Very nice sound clips in this thread.

Just adding links to some of my posts here, to make them easier to find.

Susato O-Ring tweak: viewtopic.php?p=655549#p655549
Low D thumb strap: viewtopic.php?t=56767
Whistle mutes: viewtopic.php?p=895669#p895669
Whistle holder: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=60277
Frankendixon Eb: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=70819
Goldie/Overton floss tweak: viewtopic.php?p=930845#p930845

Also, Jerry Freeman's Generation tweaks: http://www.chiffandfipple.com/tweak.html

I have tweaked Generations (from BB to F), Waltons (C/D) and Feadogs (C/D) and Clares. Most of theam to hush them down somewhat so i can play them at night.

All of them lost some of their breathiness and volume with my tweaks and thats why i tweaked them with my brass inserts. Especially the nickel ones sound beautifully, almost as if they were made of wood (feadogs). But also the brass ones just work out just fine.

I tweak all whistles with plastic heads like Waltons/Clares/Feadogs/Generations. Just send me your plastic head and i will tweak it to be softer and less breathier so you won't wake up your neigbhours playing at night.

Mind you: Your whistle will need some breath control after my tweaking. Just breathing will be enough with most of the whistles.

I just want to say that I managed to turn a Clare whistle from a reasonable whistle into an exceptional whistle yesterday.
I have a two piece one that is very good, but I keep it in a cigar case and not in my whistle case. I had the chance of a Clare one piece whistle cheaply so I bought it but the sound was not very good at all. I put it aside until yesterday when I decided to have a go at at it.

The head is removable for tuning anyway so I pulled it off. The end of the tube was very ragged and slightly compressed where a pipe cutter had been used to cut the tubing so I sanded that down smooth. Then I did the poster putty tweak in the head, applied a bit of slide grease to the end of the tube and put it back together. It is now a very sweet sounding whistle. I tried it just with the poster putty tweak, but the biggest change was made by filing down the ragged edge of tubing. If you have a Clare this has to be worth checking.

My Clare whistle was sounding a bit like it had asthma. I followed Gordon's advice and cleaned up the burred top end of the brass tube. It has made quite a difference with a cleaner tone and easier octave change (speaking as a rank beginner).
I bought a Clarke Sweetone a few weeks ago for a more even sound through the range. I am happy with the Sweetone, which is a pleasure to play, but I like the brass construction of the Clare, although they could afford to improve their finish.
A little shop tip for potential tweakers: Drill a 1/2" hole through a block of wood (eg. 3"x2" pine) - preferably using a drill press - and insert the tube through until the burred ended is flush with the block. Use a fine file against the block to remove the burr while holding the tube on the other side of the block. Finish up by running the tang of the file carefully around the filed edges. This will keep the tube end square and avoid scratching the outside, which can happen with sandpaper.
PS: I just noticed that this thread was not originally for DIY tips but I thought Gordon might be pleased that someone out there is taking notice.
Cheers from Tasmania,
Peter

I have just added 'blue tack' aka 'poster putty' to the cavity under the windway of a Dixon solid brass high D (DX203), and I think the effect was a marked improvement in the high end of the upper octave. This tweak might apply to several Dixon whistles as I suspect that the head is common (at least design-wise) to C and D whistles with brass, aluminium(DX006), and polymer(DX005) bodies.

Has anyone else tried this?

I tried it on my Dixon Trad after reading this last weekend. The whistle went from playing a tad flat w/ the fipple in all the way, to now being in tune. Plus the little buzz I had when playing the D (covering the bottom hole) disappeared. I've done the poster putty tweak on some of my other whistles, but for some reason never tried it on the DIxon. Thanks for mentioning it.

Hi

Following the above remarks concerning tweaking. I thought some members might be interested in a tweak that i finally complead today. I have owned a Dixon Polymer Non-Tuneable low D for about 15 months. Whilst I liked the sound of this whistle I found that the Lower D, E, Fsharp and G were relatively weak compared to the note in the upper register. It would only reach the botton half of the second octave up to G.

I at first managed to improved the strength of the bottom 4 notes by inserting a wedge consisting of standard 3/4" plastic water pipe. The wedge is 3and3/4inches long, 5/8" one end and zero inches the other. This was placed in the bottom of the whistle with zero inch end in line with beginning edge of the bottom G tone hole and the 5/8" end just past the bottom edge of the bottom D tone hole. This improved the lower register so that all the note in the first octave are about the same strength. It did not however improved the air requirements which I found to be very high. (I also play harmonicas so breath control is not a problem I usually suffer from).

In order to overcome the high air requirements and taking a tip from the C&F website I attempted to narrow the windway by placing a piece of Electricians plastic tape to the upper inside of the windway. This worked well by lowering the wind requirements and allowing the whistles to play reasonably into the second octave. However the whistle was prone to severe clogging.

What was needed was a way of narrowing the windway with a material the would prevent the build up of moisture, C&F to the rescue again. I read somewhere on the site that a member used aluminium tape to narrow the windway on a whistle of theirs'. Alumnium tape is available in the UK but in rolls of 10meters, so this was not and option. The solution was aluminum cooking foil and double sided adhesive tape. I made up the tape (3and1/2 inches long and 4/8" wide) passed this through the windway from the end of the whistle and pulled this through so that 1" could be bent back and placed on top of the whistle the other end was then bent back and placed on top of the other part of the tape. The tape on top of the wind way was sealed with clear nail varnish (Aluminum cooking foil is rather fragile).

