Union Carbony soprano D whistle

[Randall]

Hey 'R', my bad, I meant the Carbony has a head that attaches to the tube like a Sweetone whistle, not Sweetheart. When I first got my Carbony whistle the head was a bit tight on the tube but it loosened up right away and adjusts well.

That might be a good way to go if you want to try a conical whistle on the cheap, the Freeman tweaked Sweetone whistles are pretty good - even the untweaked - and they're dirt cheap. You can make them tunable by holding the tube under a hot water tap to loosen up the glue (don't run the hot water over the plastic head, could conceivably damage it, I guess). The nice thing about the Sweetones is you don't have to warm them up and condensation isn't an issue, in my experience. Get the D though, not the C, which are wildly out of tune. And the painted ones have much better tone than the metal, for some reason.

[R Small]

A store near me has Sweetones for $8.50. I might give one a try. If I don't like it I'm only out a few bucks and it should at least be interesting.

[Randall]

Hey "R",

Let me know how you like that Sweetone.

Randall

[R Small]

Well, I've been noodling on it for a little while now. It's about what I expected. Fairly decent tone. 1st octave is reasonably stable. Better than on my Dixon or my Generation. 2nd octave is actually pretty nice. Easy response. Doesn't require as much push to get in tune as my Susato. Overall intonation is a little twitchy but I think I could get it reasonably well in tune with practice. It was quite sharp throughout the range until I got the mouthpiece pulled out a bit (that took some elbow grease). The tone holes are smaller than on my other whistles making half-holing a little more difficult. As for cross-fingerings: 1st octave G# (XXOXXX) is quite sharp but useable if I back off the breath a little. Bb (XOXXXX) is not bad. C nat. (OXXOOO) is pretty sharp. So OXXXOO is better. 2nd octave G# works well with XXOXDO. Bb works with XOXOOO. The best C nat. I could find is XOXXXO. The Cs would probably be better with a thumbhole but that might be tricky to drill what with the seam in the back. So I'll leave the whistle as it is for now. Anyway, it's an interesting little whistle and it'll be fun to pick up now and then and run a few tunes. I rank it above my Dixon and Generation but below my Susato. Definitely a good whistle for a beginner or someone who likes a whistle that blows easily.

[TassieDevil]

[Thread revival. - Mod]

The high B is clean and easy to sound. For some reason, I have a hard time hitting that note on all of my whistles except the carbony.

-s

I’ve just bought one and am finding the exact opposite. The high A is fine - clean and easy to sound + and then the high B is a mess. I have to blow much harder to get it to play a clean tone. It only arrived yesterday and I’m very disappointed. I’ll play around with it today just to make sure it’s not my “imagination” - or something wrong with my technique, as I’m not a very experienced player. I don’t think it is, as I have no problem getting that high B with my other whistles.

[Narzog]

I’ve just bought one and am finding the exact opposite. The high A is fine - clean and easy to sound + and then the high B is a mess. I have to blow much harder to get it to play a clean tone. It only arrived yesterday and I’m very disappointed. I’ll play around with it today just to make sure it’s not my “imagination” - or something wrong with my technique, as I’m not a very experienced player. I don’t think it is, as I have no problem getting that high B with my other whistles.

I haven't played a carbony, but I have played a clarke sweet tone. And it also has a really loud and harder to hit high B. Which may be a side effect of conical whistles; The bore is larger for the high notes. Once I saw a small bore carbony on sale on facebook and I asked the guy if it was a quieter whistle and he said no its still loud. So I'd expect the high B on the normal bore to be louder and harder to hit.

That being said, you should be able to change your technique to be able to hit the high B. You don't really want to just blow harder, you want to blow faster air. Which might not make a lot of sense at first. But the shape of your mouth can effect how fast the air is. An example. Make a big 'O' shape with your mouth, and blow. You can blow as hard as you can and the air speed still isn't going to be that impressive. If you suck your cheeks in and press your lips together and blow through a tiny hole, you will get way better air speed, using way less air. I didn't realize how big a difference this made until I got my Reyburn low D. Its noticeably harder over blowing than my MK. So trying to hit the high B, by just blowing harder without changing my mouth shape, pretty much cant hit the high B. When I first got my MK even, I was getting headaches playing it. I'm assuming I was once again blowing wrong. Because now I find it overblows very easy compared to the Reyburn.