on all whistles have been resized and updated to give a more uniform look.

For those folks that want a colored whistle in a model that has previously only been made in white, I am offering a custom paint package. Buy your whistle and then purchase the paint package in the color you wish your whistle to be finished in. Silver striping and pewter silver stippling will be included at no extra charge. The price for the paint package will be posted with a full description on both eBay and this website with Buy It Now information. This option will be extra nice if you are purchasing whistles
as sets and want a matching color combination on the entire group.

Before I get a dozen or so calls on the subject…The prototype whistles I am going to mention next will not be for sale on eBay or anyplace else. Most will never see production, but they will all be available for study along with information on how they were made. Prototypes are part of the archive of whistles and flutes that are the property of WhistleSmith to be preserved and studied for future changes or improvements to the product line. WhistleSmith does not sell seconds, prototypes, or whistles with defects
on eBay or anywhere else.

I made four dozen completely new design prototype whistles in various materials to test for ideas that might make it into a production whistle. The idea was to find out as much as possible about these materials, how they work for different applications and document the material as far as pluses and minuses on machining, finish, sound and of course, durability. All this information is going to be available at the workshop this summer and I’m sure it will be enlightening to everyone attending. At no point in history
have there been as many materials (both man made and natural) available to a whistlesmith as there are today.

Aluminum in various finishes has been a predominant material in testing. Since I obtained the samples and test material from a major manufacturer of extruded aluminum, I have been able to proceed with putting together a complete set of prototypes whistles. These whistles are a new concept design and are exceptional in appearance. Aluminum passes most tests for durability(except bending and denting), is easily machined and can be finished in a variety of ways. Right now, aluminum seems to be cost effective in
small size whistles and a bit more costly in the larger whistles. Aluminum is most efficient at dissipating heat and there is where a major problem lays. Below 68 degrees, which is a warm temperature, large bore aluminum whistles such a the Low D play too cold and collect condensation in the bore. No matter how hard they are played, they stay much too cool to be practical if played outdoors and in cold weather. One of my testers after playing the Low D in aluminum in the barn on a cool day, suggested we could
wrap the whistle in insulation foam to take care of that problem. I can only hope he was just joking. Small bore aluminum whistles seem to be fine and play well down to about 65 degrees (after which they get noticeably flat).

Small bore prototypes are finished and no further development is necessary at this point. However, I am not going to recommend aluminum for outdoors cold weather playing. Aluminum makes a very nice concert type whistle where temperature is not a problem. Aluminum scratches and nicks easily under hard use, and requires the owner to treat polished aluminum whistles with care. I have a very good source for coated aluminum tubing that promises to be much tougher to scratch and seems (at this point in time) to be
more suited for whistle production. I am doing a complete data base on aluminum and finishes. Information on my conclusions and sources will be available on request to anyone interested in this area of whistle development when information is compiled and complete.

The post Wicked Good Inside Scoop on Whistles! appeared first on The Whistlesmith.

Here I am playing away in an extremely cold and stiff wind. Whistle worked great!

Owen and Frances Cushman created the campground from an undeveloped piece of shoreline property over a long period of time. Originally the campground was full of tents and folks with trailers in the summer, but now most of the occupants are local people that enjoy being there all summer and have settled in with larger trailers that stay all year long.
It was a really bad day weather wise when we left Presque Isle and the wind was up even worse by the time we had driven the sixty miles up to the lake. Even though it had been quite a few years since we had been to the campground, everything looked pretty much as we had left it on our last visit. Mother Nature seems to maintain things at a pretty nice level if she doesn’t get stressed and the fall foliage was at its best even if the day was dark and wet.
We had a nice long visit at the big log cabin where Frances lives in the summer and of course a tour of the property and a chance to see some folks we knew who were getting in the last visit to camp for the season.

After a leisurely dinner with all the good things that go with homemade cooking and big piece of raspberry pie, I decided the rain had let up sufficiently to go for a walk. The wind was still blowing at about twenty five miles an hour and the shore was getting hit with some big waves from the whitecaps out on the main part of the lake. Nadiene picked up her camera and came along with me as I grabbed my whistle from the Mazda and headed for the beach.

I had been testing the new Traveler whistle in A and thought it would be a real test to be able to play it outdoors under some tough conditions. Frances, Ann and our friend Diane Barnes stayed on the porch to see how the whistle sounded and how far away they would be able to hear it against the wind.
We wandered up the beach and I played the Dance of the Frenzied Turkeys all the way. Nadiene took a bunch of pictures of the cabins along the way and was the on site expert to attest to the playability and staying power of the little whistle against the wind. It was great fun and there were several places that I would have played for a while, but everything was pretty wet and the weather held off just long enough to get in a good walk.

The girls back at camp said they could hear me playing until we were completely out of sight which I found surprising as the wind really started to blow. The Traveler played without a hitch. No wind kill even though I did a full 360 degree in slow motion and the wind was very strong. This is a very pleasant whistle to play and the more I play it the better I like the Key of A. After getting back to camp I gave everyone a short concert of some of my tunes that I’ve been working on and then it was time to head
for home.
We all had a great day and got home just before dark. You try to miss the moose and driving in the dark is not a good idea in the fall of the year. Later in the evening , a tremendous gust of air came down out of Canada and the next morning the color was gone as the leaves blew off the trees. You could say we got in the last nice day of the fall season and had a chance to whistle our way through it in style!

The post Whistling in the Wind at St Froid Lake appeared first on The Whistlesmith.

“There are several advantages to owning a white instrument.

I find that students keep these instruments cleaner and ready to play, because dirt shows up more readily on a white instrument and it looks either clean and white or it looks dirty. Case closed.
A white instrument plays cooler in summer heat and stays in tune better when exposed to direct sunlight. I make it a point to instruct students to place their instruments out of the sunlight when not playing and to remove them from auto windows when traveling. Leaving any instrument in the direct sun, whether it is plastic or wood is not a good idea and can cause them to warp or even split. Here in the south, you can get a burn from a metal mouthpiece left in the sun and you won’t soon forget that!

You can find a white instrument (even if it is only the mouthpiece that’s white) easier when laid down. Black and dark brown instruments tend to get lost and at best are hard to find. I have searched for hours over the years trying to find lost instruments that were often right beside me. Outdoors events with a fife and drum corps are always a matter of someone losing their fife or drumsticks by laying them down on the ground and leaving them behind. I recommend dipping your drumstick ends in some white paint so they show up!

White instruments never need more than a good cleaning and they look like new. Paint, coatings, polished aluminum and even chrome have issues after being handled a lot. Brass looks okay when everyone polishes, but it looks terrible in a group if even one person prefers to have their instrument have a patina. Patina just means unkept and not polished in a band.
I appreciated the time you spent on the phone with me discussing the Fife & Pail concept. Will get back to you as soon as the Town has a chance to discuss the matter and I believe we will go with the idea because the kids need an activity like this that could be done all year round.”

Several folks have written about where they play their whistle. I would publish their letters complete, but I always ask if it is okay first and that takes a lot of time. If you want something posted during the month, please remember to state that it is okay to publish your letter in its entire form.

