Hoover Whitecap: Initial Impressions

elendil · Post by **elendil** » Fri Jan 23, 2004 6:44 pm

FWIW, I sent Mack an Oak C. He put a Whitecap on it and says it may be his favorite C. I happen to disagree with Mack, in that I can't imagine that it could equal his skipole/whitecap conical C that I have (recommended by Glauber--thanks again). BTW, as part of a somewhat complicated series of transactions (including the Oak C), Mack sent me a Sweetone C with a whitecap. Unfortunately, its octaves are a little out of synch, but it's a very beautiful sounding whistle. In its own way it's as remarkable a transformation as putting a whitecap on a Gen.

vaulter · Post by **vaulter** » Fri Jan 23, 2004 11:16 pm

Well here's a little history. I started playing a little over a year ago on a sweet-tone D.

I purchased an elfsong about a month after that and while I loved the appearance of it and the sound was wonderful I had some clogging problems with it and it was just a slow player for me (I couldn't play it as fast or as well as my sweet-tone) so I ended up selling the elfsong and just sticking with my sweet-tone.

I didn't play it much over the summer and started getting back into it again this fall and once again started the quest for a new whistle...although I enjoy my sweet-tone its kind of raspy & buzzy and has a terrible natural C and I kinda wanted to get away from the toy like appearance.

I first bought a 2nd hand low D mid-east brand and liked the sound but the reach was TERRIBLE.

I got enough christmas money that I bought a burke narrow bore al-pro. I got it within a few days of ordering it because he had it in stock. It was a beautiful instrument but it sounded a lot like my sweet-tone a little sweeter but very similiar. It also had a noticeable breathe jump when going from a 2nd octave F to a 2nd octave G...I'm not sure if thats a normal occurance or if I just got a clunker but I ended up returning it because looks alone wasn't worth a $100 price jump from my sweet-tone to the burke at least for me.

So I finally took the advice that I'd recived several time's in my quest for a whistle and e-mailed mack hoover to place an order. I really liked the idea of the two peice clare whistle so that I can pack it around easy so I bought a clare and ordered a whitecap from Mack. Well since the whitecap plus the clare that I bough myself I still had plenty of my $110 left from my burke return so I ordered a whitecap G with an aluminum barrel also.
Received em both in the mail today and they are SPECATACULAR. The clare with the original head was raspy.. squeeky... you name it ...pretty much unplayable. With the whitecap its everything I am looking for in a whistle. And the tenor G whistle is also just wonderful. They are nice looking whistles and are worth many times the price.

I will be ordering more whistles from Mack...I don't need to look any farther for great whistles.

Chuck_Clark · Post by **Chuck_Clark** » Sat Jan 24, 2004 9:54 am

glauber wrote:Same here, whitecap on D Generations, quickly becoming my favourite whistle. Incredibly efficient, so much so i can pretty much play for as long as i can hold my breath. I usually have plenty of stale air still in the lungs by the time i have to take more air in! Beautiful pure and penetrating sound, very balanced.

I added emphasis above because I think this statement absolutely sums up Mack's instruments and why I love them. Not that I have that many, narrow bore C and D, a CPVC D and my Whitecap/Acorn hybrid. Still, my lungs are not what they were a few decades back. I'd hate to even TRY to play a trombone any more. The wonderful thing about Mack's whistles is that I can simply play the music and not have to worry about where I'm going to get enough air to finish.

dDave · Post by **dDave** » Sat Jan 24, 2004 11:22 am

Howdy,

I just got my whitecap - nothing to put it on yet as I plan to make my own tubes. But wanted to add that dealing with Mark was a pleasure, and the whitecap showed up on my doorstep before I got around to paying for it!

Best,

Dave

vomitbunny · Post by **vomitbunny** » Mon Jan 26, 2004 8:36 pm

Pretty much everything everyone else has said. Uses no air. Very sweet. Good gosh you can blow this thing into the stratosphere. Too bad I don't know the fingerings up there. I wonder what a Bb or G would sound.....like.......no.....Whoa taking...over....must.........hold ...on......I just got the whitecap today......my...medicine! I need my medicine!
Wow. Quite a change in breath. Yesterday I was blowing on the syn and shaw mostly. This plays more like a dixon. Oh man. I could buy a LOT of whistles with my tax return.......

E = Fb · Post by **E = Fb** » Tue Jan 27, 2004 5:17 pm

I stabbed myself with a brass whistle barrel just above the left eye when removing a feadog mouthpiece. Be careful out there. If I had hit a little lower I'd be blind in one eye for sure.

Chuck_Clark · Post by **Chuck_Clark** » Wed Jan 28, 2004 7:01 pm

E = Fb wrote:I stabbed myself with a brass whistle barrel just above the left eye when removing a feadog mouthpiece. Be careful out there. If I had hit a little lower I'd be blind in one eye for sure.

So how much are you suing Feadog for? Or don't you folks in the Old Country suffer from the curse of too many ambulance chasers and frivolous lawsuits?

Redwolf · Post by **Redwolf** » Wed Jan 28, 2004 7:06 pm

E = Fb wrote:I stabbed myself with a brass whistle barrel just above the left eye when removing a feadog mouthpiece. Be careful out there. If I had hit a little lower I'd be blind in one eye for sure.

Oh goodie...I finally get to do the "mom" thing!

"Be careful...don't you know you could put an eye out with one of those things???"

I've always wanted to say that!

Redwolf

DCrom · Post by **DCrom** » Wed Jan 28, 2004 7:15 pm

Redwolf wrote:
E = Fb wrote:I stabbed myself with a brass whistle barrel just above the left eye when removing a feadog mouthpiece. Be careful out there. If I had hit a little lower I'd be blind in one eye for sure.
Oh goodie...I finally get to do the "mom" thing!

