Jim McCabe emailed the following re: Wilson Woodwinds on 8/3/02

Hi Dale!

I was recently able to sample the Wilson. My opportunity came at the Deep River Ancient Muster, the largest annual gathering of fifers and drummers in the world.  Imagine a colonial Woodstock. Anyway, I concur with your impression of the whistle, but I know a little more about Wilson Woods. I've been buying instruments from them since 1974, and their quality and service have always been excellent. There has never been a long waiting list for their products. They are a maker of high-end fifes and piccolos. Their fifes are the McDonagh line, Regimental and Presentation models, both available in 6, 10 and 11 hole configurations.  These fifes are the choice of most of the top fifers in America, and are used by The Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps (the U.S. Army's corps). The piccolo line is the Roy Seaman designed models, made from blackwood. I don't know much about concert piccolos, but I know that these are very expensive ones! They are distributed through the Gemeinhardt flute company.

There is a Wilson Woods website, but I don't think they sell anything through the site:

http://www.wilsonwoods.com/

The whistles and fifes are sold by fifeanddrum.com, but so far only the fifes are on the site. You'd have to contact them by e-mail and inquire about the whistles. Dave Noel is the proprietor. He's a great guy, and a member of The Old Guard for nearly 20 years:

http://fifeanddrum.com/

Cooperman sells the McDonagh fifes, along with some of their own manufacture. They also make beautiful rope tension drums (I own 2 of them) and bodhrans. I don't know if they'll handle the whistles:

http://www.cooperman.com/

The Gemeinhardt site has some pics of the Seaman piccolo:

http://www.gemeinhardt.com/products/piccolos/seaman.html

Always looking out for you,

Jim