A lot of people play their whistle at funerals and wakes. Out of respect for the departed and also because there are not enough pipers around. I often remark that the pipers of our land must be tired out from piping at funerals, never mind all the parades they have to attend. I know that I hear more people say they have heard someone playing the whistle at a funeral than I have ever heard before. If you have not played for a funeral, you better practice outdoors under real conditions before you show up for your
first performance. The wind can make your music go away if you have the wrong whistle in your hands.

At least one person is financing their college by playing whistle at dedications, funerals, and other events. What better incentive to practice than to have your own business that furnishes a wonderful service to the community as well.

Many folks have found the wonders of echoes in playing their whistle. The echo coming back over at lake, the way the whistle sounds coming back from heavy woods over an open field, and the sounds you get in an open alley when it is quiet on a Sunday morning where all mentioned in the past month.

The amount of phone calls discussing various types of music and folks with ideas on whistle music in general has been very interesting. The whistle is being played in every type of music imaginable. Delta Blues, reggae, calypso, traditional, blues, and many more have been mentioned lately.

Many of the calls pertained to ideas that individuals have for new or different variations on the whistle. If you have ideas for an instrument don’t hesitate to call and discuss your idea. The data base information is getting larger every month and an answer to one of your questions may be available. Really secret projects will stay secret…that’s why I’m in Maine on top of a ridge.

More people than ever are playing their whistles during the Holidays! Some players are in symphony productions, some in stage shows and musicals and the whistle will be played with choirs and caroling on Christmas eve this year according to the folks ordering new whistles on the phone and over the website. I know there have been a lot of whistles ordered in green and red which I think is an indication of what they will be used for. I think this is just great! “The More the Merrier” as the old saying goes.

The post Comments on White Whistles and Where the Whistlers are Whistling! appeared first on The Whistlesmith.

Playing a tune for a prospective buyer on the cell phone can be limited, especially if you are unprepared to play on a moments notice. However, there are some interesting uses for Windows Sound Recorder that will improve your whistle playing technique, timing and intonation.

Sound Recorder is the standard little program that comes with Window operating system. You may have to search through you hard drive to find where it is located. Usually it is located at Programs/Communications/Sound Recorder. Easy enough to find and simple to use. Sound Recorder makes Wave files that are a minute long and you can save them into a file on your hard drive to play and study over and over again.

When recording you can play over the same file again and again until you have an acceptable version of the tune you are playing. Save a version of your session after a try or two. You can listen to this early version later to compare how you have changed your playing or the sound of a composition you are working on.

It helps if you have someone to run the recorder program and keep everything under control, but you can do it yourself once you are accustomed to playing and recording at the same time.

You will want a good microphone plugged into your computer and set about four or five feet from the computer to eliminate computer fan noise and feedback . I recommend you use a separate microphone and not the built in microphone that now comes on most computers. You need about ten feet or twelve feet of distance from the computer microphone to your playing position to get the best sound from your setup. If the recording sounds faint or too loud, move your distance from the microphone accordingly. If you have
a laptop, you can set up your sound recording studio where acoustics are best and it makes recording in a variety of indoor and outdoor locations a snap.

On your first attempts to record, you will be nervous. Stay cool and get used to coordinating your playing with the person doing the recording. My wife Nadiene, counts to four and then hits the Sound Recorder button. That’s because I seem to need more time to get the big first note going and be on track with the music we are trying to get down. If she is too fast I get left at the gate. Don’t worry about playing correctly or getting it perfect while you are getting familiar with the whole process. I guarantee
you will not get anything right at first and it may take a couple of evenings before you don’t feel strained and relax and have fun with the process of recording. You probably will also develop a new found respect for people who record music for a living. It isn’t as easy as you expect.

One of the first things you will gain from your new setup will be all the unexpected sounds you make when you play. Incorrect breathing (huge sound of air being inhaled), throat grunts (Erol Garner Syndrome), and badly damaged notes with lots of air (chiff) from incorrectly timing your tonguing and fingering coordination and the absolute worst sound of all…running out of air on the last note and hearing your lovely note flounder and die. Sound recorder is the ultimate critic who cannot be refuted. Remember
if it doesn’t kill you, it will cure you.

You may want to take a break and have a cool glass of water after a few tries. A minute of recording will seem like an hour and you may not be able to fill up a complete minute for your first few tries. Don’t try to improvise an ending to your recording minute during this point of your development or you may really disappoint yourself. Just let each trial minute stand on it’s own and let your playing stop where it will.

At this point, make sure you and your recording partner agree on what is to be kept and those recordings that you want to do over. Name your wave files by number (Trial Wave Number 1,2,3 etc.)and save them in a folder named Wave Files that you have made on your C drive.

Check to see if your recording partner is still having fun (you don’t need the sound of static in your files!) and proceed to record a few more tunes. When you have a goodly amount of Wave files , replay them and pick out the mistakes and oddities you have collected and make note of what you want to do when you record your next session. Take a break for the rest of the evening and have a go at recording again the next day.

One of the aspects of Sound Recorder you may not expect is how well you play. Even your first attempts may startle you with how much virtuosity you have already developed. After several sessions of recording and listening to your results you will be amazed at how you have improved your technique, fingering, ornamentation and breath control.

You will also note some things about playing the whistle that you thought were fact and have now turned out to be fiction.

Your whistle doesn’t make as much chiff and air when you play it as you originally thought. You have improved your air control and your fingering is now more coordinated to each note. You hear more air from the whistle when you play because the mouthpiece is directly in front of both your ears and only inches away. The microphone is ten feet away and simply doesn’t pick up this additional sound at all!

You play the music exactly the same every time. Hey! not so fast! Better check those sound files again. Repetition is the hardest element of playing music and no one is perfect.

Some of your best loved fingering techniques are out of sync with the way the music is written and sound like… well, not so wonderful. Sound Recorder can really change your memory of what the music sounds like to how it is supposed to sound when played correctly.

Remember to have a good time and have fun using all this technology. If things start getting serious, take a deep breath and a break. Then play your rendition of the tune the way you originally learned it before you gained all this playing perfection.

The post Sound Recorder Can Improve Your Playing! appeared first on The Whistlesmith.

One of our newest tools is a great weekly update from FeedBlitz. This email has the Whistlesmith Weekly Roundup and shows up in your mailbox before you wake up each Monday morning. That way, you can keep up with everything you might have missed during your busy week.

We promise not to bombard you with email or sell your name to the blackmarket. We just want another way to communicate with you – our reader. We even promise some “subscriber-only” news and exclusives down the road. So hop over to the right sidebar or below and enter your email to join our mailing list or simply click here to join the mailing list.

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Written music notation covers everything you need to know to play a piece of music as long as you can read the symbols and do the math. When you describe the sound of the Magic Whistle to another person, you use the same words describing the sound that you use to convey the complexities of food and drink. Rich, smooth, sharp, kind of flat, complex, dark, subtle undertones (i.e. flavors). and so on. When we run out of descriptive terms for food we add in air based terms like breathy, airy, breezy, and the infamous
(but not universally known) term of CHIFFY! Why all this descriptive chaos to describe the whistle and the sounds it makes? Here are some quotes I thought you might want to remember that came to me via e-mail.