"Be careful...don't you know you could put an eye out with one of those things???"

I've always wanted to say that!

Redwolf

Don't brag! (rimshot sound effect)

Actually, I find I'm channeling my mother more and more these days - quite a feat, since she's still alive and well.

Both my next-younger brother and I were recipients of The Mother's Curse, though - "someday, I hope you'll grow up and have children just like you!!!"

I used to think she was so strict and unreasonable - I mean, what's wrong with an 8-year-old riding five or six miles away from home without asking permission? Or bringing that really neat water snake he caught home in his pocket? Or jumping off the roof of the house? Or . . . (you get the picture)

feadogin · Post by **feadogin** » Wed Jan 28, 2004 8:46 pm

These sound really interesting!

Everyone keeps saying they are quiet....

Just to make things more concrete for me, how do they compare in volume to an Oak or Gen.?

Justine

Darwin · Post by **Darwin** » Wed Jan 28, 2004 10:12 pm

I just got my Whitecap today and rushed to put it on my Feadog tube. The Feadog was originally extremely raspy, and it was hard to get a steady tone out of it. After experimenting with tweaking, I decided to take the easy way out--and I'm glad I did.

The Whitecap didn't go on easily, though. I did some work on the Feadog tube with various grades of wet-and-dry sandpaper, added a little graphite, and finally held the tube against an ice cube. It still took a bit of work to get it on and into position, but now it's just right. I don't think I'll be able to tune it easily, though. Fortunately, it's pretty much right on pitch.

It took a few minutes to learn how little air it needed--especially in the lower octave, but it wasn't really that hard to adjust to. The tone now is very pure and sweet. It's also very quiet. In particular, going to the top of the upper octave is much more pleasant than either the Dixon or my new Burke narrow Pro D aluminum.

I also have a Clarke Original, but I don't like it. Even after flattening the arch of the windway a good bit, it still takes a lot of air, and I don't find the tone appealing at all. My first impression of it was pretty good, but the more I played it, the less I liked it. I doubt that I'll ever play it again.

I like the tone of the Burke the best of the lot, but high G and up require a substantial increase in air, which results in an equally substantial increase in volume. The Whitecap-Feadog exhibits a much less severe increase--all the way to the high B, and even the high C# isn't too bad.

I'm sure the W-F is going to be my most played whistle for a while. In my situation, quiet is good, and it's the easiest to play on tunes that go above second octave E. All-in-all, the tone is very pleasant. Still, I do like the sound of the Burke a lot.

The Dixon is pretty loud by comparison, and also less stable in tone than any of the others. I've played all of them into my electronic guitar tuner, and the Dixon's notes tend to wobble and jump around the most. Also, there's some kind of discrepancy between the first octave C# and the second octave D that makes the C# sound out of tune. Based on the tuner, I think that the Ds might be a bit sharp in relation to all the other notes, but the discrepancy really stands out when going from the higher D to the C#.

Without its tube, and de-tweaked, the Feadog mouthpiece now sounds a lot like that little duckling in the Tom and Jerry cartoons.

Now, what I want to know is, will I be sorry if I try to peal the yellow sticker off of the Feadog tube? I don't want to end up with a blotchy spot in its place.

Rhose · Post by **Rhose** » Thu Jan 29, 2004 9:45 am

I'm guessing I have missed it, but how does one go about ordering a Whitecap?

peteinmn · Post by **peteinmn** » Thu Jan 29, 2004 11:11 am

Rhose wrote:I'm guessing I have missed it, but how does one go about ordering a Whitecap?

Rhose:

Go here http://home.bresnan.net/~mackhoover/index.htm then click on the "ordering" page.

AngeloMeola · Post by **AngeloMeola** » Thu Jan 29, 2004 11:44 pm

feadogin wrote:These sound really interesting!

Everyone keeps saying they are quiet....

Just to make things more concrete for me, how do they compare in volume to an Oak or Gen.?

Justine

I did some measurements about a year ago. Check http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php ... highlight=

Here are the numbers if you don't want to check the original thread.

Oak average volume 95.2 decibels max volume 99 decibels
Sweetone average 96.3 max 99
Doolin average 95.4 max 98.6
Hoover Whitecap average 95.6 max 98.6
Clare average 96.4 max 99.7
Susato Kildare standard bore average 102.7 max 108

Norm · Post by **Norm** » Sun Feb 01, 2004 12:39 pm

peeplj wrote:I ordered a whitecap from Mack Hoover. This is a replacement fipple that fits on a standard Generation-sized tube (Feadog, Oak, Acorn, etc). It is made of white polymer--thus "whitecap." It is $20.

This doesn't sound like something to get all worked up over when you first hear about it. I figured I would buy one and stick it on a Feadog tube just to see.

Well, I've had some trouble getting the original fipple of a Feadog, but did have an old brass Generation D tube handy when the whitecap arrived, so I used it to try it out.

WOW.

No other word suffices.

$20 for the whitecap, $6 for the tube, and you get a whistle that is now as good as any I've ever played.

The volume is very soft, just slightly louder and with a bit more bite than the Burke Al-Pro D. The octaves are beautifully balanced: you can play all the way up without it going shrill at all. The tone is just lovely, clean and clear but bright, not dull at all.

I would recommend a whitecap to anyone. It's the best $20 you'll ever spend on your whistling.

--James

Just experienced the same thing. You're right and now I have a Generation D w/ Hoover Whitecap & Hoover F. I'm starting to develop a collection

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Hoover Whitecap: Initial Impressions

Just got mine today.

Re: Hoover Whitecap: Initial Impressions