Low D

[JTU]

Hello All
I have an MK tuneable Low D which I bought new a few months ago. It is a really nice instrument relatively easy to play and great to look at - it’s green by the way.
I have discovered that it wants to be blown with some force especially in the lower octave. If I don’t blow it with the required force it clogs fairly quickly whereas if I really get in to it and blow with plenty of enthusiasm it doesn’t clog. What also amazes me is that you would assume with enthusiastic blowing you could easily accidentally squawk into the upper octave. You actually don’t and when you need to get to the next octave it’s just there and easy to manage. The only issue with all this is that I cannot play the whistle quietly because when it clogs the D notes both high and low become problematic. Am I playing it the way it was designed?

Cheers
JTU

[pancelticpiper]

I've owned a half-dozen MK Low D's and I didn't have clogging problems with them.

But I know from personal experience that every player is different. One player can clog a whistle quickly, another player can play the same whistle in the same environment and not experience clogging. Each person blows a different amount of moisture- it's something that we Highland pipers are quite aware of, and the reason that numerous Moisture Control Systems have been developed for the Highland pipes.

I clog Overton-style Low Whistles quickly. I do the dish soap & toothpaste thing, which works for me.

I did find that MK Low D's had to be blown in a slightly unusual way in order to have both octaves in tune: due to the 2nd octave being a tad sharper than usual I had to blow the low octave more strongly than on most whistles and blow the 2nd octave more softly than most whistles. In other words the pressure differential between the octaves was less on the MK Low D than on most Low D whistles.

[retired]

In addition - the MK Kelpies that I've had are loud whistles no doubt especially in the 2nd octave. Kelpies are very similar to the tunable MK like yours.