“The whistle is a devilish hard thing to play. You can start at five and stay up all night and still not get it right. NOT EVER…and no one will ever know how you eventually made out unless you record it.” Paul C., Canada

“The whistle is magic and its sound is a transient traveler, leaving only a memory of the moment behind. Wow!, I just wrote that down… and had to send it to you!” Evelyn, Montana

” thought my new whistle was making a grunting sound, but then I discovered I was doing an Errol Garner kind of blues noise in my throat when I blew hard. Everything is under control now. Stay limber and keep on whistling. J.Carter, Texas

“after removing a piece of peanut, my whistle stopped playing two notes at a time. Maybe you should check the idea of a dual note playing whistle made on the Peanut Principal…on second thought, maybe not! Roy. M., Florida.

After having read more than a couple of hundred customer comments and twenty or so internet reviews over the past month, I have finally resolved whistle reviews are fun reading and let you view whistles not readily available, but there is also the danger of using out of date reviews to make important decisions on purchasing your new Magic Whistle.

Not so quick! Reviews posted on the internet and comments made on chat rooms while discussing various whistles stay active forever unless the writer deletes the post or replaces the information with a new, up to date article. Meanwhile, many months, even years have passed and the maker of the instrument may have completely changed or improved the design. Since most whistle makers work on improvements trying to find the Magic Whistle all the time, the appearance of the whistle has probably changed and materials
may have been upgraded and changed since the review was written. Even worse, the maker may be out of business, deceased or given up whistle making entirely months before. However, the reader of these postings is still basing their opinions on buying a Magic Whistle from the maker on invalid information that is out of date.

The answer to the problem of sorting all this information out is really very simple! Using cut and paste on your computer, copy the information to your clipboard and then paste the review into your e-mail. Send the e-mail to the manufacturer of the whistle and ask if the problems in the article have been taken care of. Be sure to tell the company you are a prospective buyer and other pertinent information so they will know you are serious and not some spamer trying to bust their website. I be you get an honest
answer in a hurry…and you will know whats going on from the source that makes the whistle your are interested in.

Every new whistle maker is excited about having made an inanimate piece of wood or pipe turn into a Magic Whistle. They hurry to show everyone their new and unique Magic Whistle and immediately think it is ready for marketing and review. I know that my granddaughter Marilyn and I though our very first whistle was perfect when it was born. When it played, we both thought it was the most miraculous thing we had ever heard. The first whistle is hanging in the shop today as a reminder that it wasn’t so perfect and
several hundred changes have happened along the way since we first made it. Have we made the Magic Whistle? Not yet! But, we spend a lot of effort every week trying to pump some more magic into every instrument we make.

I believe one of the most remarkable aspects of making whistles is the fact that people everywhere are interested in what you are doing. I have spent over forty five plus years doing custom artwork and complicated projects for folks and I have never experienced a more interested group of people than whistlers. They are tolerant, educated, have definite opinions, likes and dislikes and most of all enjoy talking about everything pertaining to whistles. Whistler players and collectors are not cheap folks! If they
determine there is a Magic Whistle available, no amount of cash will deter them from bidding, buying or obtaining it by trading their valuables for it.

So let’s get it right and lay all that debate about good whistles and bad whistles and cheap whistles and expensive whistles to rest. If you take all the material in the best whistle made and add it up you won’t break a $20. bill. If you take all the material in the cheapest whistle in the market place you should have about a $1. or less.

So what makes a whistle worth all those big bucks to a prospective buyer? You will probably say exotic wood, silver, gold, brass or all the hours crafting a nice sounding INSTRUMENT. Calling a whistle an instrument makes the humble whistle sound much more grand! It’s the same trick they use on Antiques Roadshow when the appraiser calls your junk a very nice Piece. You may also consider the brand name, trademark, makers reputation, and of course the all important Model Name! Join all these items together and you
will be sure you are going to finally receive the elusive Magic Whistle! Well, there is no Magic Whistle, Mary Jane!

Suppose all the Whistle categories were changed so buyers can better understand what the whistle they are purchasing is made for.

Category One: Souvenir Whistles

are remembrances of where you have vacationed and bought a whistle. They are a souvenir of where you have been and had a good time and should be displayed and admired for their appearance and where they came from. They would fall into the category of tee shirts, tea cups, carved fish and other wonders we bring back from vacation. The only excuse for not having several Souvenir Whistles from your vacation would be a hangover, hangnail from shopping too hard or the vacation turned out to be a flop due to
hurricane, cyclone, or tropical storm. These whistles should be inexpensive so everyone back home can receive one without breaking the budget, because we all know how inflation has wrecked travel costs and inflated the cost of souvenir purchasing.

Category Two: Real Playable Whistles which are made for playing music. The whistle has to be in tune through a couple of octaves, show good workmanship and be made from materials suitable for whistles. No pelican bone mouthpieces or ox bone ferrules here! Real Playable Whistles would be reasonably priced, carry a warranty on parts, and of course play without unusual fingerings or unreasonable breath requirements. Most folks will want a Real Playable Whistle because they are a Real Good
Deal!

Category Three: Whistles Good enough for a Beginner! This of course would be the very best and most expensive whistle available, because everyone knows a beginner needs to have a great experience starting out. Pricing could run up the price scale a bit, or a bit more if the beginner is desperate enough to get the whistle without waiting. Tuning, finish, reach and air requirements should be top notch. Playing this whistle should be effortless. No hanky panky and unusual breath control
requirements for this instrument. This whistle has to be “Good enough for a Beginner” so tuning is perfect through two full octaves and into the third, no chiff unless asked for, effortless changes up and down between octaves and breath requirements held to minimal. Best of all there is no practice necessary to play this whistle with fabulous speed and computer like precision because it has been forged for a Beginner. This whistle must come close to being a Magic Whistle or it has to be exchanged within a thirty
day period and be replaced with a more suitable brand and model of whistle to avoid disturbance in the Force. May the Force be with You!

The Magic Whistle is in its own category. Just leave it there and go off and search for a whistle that makes you happy when you play. To give you a start, I leave you with the following ways you might find what you are looking for and several facts about the Search for the Magic Whistle that you may have overlooked.

Some folks think the answer to getting a Magic Whistle is to buy a crate of inexpensive whistles and sort them out until you find one that plays in a Magical Manner. No matter how much time and money spent it will be worth the effort…Sorry you still end up with a cheaply made whistle that plays well and cost a lot of money to obtain. If you use this method of obtaining you whistles, you should become a dealer or better yet, a distributor of whistles.

Or you can buy a Magic Whistle that has been forced into being playable by a professional tweaker somewhere out there. Now you have a whistle that has been remade into something playable and you have paid a premium price for a whistle that plays. Remember the resale market for an altered whistle is non-existent so you really have a one of a kind instrument. If tweakers are good at making other makers whistles play, they should apply for a job in the whistle factory as an engineer or invention improver and make
some big bucks for their time. Why waste all that time and effort promoting someone else’s whistle brand when the Magic is yours? Why not start a new brand and market a new and innovative whistle that really plays and call it the Magic Whistle? The world is waiting for your product.

Little Known Facts about Whistling:

The Magic Whistle will make you happy! The sign of a happy person is someone who whistles while they work. Whistling lets you pass the time while doing all those tedious chores and tells the world you find enjoyment in what you are doing. Playing for a while every day with your Magic whistle will make you happy and healthy at the same time.