The difference this has made is amazing, the breath requirement have reduced by 30 to 40per cent and there is a nice back pressue that was not there before. The whistle plays strongly up to the A in the third octave and has a brighter and what I would describe as a tighter sound without loosing the unique Dixon tone, and it no longer clogs.

Thanks to all at C&F for the ideas that has brought about a transformation of this lower end instrument.

Ian

Is there anyone who tweaks existing whistles? Like, I ship it to you, you look it over and see if it needs anything? My mum and I have just acquired our first whistles; for me a Walton Irish D that I'm starting to love the sound of, and my mom has a Sweetone that I think is right for her in her beginner-ness, but neither of us would know if a particular whistle is any good or would require tweaking if our lives depended on it! Especially, ahem, with our current playing ability (read: lack thereof). And it seems silly to buy entirely new tweaked whistles when we already have untweaked... although I realize that when it comes to the cheapies, just the shipping would probably cost as much as the whistles themselves, never mind also the tweaking!

Still. Would be silly to acquire the exact same whistles over again and let these sit unplayed (no, I do not think that would have anything to do with WhOA, to have two of the exact same whistle, so don't any of you try that voodoo that you do on me! You've already got me jonesing for more whistles even though I've only had this one two days and show no promise of even becoming a passable player [I sucked at recorder as a kid too], let alone a good one... I do draw the line at duplicates! Though you may speak to me of the Walton Mellow D. I'm already thinking "what if" about that one, wondering if it would be different enough than my regular brass one to justify having both.)

I had the same delima with a whistle I bought in a store. I ended up getting some tweaked ones so I could compare them to the one I bought. And then you will know if the one you have is any good or not. It may not even need tweaking.

Oh, that's a thought.

I know I need to mess with mine at least a little bit...I just noticed tonight that the front of the mouthpiece and the holes don't quite line up in a straight line! Haha. (I assume rectifying that--both loosening the glue on the fipple and twisting the head around half a millimeter--won't change the tone, which I rather like, right.... because if it will, the amount it's off isn't really enough to make a difference to my playing; it's just enough that it might drive me nuts now that I know about it!)

If I posted a sound clip, would you all be able to tell if it sounds okay?

Advice on my whistle, please?

I have a Walton Irish D (you know, that one that comes in a "kit"; it was my "first" whistle and still my favorite. I love the sound of it... the Sweetone that was my mom's and made its way to me doesn't compare.

However, a couple things annoy me:

1. Clogging. This is the biggest one. Not to get TMI, but let's say I have a reputation at the dentist's office and they've learned to make liberal use of the sucker-vacuum thingy, so something I've read tends to be a problem with the Walton whistles anyway is a big problem for me. It only takes a few minutes to clog, and though I can clear it out (first give it a good shake--this is always gross-- and then a good hard blow with the tonehole covered), it really doesn't play the same (squeaks, cracks/misses, in general I sound like I just picked the whistle up ten minutes ago-- I'm still not very good but I'm not THAT bad when it's unclogged) until it's dried out again. I just tried the waxed-dental-floss trick though, so we'll see how that works. Failing that I'll try the dish soap thing. Anything else I can do? I really try not to put the mouthpiece so far in my mouth, but it doesn't seem to make a difference anyway.

I don't have this issue with the Sweetone (once the Walton clogs, I have to move my practice to the Sweetone), nor my Gen B-flat, nor so far with my Clarke Traditional C (but I just got that one and haven't put in the time on it that I have with the others, so I don't know it as well).

2. Second octave is not so easy to play as on the Sweetone. more comparable to my Clarke Traditional C (untweaked) in terms of air requirements, a bit more shrill than I'd like.

Is there anything I can do for these, or have someone else do (since I know nothing about whistle mechanics myself)? I've soaked the head off and did remove an extraneous shaving of plastic that was just sitting in there, but that doesn't actually seem to have done anything.

I don't want to give up this whistle. I really like the sound--kind of reedy and unique-- and I've looked at just plain getting a different whistle, but some of the "higher end cheap whistles" that come well-recommended like the Dixon and the Parks Ghost just don't quite have the sound I'm looking for (they're beautiful, and from what I've read from you all they sound so nice to play, but they're what I consider a bit more recorder-y, like the Sweetone, and for a recorder-y sound I'd just play my recorder! I like the sound of the Impempes, but that's probably too much whistle for my current skill level [playing just a couple months now]).

I'd rather not have to get a new one, but I'd be willing to look at a Freeman Mellow Dog if it'd be an improvement on these issues (had I known I'd like the sound on the Walton so much, I would've picked up a Mellow Dog from the beginning, but hindsight = 20/20 and all that and I didn't understand the value of tweaking then and yada yada). It's just that, you know, I already have this whistle, I've formed an attachment to it, lol, and would hate to see it go to waste and just sit around if I got something else.

Just made permanent-ish my tweak to the new Dixon tapered bore low D.
I rushed off some quick clips:
http://phillvanleersum.users.sourceforge.net/clips/NewTweak0.mp3
http://phillvanleersum.users.sourceforge.net/clips/NewTweak1.mp3
http://phillvanleersum.users.sourceforge.net/clips/NewTweak2.mp3

Please excuse my playing, this is about the whistle.....

Jerry tweaks more than high D's. I have a Bb... He tweaks all generations