Alison, glad to see you've found a world beyond Generation!

My two loudest whistles are a Susato D tunable (Dublin I think) and a brass whistle made by Michael Burke. The latter was expensive, and slightly under-developed when I bought mine, but easily tuned and close to being a fine instrument by any standard. It cost about 100 US dollars I think, which was a good price for a hand-made brass instrument. (See Chiff & Fipple.)

The Susato is pretty well in tune within itself, but the high octave does need plenty of attack. Tunes that flick between the registers can be tricky. I'm a bit wary of the "Battering Ram" jig, for instance, because of an isolated high D in the A part.My guess is that this is the same characteristic that everyone else complains of, because I've played several Susato Ds and they are all the same. I suspect it's caused by the thickness of the plastic, and have wondered about chamfering the finger holes to remove their "walls".

There are first-class players around who play Susatos with no evident problems. They must think that whatever effort this takes is repaid by the loud but pleasant tone.

At Warwick folk festival yesterday I tried out three Tony Dixon high Ds, hoping they would have the Susato tone but without the high-register problem. In fact some of the lowest notes were very weak, volume was on the low side and changing register was a bit squeaky. After 15 minutes of sampling I was not convinced that I'd get along with a Dixon. However I did buy a Dixon low D, tunable, which at 39 GBP was better value for money than I could ignore. The tuning range is huge (as indeed it is on the high D) and the thing plays easily across the whole range

Wit the high D, I really was hoping the Dixon would be the answer, but for me the tunable Susato is still deidedly the better of the two.

In my experience, the breath needed and volume are directly related, and no manufacturer seems to have found a way of giving more volume without needing mroe breath. My impression is that the Burke is perhaps slightly more efficient than most in terms of breath to volume ratio, but I'm not absolutely sure. Do others have views, or has anyone (Bob Bolton perhaps>) attempted to measure these factores?