The Magic Whistle is medicinal! Your lung power and capacity increase with every hour you play. A good Low Whistle should bring you up to the capacity to inflate a truck tire with a single breath in about a month. My doctor was amazed at my lung capacity and when I said it was probably from playing whistle all the time, she muttered something that sounded like “I’m more inclined to believe it might be genetically inherited long windedness”. Anyway, you will have more breathing capacity the more and longer you
play and that is a bit if magic in it’s self.

Playing your Magic Whistle gives your hands and fingers a good workout and improves your flexibility. If you keep time with your feet,(and I confess I keep time with both feet) then you get a bit of a double workout. If stiffness and a touch of the old arthritis in the joints is bothering, a good session on the whistle helps keep you limber and improves your sense of well being.

The Magic whistle will improve your mind. Music is like a crossword puzzle for your mind and learning a new piece of music is good for you. A new tune or two will give you an enjoyable and entertaining way to keep alert and active. Take your whistle with you everywhere, play every time you get a chance and expand your ability to play a larger variety of music.

It is amazing the friends you make with a Magic Whistle! Playing the whistle lets folks know you are a happy person and they in turn will be happily listening to your music. Everyone loves the whistle and whistle music because they hear music they are familiar with. Perhaps, they played the whistle , ocarina, recorder or Tonette and remember how much fun it was.

Listeners will also be appreciative of your playing regardless of what kind of music you play. Take your whistle and play it everywhere and anytime you have a chance. The best complement I ever received came from a fisherman on a bridge in the Florida Keys. He listened to me wailing away on my whistle while waiting for a fish to bite and when I finished said, “Sounds just like Jethro Tull” Wow! I was just blown away by that one.

If you need a hobby, finding the Magic Whistle should keep you busy for your entire lifetime. I think that’s what my granddaughter Marilyn meant when she and I were discussing whistles after supper one night. “You know Gramp, If you don’t sell all these whistles you are making, you will have the largest collection of whistles in the world!” You have to admit, that is a very interesting concept and probably has a good amount of truth to it.

Things you should remember before leaving on your Quest for the Magic Whistle. Don’t be discouraged or dissuaded from your Quest by anything. Search in all directions and listen to the advise of strangers about every whistle related rumor and sighting of the existence of a Magic Whistle. Acquire as many varieties of whistles that hold magic and play them all to see if you can acquire the essence they may hold. Spend a dragon’s ransom and acquire a hoard! Sell, buy and dispose of your
hoard with others only after advising them that they are getting possession only because you have more Magic than you can handle and are willing to share your wealth with others in search of the Magic Whistle.

And if all fails in your Quest for the Magic Whistle… You might consider purchasing a Wicked Good Whistle that has a lot of handmade magic. Lots of good models and keys and at a price you can afford. In fact, your can afford two at the price they’re going for and still have enough left over for a burger and fries on your way home. Super size and get the Low D to go!

The post There is no Magic Whistle, Mary Jane appeared first on The Whistlesmith.

After playing the prototype whistle for an extended period it became apparent that a flute version would be more appropriate for most applications. The flute is a bit more mellow, has more horizontal length for the attachment of clips and attachment devices, and is easier to hear over other instruments. A snap on clip is available for the whistle that allows you to rivit the clip to a velcro watch band. This allows you to place the whistle on you wrist if necessary to play the instrument. The clip can be modified to attach to a variety of appliances and head braces (harmonica brace works well) for playing using one hand.

Making the original Kevin’s Whistle pointed in the direction of certain musical areas that everyone is familiar with. Hawaiian music, steel guitar arrangements, Traditional and Folk Songs and Country and Western music are easily played.

Finding the highest note in a song and using your thumb as a marker appears to be the key to playing a song quickly. Most people with no experience could play a tune that they could hum outloud in a few minutes. Players that played other instruments, especially wind instruments had no trouble in playing more complex music after a short practice. Most beginning players want to play everything as a slide, but as soon as they discover individual notes are easily played, they begin to make quick progress with figuring out the slide positions. The slide has a good feel in the hand if held between the right thumb and forefinger and moved like a violin bow.

The more you play, the easier the Slide Flute plays. A breakin period of about an hour is required to make everything slide smoothly and there are no problems with jamming of the slide. The poly plug on the slide is very durable, easily replaced if ever necessary and does not absorb moisture so the flute works with no maintenance and comes completely apart for cleaning.

I have modified the mouthpiece slide on the automatic flute design to make it easier to blow and give the flute increased sound and volume. Next, I replaced the original plunger shaft with a fiberglass rod to give more weight and feel to the instrument (just like the bow on a violin). A pin on the end of the plunger was cut to to go completely through the poly plug seal and make it easily replaceable if necessary.

A new version of the Whistlesmith logo with the wording “Slide Flute” underneath has been designed for the instrument. Initially, the instrument will come only in basic black, using the white and natural tan of the body material as accent colors. The white fiberglass rod can be dotted with a marker to show note positions if the player finds it useful and the marks can be removed easily with alcohol if necessary.
pPlayers will find the Slide Flute to be a fun instrument that has a mellow, pleasant sound and can be played with a variety of other instruments. Children can do sound effects with the whistle right out of the box and of course, the second octave is handy for birdcall enthusiasts.

The post Sliders are for Everyone! appeared first on The Whistlesmith.

A couple of excerpts from a nice letter from Roy Mayhugh were:

“You’ve clearly marked the key of the whistle right on the mouth-piece. That will make picking up the right whistle really easy when I want to play.”

“The fingering charts are going to be really handy in helping me read music. What’s more, they are almost exactly the size of an 8 1/2 by 11 inch piece of notebook paper when folded in half. That means I can put them in my three ring binder folded in half and fold them out on my music stand when I’m using them.”

“Received my Low D whistle this week and I was amazed at the tone. I was really expecting a plastic sounding tone and this instrument sounds very woody just as you described it” – J. Winston

“I am playing the Hi D fife you furnished for our group to try out and it does exactly what you said. I have played it in all kinds of weather and it is bulletproof. This fife is perfect to get our kids to get playing in short order” Thank you, J. Hershel

“When you wrote that your mouthpiece was adjustable and you could “sweeten the top octave” to make the flute play better, I thought Yeh, I bet! I have played my G Auto flute for a week now and all I can say is “How sweet it is!” Thanks, Paul

“I was able to play it straight out of the box. At last I have a Low D which I can finger without my fingers and wrists getting very sore.” – G. Terry

“I thought my Low D whistle had lost it’s voice as it had a loss of volume after about 30 minutes of playing. I read the instructions and dried the bore and gave it a shot of silicon spray. What a difference, the more your play and clean it, the better the volume gets. Your directions on playing the Low D have been Spot On.” – J. Deschesne

“I purchased a Bb fife and have played it for several weeks. I have taken it camping and played around the fire at night several times. No problem! it will play in any kind of weather and the night cold doesn’t bother it at all…” excerpt from long letter from H.C. in Minnesota.

“The Hi-D fife I purchased came today and I have played all afternoon. It is hard to believe how easy it is to play. I thought it would be shrill, but it is not and I really like the sound.” Thanks, Franco, Spain

The post E-mail Excerpts appeared first on The Whistlesmith.

