Mini-review: "Shush" whistle from bigwhistle.co.uk

[avanutria]

I was wandering around the Bigwhistle site earlier this week for some reason, and saw an advert for the Shush whistle.

Especially tweaked for Mr. Wetyer by ‘Shush’ (a new ‘Tweaker’ to Big Whistle) we have The Generation Folk Whistle that has been modified to play extra especially quiet. Another brief for the people at ‘Shush’ was to keep the price as low as possible – this has been kept to £12.00.

So quite simply a very quiet whistle – this is currently the quietest we have. The ‘Shush’ is perfect for intimate practice. Additionally it’s also tuneable.

Beware with this instrument – you hardly need to breath down it to play a note. So there you go – by ‘Shush’ you know who – a very, very quiet whistle.

Recommended for the player who is looking for specifically quiet playing qualities.

As I am always keen on quiet whistles I decided to get one. £4 shipping to London, and two days later it was in my hands, nicely packed with a free complimentary light blue case - hard plastic, but thin, so good for temporary protection but not long-term.

The whistle is tweaked very professionally with a small brass plate attached to the fipple. Other than that it looks exactly the same - no tweaker's mark or anything. I did a quick comparison with a non-tweaked green-top Gen that Martin owns and the Shush was definitely a lot quieter. Like other quiet whistles such as the Laughing, it will require some getting used to, as it is very easy to overblow and squeak. But I'm very pleased with it and am looking forward to trying it out some more. I hope to compare it to my Laughing directly soon, but unfortunately I can't compare it with a Hoover narrow bore as I no longer own one of those.

I like it, and it's inexpensive, at least on this side of the pond. If you're looking for a quiet whistle and don't want to muck about with self-tweaking, you might consider one of these.

[blackhawk]

Wow, that looks exactly like the Irvine tweak that Tommy's been doing!

[benbrad]

Please try to post a close up of the fipple. I would like to see just what they have done to it. Thanks.

[Tommy]

Wow, that looks exactly like the Irvine tweak that Tommy's been doing!

That is correct Darvis. The Irvine tweak is the predecessor to the original ''Shush"! I chose to make them using the Feadog whistle with its tapered wind way. I ordered a box of 12 D Feadog from Phil at Big whistle and he sent ten in a box. It seems they don't sell boxes of 12 in the UK. I contacted Phil and he called me on the phone and long story short. I begin shipping the Shush quiet whistle to Big Whistle until Phil decided to sell Big Whistle and retire. The new owners decided to make their own version of Shush that would save the cost of shipping from the USA. I had told Phil years ago that the Shush name belonged to Big Whistle and I have no copyright.