Tin whistle part of several folk traditions. Whistles are a prevalent starting instrument in English traditional music, Scottish traditional music and Irish traditional music, since they are often cheap (under US$10), relatively easy to start with (no tricky embouchure such as found with the flute), and the fingerings are nearly identical to those on the traditional six holed flute (Irish flute, baroque flute). The tin whistle is a good starting instrument to learn the uilleann pipes, which has similar finger technique, range of notes and repertoire. The tin whistle is the most popular instrument in Irish traditional music today. In recent years
Low whistle produce a metal replica and Finbar and himself spent many hours in the shed at the back of Bernard's house in Rugby, designing, testing and ultimately perfecting the flute. The first few were named the Furey/Overton flute but when Bernard gave up his job to hand make them full-time, they decided to market them as The Overton Flute. The first resulting instrument was essentially an oversized tin whistle made of copper pipe with a wooden plug but was quickly replaced by the aluminium one. While Overton was unsatisfied with its performance, he subsequently refined the design with an all-aluminium construction,