1. Try and make a visit to the whistlesmith of your choice and see what is available and do a little inquiring about projects and future instruments that are in the works. Prototypes and unfinished items that relate to your collection might be available if you seem interested. Out of inventory instruments that are no longer being made are another possibility for the collector. One of my “collaborator kids” has every sample whistle and mouthpiece I ever made for him to try in a box and keeps them with his collection.

2. Take some notes about the maker and keep them with your instrument. Collectors like insight into who and where the collections were made.

3. Keep the bill of sale, auction printouts, posted information on the web about the instrument, and record the instrument number if it is available.

4. Keep the box, instruction sheets, fingering charts and music in a folder that is marked to identify it and the instrument it pertains to.

5. Take down some written notes on playing the instrument. Sound, feel, if you play it a lot, if it is enjoyable to play and how it plays best, would be some categories you might consider making an entry on.

6. Ask for a signature on the bill of sale or letter from the maker and date it to validated when you made the purchase.

7. Take photos of your visit and include them with your paperwork and the instrument to make a nice bundle of information.

8. Base you collection on whistles that have value ( whistles that are no longer made, custom whistles from small makers, unique designs and materials, etc.) are all good areas to look into. Mass produced whistles made over a long period and altered instruments are not good collectables unless done by Stradivarius or other famous persons. Authentic James Galway instruments would seem to be a good idea even if they have been scratched up a bit by the player.

I think the above items are good advice and will make your whistle purchases much more interesting and valuable.

Oh, I forgot some personal Whistlesmith advice!

1. Pick a really old Whistlesmith so your collectable whistle will be worth a lot in a shorter period of time.

2. Only buy whistles you want to play right now. It takes patience and a lot of time to become a collector and you might want to play a tune while they are becoming valuable.

3. You might want to buy a duplicate whistle to play and another to collect providing the price is right.

4. Become a dealer and buy all your whistles at wholesale pricing.

The post COLLECTING WHISTLES appeared first on The Whistlesmith.

My nephew, Kevin playing the original slide whistle.

My brother Alan , his wife Vicki and my twin nephews Kevin and Tim came for Christmas this past week. The food was good, the company was great and it managed to snow over three full feet of snow while they were here. Needless to say, I spent the past five days moving snow from the driveway and yard. Then we had an ice storm and another foot of snow and 35 mph wind before the weather cleared up and the temperature dropped off to ten below zero for New Years Day. A couple of years ago, Kevin’s sister Dawna Marie
go married and I went out to Pawnee, Illinois for the wedding. My brother had just got back from Ireland and had brought the boys tin whistles as a souvenir of the trip. While the wedding guests were visiting, Tim brought out his whistle and asked if I would play a bit of music and show him some tips on playing his new instrument. I played a few songs that everyone knew and not thinking , I asked Kevin if he liked his whistle and if he had tried playing it. Kevin said he liked it, but how was he going to play
it? I have never felt as bad about a question as I did at that exact moment. I had never considered Kevin to be handicapped at anything. He plays all kinds of sports, does all the things everyone else does and never has a complaint about anything. But you need two hands to play a whistle and Kevin was born with only one. That makes a whistle as useless as a fork without any tines. So I made Kevin a promise that I would make him a whistle that he could play with his brother Tim. After working on the idea for several
months in my head, I decided to make a slide whistle that would attach to his wrist with a Velcro closure strap like a watchband.

There are several slide whistles on the market, but they tend to be either too heavy to play with the strap idea or the whistle plays with too much tension on the slide. I built several prototypes that were promising and played okay, bu definition for individual notes was too vague and the slide was not as easy to use as I thought it should be. To play the slide whistle with any consistency and not make it sound like a group of sound effects turned out to be a bit of a puzzle. When I talked to Kevin or his Dad,
they would ask how the whistle was coming and I could only say that I was working on it and had solved some of the problems on making it right. Lots of other whistle stuff got in the way and two years passed and I still didn’t have it right and everyone was coming for Christmas and still no completed whistle that worked.

Sometimes you just try too hard and get off on the wrong path when you are reinventing your original idea for the thirty third time. You need to go back to the basics of solving your problem and do five things.

1. Stop making up RULES to follow while working on your invention.

2. Use COMMON MATERIALS that are rugged enough to do the job and are available locally.

3.EXPLORE every way you can assemble the parts necessary to make the design work.

4. DON’T THROW AWAY ANY IDEAS and take notes on what you do when making all the pieces of the project.

5. NEVER GIVE UP UNTIL IT WORKS!

The two days before Christmas , I spent all my time trying to devise a slide piston that felt right and get the sound of the whistle to be mellow and have better volume. My wife, Nadiene just let me go at it and told me that I would get it right eventually…” How can you fail at anything when you get such great support from your wife? When Kevin arrived, I had just put the slide knob on and tested the whistle. No strap yet, but Alan and I got that straightened out (after a couple of tries) the next morning .
Kevin gave the whistle a test drive and after a bit of break in and a few adjustments he announced that ” the whistle worked just fine”. And to make the story complete, he just kept on playing until like Santa Claus he drove out of sight on the way back to Pawnee, Illinois. Kevin’s going to test out whistle number 34 and let me know if it needs any changes and I’m sure he’ll know if it’s absolutely right because, it is Kevin’s Whistle.

The slide whistle has been around for a long time and there are a lot of folks who play the instrument and know a lot about it’s history. I can remember “Hold that Tiger” and Spike Jones on the radio when I was a kid and all the sound effects that utilized the slide whistle on the evening shows. Folks that have a fair ear for a tune can play music on this instrument right out of the box. However, there are a lot of applications like Kevin’s that a bit of help might be in order. Persons with missing fingers, tips
of fingers, no fingers, crippled hands from arthritis and injury, carpal tunnel, tendon injuries and so on down a very long list of possible users. Rethinking the slide whistle and building it lighter instrument, incorporating some new materials to keep cost down, and having the appliances available so the instrument can be held and played easily are all areas that need some new exploration. I think most of the answers are already available in various parts of the Whistlesmith workshop and are just waiting to
be noticed and used in a different way on this project.

After watching Kevin playing the slide whistle , I believe a new technique for starting beginners should also be written. I can see that younger people and older folks don’t approach playing a tune in the same way. I think people who are older and started out learning songs that you knew the words, tune and could sing to, play quickly and have an idea of what they want to do with the instrument. If you have listened to heavy metal and rap and have a musical experience that is not able to be sung, hummed or whistled,
then you need to start out very differently. It is not a matter of liking or not caring for any particular kind of music, it is a matter of knowing a tune well enough to find a starting note and play it from memory.

I’m sure all these details will be worked out shortly and I invite anyone with ideas and input to e-mail or call. If you are interested in playing the slide whistle and would like to be part of the group of people testing the instrument , just e-mail your name, address and any personal information you would like to include for developing this project. Prototype whistles will be going out for appraisal in March and are based on the original concept whistles.

The post Kevin’s Whistle appeared first on The Whistlesmith.

The press I am using is the original handmade wooden press I designed in 1979 to develop a small size screen printing press to fit in a limited area shop. The fellow I designed it for thought the press was just great and had them made in aluminum for his company. He commented at the time, that the wooden version would never be adequate for any amount of work. I have printed thousands of dozens of tees and sweatshirts on this little press since then and it has never had a piece replaced or needed any more maintenance
than a few screws getting tightened and regular oiling and cleaning. Guess he was wrong about the wearing out problem.

