Thoughts on Woodi whistles?

[Brent Lyons]

I ran across a whistle on Amazon this morning that looks passingly like a Susato but it is branded 'Woodi':



http://www.amazon.com/Woodi-WI-921-Iris ... ny+whistle

I've purchased enough 'cheap but hopeless' whistles to break me of impulse buying without at least a bit more information. Any thoughts on this brand?

[whistlecollector]

I ran across a whistle on Amazon this morning that looks passingly like a Susato but it is branded 'Woodi':

http://www.amazon.com/Woodi-WI-921-Iris ... ny+whistle

I've purchased enough 'cheap but hopeless' whistles to break me of impulse buying without at least a bit more information. Any thoughts on this brand?

These sorts of whistles have been discussed here before:
See viewtopic.php?f=1&t=98785&hilit=susato+copy

Why buy the knock-off when actual Susatos are not terribly expensive at all? And you can get them easily enough on Amazon as well.

Generally speaking, it seems there are pros and cons to these whistles: on the one hand, they may be cheaper; on the other hand, there seem to be some technical / QC complaints (which I guess might place them in the "cheap but hopeless" category) & there is also the ethical issue. How comfortable are you buying a whistle the design of which was copied from a known manufacturer and is being imported in direct competition with his products and for which he gets no recompense for his own design and work? Just asking!

[Brent Lyons]

Thank you for the link - I looked briefly but not successfully. It didn't seem like something that I would actually want to purchase, but I wasn't familiar with the manufacturer. My experience has been that one nearly always 'gets what they pay for'. These whistles may look like a Susato or other brand but I suspect they would quickly end up forgotten at the bottom of a drawer. That is one of the many wonderful things about a musical instrument: it doesn't just matter how it looks. So, I don't see this item or its brethren taking work from any of the craftsmen here.

Besides, I'm still quite smitten with my Impempe and Busman, so I don't think that I'll be in the market any time soon...

[Mitch]

Wow.

The Susato company is so far down the road in the perfection in ABS whistles .. who would even try to knock them off?

I know that big high-end brands like Gucci actually encourage knock-offs. But in this case, the dynamic is not appropriate. You need a 100:1 price point separation for that to work ..

We already have Generation .. why make another brand where the retailer ends up with 90% in the reject-clearance stand?

I encourage people to look up the notions of Giffen and Veblen goods. These categories violate everything you thought you knew about supply and demand.

Adam Smith is dead a few hundred years - and things have moved on since then.

Supply/demand is not nearly as stable as we once thought. It is truly non-linear.