Seeing that I have a fairly severe case of WhOAD, I acquired a Mk II to see what it sounded like. I then acquired a second one (the one with the large sticker) accidently. I thought I was buying another MkI but it turned out to be another Mk II (no stripped sticker at the bottom).
The MK II’s are nice whistles but just not as nice (in my opinion) as the MKI’s. They are louder than the MK I’s and have a more gravely sound in the lower octave and a much more shrill sound in the higher octave. I’ve never felt the need to put putty in either of the MK II’s that I have because their notes have always sounded stable and I haven't had them squeak or squelch. But I have never been satisfied with their sound since they didn’t have the nice velvety mellow sound the MkI does.
I decided to try doing the reversible tweak on them using the small piece of plastic attaching it directly under the wind ramp. I attached it with a tiny piece of putty so this is reversible. I first did it on the MkII with the big sticker and immediately liked the results. To me it sounded just like the MkI. After playing it a few days and comparing it to the MKI, I would say it sounds about 95 percent like the MkI. There are some very subtle differences when you really listen closely. But I think blindfolded I wouldn’t be able to tell which one I was playing, that’s how close they sound to one another now.
I then tried it on my other MkII with the small sticker. The results were good but not great. It lowered the volume of the notes and made them more mellow and velvety but it just wasn’t as close as the first MkII I had done. I wasn’t satisfied so I took the piece of plastic out and put a bevel on the leading edge and when attaching it back in the whistle, I placed the bevel facing downward. Much better! Now it sounds almost as good as the MkI. I would say about 90-95% as good. When playing the three back to back to back, I have to look at them to know for sure which one it is I’m playing.
If anyone is interested I will share more detailed information about what I did (placement, shape, size, and etc.)
One curious thing I have found is that it seems of the 4 whistles I have (Mark 1, 2’s and a 2.5) the two MkII’s are different. I’ve included a picture for you to see what I mean. The MkI and MkII with the big sticker have holes that are alike. The MKII with the small sticker and Mk2.5 have the same hole size and placement to each other but are different from the MkI and MkII with the big sticker. You cannot see it in the picture but the MkII (small sticker) and Mk 2.5 are just a tad shorter in length than the other two whistles. I’m attributing those differences to why I had to bevel the plastic in the small sticker MkII and not in the big sticker Mk II to get them to sound alike.
(l to r : MkI, MkII, MkII, Mk2.5)