The front of the shirt has a small full chest print of the Whistlesmith logo and the Wicked Good Whistles motto. Small full chest is a new 8″ size that is very trendy this season (easier to read than a small left breast print and looks more centered on all sizes of shirt).

The back is a large full size print with “Whistlin’ Ain’t Easy, until you play a Wicked Good Whistle”.

The post Screenprinting Whistlesmith Tees appeared first on The Whistlesmith.

Here
are a few thoughts on common tuning problems with whistles that I run into all the time.

1. Low notes on the whistle are not loud and tend to lag too much when played. Most common cause is a mouthpiece that is not blowing correctly. Mouthpiece is designed incorrectly or is unstable, has a build up of dirt in the wind way, or may have a hidden piece of whistle material between the mouthpiece and tone body. The tone body edge facing the mouthpiece may be intruding into the flow of air or has an edge that is protruding. 2. Finger hole has a buzzing sound or sounds like two notes trying to play together. Send it back to maker if still under warranty or try the following remedy at your own risk. The finger hole has a bad edge. It is either bent or the inside edge is not clean and sharp. Hold the whistle up to a strong light and try to determine what is happening. The hole will probably look just fine , so use a metal reamer or small file and try to carefully clean up the edges. Usually you can correct the problem, but sometimes nothing works. If all else fails, use the whistle as a novelty support to tie up a potted plant and buy a new one to play. 3. A single hole sounds weak and does not play correctly. The tone hole is not correct. Use the same technique you used to fix the buzzing hole. Usually, the side of the hole is not cleanly cut, has a burr, or is dented slightly. It may look okay to the eye, but the path of least resistance has an invisible detour in the way. When correctly made the hole will play loudly. Do not try to make the hole a different shape or deviate from the round as the pitch of that hole may be raised or lowered too much for the whistle to stay in tune. 4. When using the tuning slide, remember that the whistle will be in good tune on the lower octave much longer than it will be on the second octave. Tune your whistle to play best on the high register and then check it for accurate tuning on the lower one. Every note will vary to some degree with temperature, humidity and breath pressure, so tune for the best overall result in both octaves. Tiny movements of the tuning slide (thickness of a piece of paper) can make extreme changes in the upper octave. When you are finished tuning, make a tiny pencil mark for reference to reset the whistle at a later time.

The post Tuning Up for the Dance of the Frenzied Turkeys appeared first on The Whistlesmith.

1. The length and size of the bore on the Low D penny whistle creates a small time lag on the bottom two notes of the whistle that must be compensated for with a tiny pause when you are playing.

2. When first playing the Low D, try playing down the scale from top to bottom and see how you must breath to blow the low notes. Some players say to blow from your stomach and others say relaxing your throat is how they get the best results. I would describe the technique in this fashion…Inhale a deep breath as if you were trying to relax and then exhale slowly as if a great load was off your mind. You will now be blowing a larger, slower, column of air with less force into the whistle and the low notes will
become very solid and formed.

3. Practice bouncing from low octave note to high octave note by increasing the air into the mouthpiece. Do not blow extremely hard or you will hit notes in the third octave. Practice bouncing the notes up and down until you get the feeling for how the whistle reacts. It is easier to go up the scale than to come down and hit the lowest three notes correctly, because of the air volume necessary to fill the bore capacity and the necessary drop in pressure. Practice the drop from high E to low E as a test to see
how much control you have gained and repeat until this repetition feels comfortable.

4. Hold the Low D irish whistle close to your body and as vertical as possible. The mouthpiece should be at almost right angles to your body and you should blow the whistle with the mouthpiece held comfortably against your lower lip. If you blow across the mouthpiece with your lips just covering the airway and not in your mouth (like a small whistle) there will be and increased volume to the sound and minimal moisture going into the whistle. This is because the saliva glands in your mouth are only in the bottom of your mouth
and the top of your mouth is basically dry.( Mother Nature wants you to have moisture to swallow your food and air going up your nose when you breath!)

5. Keep your whistle dry. Place your thumb over the sound hole and blow into the mouthpiece to clear out any moisture. Dry the bore on your whistle frequently and clean the bore on a regular basis. A new whistle will play better every time you buff the bore using the shotgun cleaner and drill technique that I have described several times on the website(See the short article with pictures on cleaning your whistle). The more you buff and clean, the smoother the bore becomes and the better and longer the whistle
will shed water. Dry silicon spray on a cloth passed through the bore is a good technique after the whistle is buffed and dry inside because it decreases the surface tension in the bore.

6. Relax and pick a slow tune to play. The Low D whistle is capable of playing at a speedy rate, but starting out, just slow down and enjoy those low notes and try to play them as full as you can. When you are up to speed on your technique, you should be able to feel the notes vibrant inside the whistle. The Low D can be played very softly with very little air or can be PUSHED and played aggressively with an large increase in volume.

7. Two tunes that are good for practicing low whistle technique when starting out are Wayfaring Stranger and Greensleeves. Almost everyone knows these songs and it is easier to correct mistakes and improve your playing if you know the song well.

8. One of the most important techniques in playing the Low D is to raise your fingertips well above the finger holes to eliminate shading the holes. There is a lot of air coming out of the finger holes and you must not let your fingertips flatten the sound by being too close. I tell beginners to BOUNCE their fingers high when playing.

You can buy our whistles online or you can call us to learn more.

The post Some easy techniques on playing Low D whistles that really work appeared first on The Whistlesmith.

“If they don’t cost a penny and their not made of tin…Why are whistles called that any more? My reply was that they should just be called whistles, plain and simple. The whistle is so common to so many kinds of music world wide today that the old terminology just doesn’t fit. There are probably more people playing whistle in Africa than there are people in all of Ireland and Scotland combined. The music is not the same, but that only shows the wonderful versatility of the whistle and the variety
of music it can be used for. That is why I call my whistles “Wicked Good Whistles”.

What’s the deal with small hands fingering? Is that something just for kids or am I not understanding that part of how a whistle is made?”

I replied that on small whistles in the higher keys that small hands fingering was not important. Everyone can reach the holes on a D, C, or Bb whistle without any strain. When you get down to the low whistles, it is common to have holes that are too large and too much reach in the fingering to be comfortable. If your hands are stiffer than they used to be and the carpal tunnel seems a little on the longer side, and you have a touch of arthritis in a joint…then small hands fingering is a must. I also pointed
out that I had started on my whistle making because my Granddaughter Marilyn was so disappointed when she received her first two low whistles and could not play them. You have to see the look of satisfaction when someone with very small hands and reach plays that big low whistle for the first time.

“There are so many keys, how do I pick out a whistle to start?” I had been discussing the same subject with a friend the night before and this is the conclusion that we had come to. High keys and small size are the only whistles for jigs and really fast music. That’s the reason that Irish music is almost always written in the key of D. It stands to reason that a large low whistle is going to play slower and is more suitable for ballads and waltzes etc. If you are not going to play Irish or fast
music and instead wish to play Traditional, Country and Western, John Denver, Blues, Ragtime (you get the idea!) then start out on a Low G or even a Low D and play away. A man that is almost seven foot tall is going to dislike playing a tiny little whistle with his fingers jammed together. There is no reason not to start out playing a whistle that fits your style and taste in music.

