Whistles which sound like the Clarke Original ?

[aguysomewhere]

Hello everyone,

I've recently started learning the tin whistle, and I'm currently looking for the 'right' whistle (I mean one that I'll really like practicing with and playing every day).

I've already bought quite a few, but there's none which is really to my liking yet.
I've got - all in D - a Generation, a Feadog, a Feadog pro, an Oak Whistle, a Clarke Original, a Shush Whistle, and a Dixon DX005. Out of those, I really like the Shush and the Clarke Original (they sound great in my opinion, and have a low volume), although the Shush has a tendency to 'squeak' which is really hard to control, and the Clarke requires a lot of air (and unfortunately, I don't have the lung capacity of an olympic swimmer ).

So I'm looking for whistles which sound like the Clarke Original ('breathy', flute-like tone, ideally not too loud), but which require less air. Is there any brand/model that you can recommend ?

I'm thinking about getting a TWZ whistle, but I've seen mixed reviews about those, so I'm not sure.


Thanks in advance for your replies !

Kind regards,

Jonathan

[Mr.Gumby]

Have you considered the Clarke Sweetone?

[aguysomewhere]

I have a Sweetone too. I had forgotten to mention it . I don't like its tone... I feel like I'm playing a cheap plastic recorder when I play it.

[ecadre]

The modern-day Clarke whistles are not the same as the ones when I were a lad. Actually, they were only in C back then, but what I mean is huge wind-way cavity that you have to blow into and the strange shape of the labium. I'm not going to tell you how to do it, or even recommend it (whistle destruction is not my aim in life) but ... there are instructions I think you can easily look up up telling you how to square off the wind-way and straighten up the labium.

Failing that (or possibly better than that), you could try getting one of Dave Shaw's whistles which are made to a similar design to Clarke "original", but are more refined.

PS. it might be an idea to pick one whistle and get a bit of proficiency on it before going on an epic whistle hunt. Your attitude to different whistles will likely change with experience.

[Terry McGee]

Interesting, ecadre. Mr Shaw seems to be showing us how Clarke's should be making their whistles!

[RoberTunes]

I have a Clarke Original and know the huge air requirement and very breathy tone. Not sure if it's what you'd like, but
consider the Shearwater whistles, which have a purer tone than the Clarke but have a breathy part to the tone too. Of course
they're not nearly as demanding of air requirement and play so much better throughout the range. A more rounded and
more appealing tone if you ask me, but it's up to you. In addition, for a very well made whistle, the price is very reasonable.
Website: https://www.shearwaterwhistles.com/

Reviewer Nathaniel Dowell does a great performance review here of the Shearwater D, G and A whistles, with other whistles
used so you can hear Shearwater vs other brands as well as the differences going from soprano to alto range.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reEBskc ... o&index=58

[Terry McGee]

Interesting, thanks RoberTunes. His brass soprano D caught my eye, especially since we'd been discussing similar looking ones possibly being made in Asia. But on closer look, his has two distinguishing features:
- a more robust chamfer on the end of the head where it meets the tube (the others are just a little rounded), and
- the windway cover extends past the window and ramp, deepening the window



Which again had me wondering, what does deepening the window actually do? So I took my poor old Killarney whistle which is very similar looking but without the deepening cover overlap, and cut and slit two pieces of irrigation tubing, one to extend the cover past the window and ramp, the other to increase the diameter of the cover leading up to the window. I felt in playing it that it had gained a bit of focus. Not a lot, but I'd rather have it than not have it. And this tubing is pretty thin walled.

Later, back in front of the computer, I experimented playing low G on the D whistle into a spectrum analyser while adding and subtracting my finger tips to artificially deepen the window. It looked to me that deepening the window increased the even harmonic content. So probably not imaginary. Not exactly rigorous laboratory grade conditions, I'll admit, but probably worth some further attention. Unless anyone can direct us to where this has already been studied?

The other odd thing I noticed is if I scale my screen so that the image above is about the same length as my Killarney whistle held up to it, the location of the holes are quite dramatically different. Much more so that I would have thought possible. And his much bigger in size. Goes to show how much I know! His appears also to be of larger bore, so that might go some way to explaining the differences. Hmmmm....

[Moof]

His brass soprano D caught my eye, especially since we'd been discussing similar looking ones possibly being made in Asia. But on closer look, his has two distinguishing features:
- a more robust chamfer on the end of the head where it meets the tube (the others are just a little rounded), and
- the windway cover extends past the window and ramp, deepening the window

I think these really are fully handmade by a fella originally from Tasmania (who presumably finds the northeast a bit draughty – I find it draughty and I'm from Yorkshire).

I've been meaning to try one of his high whistles when I have some spare cash, I liked the tone of the one I've heard played.


PS: Are the people having trouble posting here, by the way? I drafted a post a couple of days ago and gave up after trying to add it half a dozen times over two days. Not entirely hopeful about adding this one, but I'll give it a try.

[Moof]

I've just remembered that Shearwater also does a high D with an additional bottom C, which I haven't seen elsewhere.

[Terry McGee]

PS: Are the people having trouble posting here, by the way? I drafted a post a couple of days ago and gave up after trying to add it half a dozen times over two days. Not entirely hopeful about adding this one, but I'll give it a try.

Yeah, all the time. I get the alarming error message:

This page isn’t working
forums.chiffandfipple.com is currently unable to handle this request.
HTTP ERROR 500

[Terry McGee]

If I "preview" the message first, the preview works fine, but I still get the problem when I submit. But I can edit the message and submit the changes without problem.

[Nanohedron]

PS: Are the people having trouble posting here, by the way? I drafted a post a couple of days ago and gave up after trying to add it half a dozen times over two days. Not entirely hopeful about adding this one, but I'll give it a try.

Yeah, all the time. I get the alarming error message:

This page isn’t working
forums.chiffandfipple.com is currently unable to handle this request.
HTTP ERROR 500

We're aware of the issue and are working on it. In the meantime, when you get the Error message, that actually tells you the submission was successful; just hit the back-arrow until you're back to the previous post; hit refresh, and you will see your submitted post, as intended.

[Moof]

We're aware of the issue and are working on it. In the meantime, when you get the Error message, that actually tells you the submission was successful; just hit the back-arrow until you're back to the previous post; hit refresh, and you will see your submitted post, as intended.

I was getting a different message (I can't remember the wording, but it didn't mention the site by name). Luckily those posts didn't work, otherwise I'd have been wibbling on about a Chinese whistle in about eight identical messages.

Apologies to the OP for taking this off-topic.

[aguysomewhere]

Thanks a lot for your replies !

I'll have a look at Dave Shaw's whistles, and at the Shearwater ones too.

[aguysomewhere]

I have a Clarke Original and know the huge air requirement and very breathy tone. Not sure if it's what you'd like, but
consider the Shearwater whistles, which have a purer tone than the Clarke but have a breathy part to the tone too. Of course
they're not nearly as demanding of air requirement and play so much better throughout the range. A more rounded and
more appealing tone if you ask me, but it's up to you. In addition, for a very well made whistle, the price is very reasonable.
Website: https://www.shearwaterwhistles.com/

Reviewer Nathaniel Dowell does a great performance review here of the Shearwater D, G and A whistles, with other whistles
used so you can hear Shearwater vs other brands as well as the differences going from soprano to alto range.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reEBskc ... o&index=58

I see that Shearwater makes a 'wide bore' high D whistle, and a regular one. Has anybody tried those two ? What's the difference between them ? Which one would you recommend ?