Products and Pricing

Each 3rd Edition Celtic Whistle is totally handmade by me from scratch in my shop daily. They are constructed from a polymer that I mold by hand for my unique windway design. I then give them a finish that looks and feels exactly like wood, with brown or black color options. The 3rd Edition brings fipples made from black Delrin, whereas they were previously wooden, as well as a sturdier finish. So, no more warping or shrinking of fipples! These will last forever!

When you receive your 3rd edition Celtic Whistle from me, it will now also have this embossed signature. If you see "new" whistles for sale anywhere that claim to have been made by me, but they don't bear this signature, do not trust them. 

Brown whistles have a black lettered signature and black whistles have gold letters. 

I also offer A=432hz or A=444hz root tuning by special request. I can even do other exotic scales for these whistles, like the Pentatonic Minor, Ahavah Rabbah or the natural minor. Email me for more information on custom scales if interested at orders@chriswallflutes.com

I only offer these tuneable versions of the Celtic Whistles at certain times of year, and usually only sell them as $1.00 auctions on ebay. Check me out on ebay at: https://www.ebay.com/usr/theancientpaths

Did I mention that you can have all of the benefits of a handmade instrument for as little as 1/4 the price of my competitors?

All pricing is in USD. Domestic shipping charge is $8.00. All international shipments have minimum $25.00 shipping charge. 

High D:       $60.00

High C:       $65.00

Mezzo Bb:  $70.00

Mezzo A:    $75.00

Mezzo G:    $80.00

Low F:         $85.00

*Low Eb:     $95.00

*Low D:       $100.00

*Low C:       $110.00

*A key that is difficult for beginners to play and may require piper's grip.

When you order from me you are essentially pre-ordering the exact whistle that you want, which I will make to your specifications as soon as I have worked my way to your spot on the wait list. 

The three makers I look up to most: Copeland, O'Riordan, and Sindt, all had wait lists far longer than mine at some point in their careers. Wait lists are unfortuantely "par for the course" when it comes to high quality truly handmade whistles. 

As the old saying goes, "Good things come to those who wait."

If you aren't sure why you need a Sweetbrass, then 1.) watch this video and listen to the high notes, and 2.) play that same song on your current whistle and you'll know why you need one:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yx9YhU31IW0

Each Sweetbrass whistle features the same head design you will be familiar with from my Custom Celtic Whistle line, but the whistle body is made of very thin-walled brass. These produce a little more volume than does the standard Celtic Whistle line, but not at all at the expense of the sweetness of tone, as is often the case with whistles. I only offer these in the key of High D at the moment, but development is underway for several other keys, so stay tuned for updates! 

Each Sweetbrass whistle has a tuneable head. This means if you push the brass tube all the way up into the head, the whistle will play in A=444hz, which is slightly sharp of standard. With the body pulled out a bit, the whistle will play standard. Pull the body out some more and you will play around A=432hz, which is flat of standard. So, no matter what weather or other musicians may throw at you, this whistle has you covered.   

Each Sweetbrass whistle features a carefully selected thin-walled brass body. Brass is known to give woodwinds a unique "light" and "pure" tonality. It also comes in very precise sizing options, so each and every different key of Sweetbrass Whistle has it's own unique bore size, which sets it apart from most other types of whistles which commonly share bore sizes across different keys, which can cause variation in performance.Not so with the Sweetbrass whistle. 

 This clip shows the tonal complexity of these masterful instruments: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQsXH3SUypo

These exquisite works of art are each the products of literally decades of work by highly skilled craftsman. A perfect bamboo stalk is harvested only when totally mature, then fired for a light curing, then left to air cure for preferably a decade, but no less than two years. Once cured, the stalk is carefully worked by a craftsman inside and outside until you have an instrument that plays in 3 octaves. No small feat for a flute body that grew straight from the ground. Some Shakuhachi have natural bores (Jinashi) and some have very elaborate plaster cast bores (Jiari). There is endless debate surrounding which is superior. I'm firmly in the Jinashi camp. For formal practice you will need a 1.8 size Shakuhachi, which plays in Low D. 

The mouthpiece area, or "song mouth" in Japanese is where the air is blown to make the sound. Because bamboo is brittle and fragile when cut thin, even when fully cured, a small insert of buffalo horn is installed into the blowing edge. This reduces the likelihood of breakage, and is replaceable, unlike the bamboo itself.  The shape of the insert will either be a triangle (Kinko-ryu) or a rounded "smiley face" shape (Tozan-ryu) depending on the school the craftsman belongs to. The blowing edge is cut to a very precise angle to allow for perfect octave balance. The player may then adjust their head position to cause it to play sharp or flat, or to inflect as desired.

More modern Shakuhachi will typically have a joint where it can be broken down into two pieces. This does not serve as a tuning slide, as with joints on other types of flutes. It is still a very elaborately designed joint, nonetheless, as it uses actual bamboo for the male side of the joint, whereas other types of flutes typically insert machined metal for the joint to be safe. Shakuhachi bamboo stalks are almost always harvested with the root section intact. The individual roots are then filed down to where they only barely stick out at the bottom. This adds incredible aesthetic value, but it is rumored that this also served a somewhat martial purpose in antiquity. It is said that after swords were banned from being carried in cities that the Samurai would bring along their Shakuhachi to serve as a club in case a fight broke out. When you feel how sturdy and rigid that root section is, it is easy to see how it could be used as a weapon.  

Here's a link to my favorite Chinese Melody "Trail of the Angels" performed by its author Chen Yue on the Xiao: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7J2R11x_qHc

Perhaps the most versatile of all simple system flutes, the Xiao offers a wide range of flute players  an old world option that can still compete in tone and  range with the modern Boehm flute. The Xiao in its more ancient 6 hole form is actually the ancestor of the Shakuhachi, and is one of the oldest flutes in the world, being seen in Chinese archaeology from over 2000 years ago. Unlike Shakuhachi, the Xiao can be crafted from a wider range of bamboo species, typically being made from purple bamboo in China. 

The Xiao features a very unique mouthpiece area design. It is formed by cutting a circular notch into the bamboo precisely at the node. The more traditional flutes will then leave as much of the node as possible to help seal the windway and serve as a chin rest. Unlike the Shakuhachi, the Xiao's windblade angle faces inside the flute body, similarly to how a Native American Flute's does. This allows for a different range of tones and affects the bore profile necessary to produce them. 

The Xiao traditionally had 6 holes throughout most of its antiquity. Within the last couple hundred years, as Western influence grew, the 8 hole Xiao design began appearing, since it made playing western scales much easier. Both styles feature a thumb hole, but the 8 hole design features extra holes at the left middle finger for a flattened 6th, as well as at the ring finger for a flattened 3rd. I make both styles of Xiao, and in both of the popular keys.