“Your whistles have no metal, wood or glue in the mouthpiece and most have none of those materials in the entire whistle, How come? Well, I am very leery of wooden plugs in the mouthpiece of a whistle , because many types of wood are toxic. A lot of people are allergic to walnuts for instance, and any contact with walnut oil or the nut itself can cause an extreme allergic reaction that can be fatal. Many exotic woods like coca bola and teak, that are fine for furniture, should not be put in your
mouth. A lot of whistle players chew on the mouthpiece and I heartily recommend not doing that for health reasons. Ten years ago I got an incredible reaction to a piece of butternut wood doing a small furniture project and almost ended up in the hospital. There is no reason to use treated woods in a whistle other than aesthetics as it has absolutely no bearing on the sound of the whistle at all.

If you chew on a mouthpiece made of preserved wood or wear it down and expose particles of wood, you are going to be open to an allergic reaction or worse. Wood is treated with plastic to make it machinable, wear resistant, and water prooft. It is basically a process to preserve wood that is unique in appearance to be made into writing pens and novelties on a wood lathe and not produced specifically for whistles. One of the most prized woods for pens is spalted wood. Spalting is caused by decay and mold
in the wood and is not recommended by anyone for consumption or contact in your mouth or digestive system.

Likewise metal residue in a whistle is harmful and chewing on a metal mouthpiece will absolutely ruin your tooth enamel over a short period of time. I do use a copper connector in a couple of models of whistles as slides, but you are not in contact with those in any manner because the slide is inside the body of the whistle and not in your mouth or hands.

“I know there is a good answer for this , but why do you use the Bristol white and tan kind of pipe in these whistles” There a several reasons, the first being that the material is a very high tech material and the quality control for this type of pipe is very good. It is made to carry both hot and cold potable(drinking) water and is extremely strong. It has a wonderful finish right from the factory and the inside bore is better than anything you would ever bore out of solid rod or wood. It has
properties like stretch, memory, and elastisity that can be used to good advantage in making whistles. It machines with regular wood working tools like bandsaws, routers, drills, and shaping machinery and there is practically no dust residue in the workplace. Because this type of plastic material is heavy, it does not float in the air like wood dust and can be collected on a static metal plate instead of off the floor. I make all the parts for the whistles and flutes from four sizes of piping and I don’t buy
any connectors from a supplier. As long as I have pipe in my inventory I will never run out of the pieces to produce or repair any model whistle I have or will make in the future. A whistle made from this type pipe is virtually unbreakable, plays outdoors when a metal instrument would freeze up, and contrary to some published information, always stays very white. Those people that would try to convince you that it ages and looks like old ivory after a period of time… just have a dirty whistle that needs a good
washing. I have used Bristol pipe for stakes outdoors in my garden that have been there for six or seven years and they are still bright white so that should be proof of the finish on the material.

“What kind of warranty do you give for your whistles?” I personally, don’t think a warranty is any good at all if you cannot talk to the person who is going to fix your problem and explain what you need. I am not a vendor, a distributor or even a good salesman. I listen well and it is my pleasure to make a customer happy. When someone takes the time to call or e-mail it means they have enough interest to spend a bit of time and get a proper answer to their inquiry. All the instruments that are
presently available and including future designs will be modular. Every instrument can be easily repaired, updated, and refurbished to brand new condition. I can send a replacement piece for your whistle or flute to correct any problem you might have on the same day you call. I’m never out of parts and it pays to check on updates available for a specific model and key of whistle(like a new style mouthpiece), because I will always be making changes to improve either the instruments or they way they are constructed.
If anyone has a damaged whistle, they need only to send it with round trip postage and I will refurbish it, check the tuning and replace parts if needed for as long as they own the whistle. There is a $10. flat charge to make the whistle like new.There is a restock charge of 25% on custom made whistles and flutes and returns are limited to seven days. Return shipping is the responsibility of the buyer.

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When I mentioned that whistles need good acoustics to be their very best, I began to make a list of places to play. My brother Alan and I used to team up on guitar and the banjo and do the entertaining around the campfire in the evening at St. Froid lake. Folks around the lake would hear the music and drop by the big fire and listen for a while and cook hot dogs and marshmallows. Some nights we would draw a large crowd and on the Fourth of July, we would have an all night party with fireworks over the lake.

There is no place better to play than a big lake at night with a strong echo and the woods for a background. I remembered that sound and when I vacation, I travel with a whistle tucked in my luggage. Overpasses and bridges make awesome ampitheatres for playing the whistle.

My brother in law in Connecticut possesses a railroad bridge made of solid concrete just down the street from his house. I discovered it on a walk to town and it is the greatest sounding place to play a whistle you could ask for. Passersby often stop and listen for a bit and remark that they would have never thought about playing music there.

Empty buildings of about every sort are sound stages just waiting to be tried. This is a picture of the largest barn in northern Maine and was the site of many gatherings and barn dances. Although it is now gone, many folks remember the wonderful acoustics it possessed.

I have played whistle for folks cleaning fish in Marathon, Florida in the Keys, ladies selling at yard sales along the road, people waiting for a bus, an Amish family in a furniture store in Lancaster, the Captain of a fishing boat looking for schools of fish, folks under my porch, visitors in the Acoustically Perfect Barn out back, and a lot of places in between.

There is a spot in the middle of my field that is bounded on one side by my neighbors house and on the other by my barn. If you stand exactly right, you get a double echo off both buildings and in the evening it is a great place to play some important music. I’m sure you can find places like that everywhere you go if you are just aware of what you are looking for.

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Well…the Mystic part comes from the fact that most folks cannot see how the instruments play. Without exception, everyone picking up the instrument puckers up and tries to play it like a regular flute,because the hole you blow in doesn’t look like a hole at all! These flutes and fifes are made to play automatically and require no special skill that a whistle player doesn’t already possess. The fingering is the same as a regular whistle that everyone learned to play and the tone is very clear and air requirements
are minimal.

Because these instruments are purpose built ( by that I mean that I designed them to be the way they are and perform in a certain way) they do not fall into the “traditional” manner of flutes and fifes other than a general way. I believe they are the right instrument for beginning players, folks with a bit of stiffness in the joints and all of us who just want to have fun and don’t have that much time to practice. Every time I say things like this, someone will write and correct my assumption by saying that “its
not a toy or plaything…this is a serious instrument with great sound” as a lady in Colorado did recently. Its hard to be humble when you get a comment like that.

The Flutes are in lower keys, A,G,Low D etc. and the instrument is larger. The Fifes are smaller with higher keys, Bb, C,D etc. The fifes are pleasant sounding instruments and not shrill, but they can be played much harder than a whistle and still behave themselves in the upper octave. Folks that try the G Auto flute for the first time generally just smile, because they like the sound,and then they say “I’ve always wanted to play a Sideways instrument!”

The appeal of playing these instruments is the fact that you really look great playing in the flute position and others notice your ability and recognize it as being exceptional. It is a great advantage to play the Auto Flute, because you never miss a note and the sound is right on key every time.

The Sideshooter mouthpiece is adjustable by sliding slightly forward or backward to improve the ease of playing the high notes or adding a bit more volume into the low notes. Rotate the mouthpiece slightly right or left (thickness of a piece of paper) and you can add as much chiff as you like or eliminate it entirely. The best feature of both the flute and fife is that they are easy to clean and fast to remove moisture from the windway in high humidity conditions. My grand daughter Marilyn is visiting this summer
for a month and she has been playing both instruments in the various keys and making comparisons for me. She just grins when I ask if they play OK. “Sure she says, you can play it sideways and thats just better.” Appearances are everything when you are sixteen and looking your very best.

The post What makes an Auto Flute and Fife Different? appeared first on The Whistlesmith.

When I was only six , my mother passed away and I was left to live with my Grandfather and Grandmother in Lake City, Florida. Granddaddy was a sign painter and a specialist in doing gold leaf lettering on windows, so he took me to the shop everyday and instead of drawing pictures to entertain myself, I learned to letter signs. Before I could read, I was filling in the centers of letters with paint and practicing making the letter B with a lettering brush.

My Grandmother was a registered nurse and would take me along to keep her company when she delivered a baby or had to tend to a sick neighbor. She made me memorize a poem every week and taught me to read and write and stand up in front of a group of people and recite passages from the books we read together.

One day I was told that Grandmother was ill and I would be going to live up North with my great uncle and aunt. So I left Florida and ended up in Presque Isle, Maine where everything was very different. I went to school in Maine in the winter, but every summer I stayed with Granddaddy to work in the sign shop as his apprentice. My two uncles were both illustrators and one taught me portrait painting and the other worked for Ringling Brothers circus and taught me how to letter circus wagons and do silk screen posters.

By the time I was thirteen I had a sign business in Maine in the winter and a full time job in Florida in the summer painting billboards. After I graduated from high school in 1962, I enlisted in the Navy for four years and closed my sign business until I returned in the winter of 1967.

While I was in the Navy, I went to Drafting & Illustrators School in California and graduated with honors. I served in Norfolk at Atlantic Intelligence Center for two years and while there I did a variety of off hour jobs in both drafting and illustration. I painted a large number of portraits of the officers at the station including NATO officers stationed there from all over the world. When I left Norfolk,Virginia, I was stationed on the U.S.S. Prairie AD15 in the Pacific. While on board, I did all phases of drafting and combat illustrations for the ship and its attached groups of destroyers. After hours, I produced over 300 velvet oil paintings and portraits of people and places we visited during three cruises through WESTPAC. More importantly, I learned how to run a complete machine shop, including lathes, milling machines and various skills such as pattern making and layouts from the men the R1 repair division.

When my enlistment ended, I went back to Maine and reopened my sign business. I got married to my wife Nadiene and we settled in to raise two sons Rod III and Jay C. The sign business was a good business and I added more silk screening to the mix of jobs and began to decals and realty signs for other sign shops in the area.

In 1975, the Beautify America law went into effect and signs along the highway were no longer allowed. So I built all my own equipment to silkscreen tee shirts and sweatshirts and began to promote hand drawn original artwork to sell to tourists and advertising logos and designs for advertising. In a few months, my brother Allan got out of the Air Force and I sold a contract to screen print for a major clothing distributor. Everything fell into place and the business grew until we had twenty people working, silk screening and shipping goods all over New England. Keeping up to the demand for artwork alone, kept three people busy and finally we computerized in about 1985 and began typesetting and doing artwork digitally. All the original drawings were scanned and archived into a catalog for future use. After almost twenty years of doing tourist based designs, my wife and I decided we would do only custom artwork and screening . The business became more like an advertising agency with the addition of specialty goods and closer customer service.

Over the years, I had accumulated a complete woodworking shop for manufacturing the equipment and frames needed in the silkscreen business. I looked at several options to use the tools on hand (including a 2000 sq. ft. shop) and decided to make high grade wooden urns that would be both decorative and useful. I designed a complete line of urns and started Artistic Urns as a part time enterprise. In four years, Artistic Urns went from an idea to an international business and became a solid and predictable part of production.

In the manufacture of the urns, I had many feet of wood cut-offs that began to mount up in my shop. I had experimented with fishing lures when my boys were home and there were several bass fishing plugs that had caught a lot of fish. One of these was Fat, Fat the Water Rat, a surface lure with twin propellers that had been exceptional at getting big smallmouth to hit. I decided to take all the extra wood and turn it into fishing lures in a numbered series that would appeal to fishing plug collectors. Fat, Fat the Water Rat was immediately successful and I have been making and selling limited edition collector lures every since.

The first whistles I remember were the ones that Victor Bear taught me to make from the limb of the poplar trees. Victor and his family were from the Tobic Reserve in New Brunswick, Canada and would come to Maine to pick potatoes in the fall of the year. In the spring, his father and older bother would cut white ash to make baskets and would be in our area for a few weeks. Victor came by on one of these visits and while we were playing, he showed me how to make a whistle by cutting a piece of poplar and beating it to remove the bark. After you whittled the inside to a proper shape, the bark was replaced and you had a whistle that played one or two notes. Over the years I taught hundreds of kids to make those whistles and many of them have remarked on how they taught their children and grandchildren to make a poplar whistle.

In school you learned to play the Tonette ( still made today) which was a plastic molded whistle similar to a recorder in the way it fingered. I inherited a very used ocarina in B flat and learned to play a few dozen tunes on it. Because it was clay the paint flaked off regularly and repaints to a new color were a weekly event. At least it was in a key and playable without squawks …I remember it being one octave only. It probably harbored germs of unknown quantities inside and always smelled musty even after a bath in soap and water. I had pretty much forgotten both of these instruments until my grand daughter Marilyn got interested in the tin whistles my brother had brought back from his trip to Ireland as a souvenir.

My brother Alan travels all over Europe and on his trips to Ireland, I would always say Bring me back a whistle and he always did. My collection grew and when my son Jay went to Ireland, he brought me back a whistle and it became a standard request to my friends and neighbors when they went on vacation. I had played the whistle a few times for Marilyn and she decide it would be a good addition to playing the clarinet. After a few days, she could hammer out several tunes and had decided she would like a more flute-like sounding whistle or at least one that did not SOUND LIKE A DUCK when you blew it too hard. I told her that we could design a whistle in the shop and make it to suit her requirements. Well… I should have sat down and taken a nap instead.

After two full years of prototypes and trial and error, I have arrived at the models on these pages. The variety of designs are really just a start to an adventure in invention that could last several lifetimes. Check in occasionally and see what happens along the way and be sure to mention Whistlesmith.com to your friends.

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The Seed Sock can be refilled over and over with oil rich seeds. Nothing attracts winter birds

like one of these socks in addition to a regular feeder. 

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Return the item in its original packaging in as New Condition within 14 days for an exchange of product or money back option. Buyer is responsible for all shipping and exchange of product costs.

WhistleSmith is not responsible for overseas VAT or country taxes. Check customs and brokerage costs before purchasing instruments going out of USA.

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The WhistleSmith and associated products are copyright 2003-2024 Rod Brewer Designs, Inc.

Contact

The Whistlesmith
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Mapleton, ME 04757

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To learn about more Rod Brewer Designs, Inc. you can visit the following sites:

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• artisticurns.com
• fishingplugs.com

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