I'm glad the Feadog wasn't the first to arrive

Whistle
1

If it had been, or if it had been the only one that I got–which it came close to being, I might have just given up on whistles.

Having two more high Ds (Dixon and Clarke Original) to compare it to tells me that there’s something not quite right with this one.

The Dixon and the Clarke play very differently. Each has a range that seems a little weak, requiring more care to avoid funny sounds. The Dixon requires rather low air on the low E and D, while the Clarke is great at that end, but can make funny sounds from the second-octave A and up. Careful playing can make both work, though.

This doesn’t seem to be the case with the Feadog that arrived today (when I had hoped to be up in SF for the Low Whistle Fest–a hope derailed by a computer problem and others).

I was pretty happy as I started the scale from the lowest D. For the first 4 notes, it sounded a lot like the Dixon, having a bit of a buzz or burr, where the Clarke tone is very plain (pure?).

Around A or B, I was beginning to have my doubts, and when I shifted to the second octave D, everything fell apart. It shrieks and squawks, but some of the sounds it makes in the second octave aren’t as nice as that.

Playing through two octaves to the third-octave D in a single breath is impossible for me, so far. Terrible raspy-gurgly sounds occur quite early, though by a kind of “focused” tongueing, I can get up to about the second-octave G. Nothing in the second octave sounds very nice, and I have to play pretty loud to get anything there, and I’m not sure I can get the second octave A, B, and C# at all. I’ll try more tomorrow, when the rest of the family is gone.

I’m pretty sure that it would be a violation of the Geneva Convention to play this whistle in the same room with a PW.

Daniel Bingamon, who appears to be prescient, suggested–several days ago–that if the Feadog turned out to have any little pieces of plastic hanging down in the windway, I should remove them carefully with a exacto knife.

Unfortunately, the fipple is black, and it’s hard to make out much detail by my office lights, but I tried putting a small piece of white paper down into the window (is the the term?), to reflect light into the windway, then looked into it from the mouthpiece end, and it all looks quite smooth.

It does look like the sharp edge of the blade may be a tiny bit irregular. I don’t have much confidence about attacking that with a knife, though.

Any other suggestions about what to look for? Are there other mouthpieces that I could get to stick on the tube? Any chance that removing the mouthpieces and repositioning it could make a difference? The Dixon’s playability seems to vary with how far down the mouthpiece is shoved. (I discovered this while trying to tune the Dixon using a digital guitar tuner.)

Darn! I was so happy to have three all-black whistles…

2

Many feadóg whistles are just…crap.

Mine was, and I’ve talked to about a million people who agree and about four who don’t. Usually it’s the 10 or 15 year old ones who get praise, the newer ones are WSO (whistle shaped objects, for decorative purposes only), in my opinion.

3

Oh, you can get a Hoover Whitecap mouthpiece for the Feadóg tube if you want, mine costed me $20, but I don’t know how much they go for now. They improve the whistle but a Hoover’s tone and a Feadóg’s couldn’t really be more different. The Whitecap’s sound resembles your Dixon more.

I’d personally just get a Clare, but they’re not black.

4

I have 4 Feadogs covering 3 generations of mouthpiece design. The only one that’s any good is a recent make, red painted one, the rest are junk unless you put on a different mouthpiece.My preference is a Waltons Little Black mouthpiece although that makes it pretty much sound like a Waltons brass whistle, so what’s the point?
Anyway if you don’t like the whistle it won’t hurt to experiment on it. Try shaving the blade slightly, or filling the cavity under the window with wax or blutack. If it doesn’t work you still have the tube and can get a new head for it.
Take care, Johnz

5

I have a 10 year old Feadog that really is a treat, but when I’ve acquired newer ones, I’ve consistently been disappointed with them. Don’t know why they had to go and mess with a good thing.

Redwolf

6

I’ve bought several Feadogs over the last 2 years (four recently) and they all sounded bad at first but improved dramatically with just the sticky tack tweak. I like them all now.

7

I have two older Feadogs, two different models. One is crap and the other (has 3 green stripes around bottom end of tube) is great. Go figure.

PhilO

8

My black nickel Feadog, which I bought two years ago, is pretty nice. Generally my favorite D whistle.

9

I’ve bought two of the new Feadogs recently. One for me and one for my son in law. Mine was playable but a little gnarly in the second octave until I tweaked it a bit.

There wasn’t any noticeable flash on mine but I used a bit of 400-grit wet-or-dry paper to just slightly knock the edge off the blade (careful here, more than three or four strokes may be too much). I used the same stuff to slightly bevel the airway and then shoved a bit of poster putty into the cavity under the airway. In a matter of about 30 minutes it went from toy to very playable instrument. For the past six weeks or more I’ve been picking it up more than even My Burke or Copeland. I’m not saying it’s better than those, it’s definitely not as clear as the Burke or as commanding as the Copleand – however, it’s quite playable and has a more “traditional” sound then either of the high enders.

I told my son-in-law I’d tweak his too but so far he’s happy with it the way it is. It is about like mine started, kind of raspy in the second octave but not terrible.

10

If it ain’t broke, you can’t make any money fixing or replacing it.

11

Well, cheapo whistles aren’t exactly the kind of goods you send in to the manufacturer for maintenance. Or are you suggesting a conspiracy between the whistle manufacturing and tweaking industries here? I always thought Jerry was a nice guy… but then, he doesn’t tweak Feadogs, does he?

:wink:

Sonja

12

My first Feadog wasn’t a very good whistle. I have since aquired another, which is actually very similar to my Oak, the main difference being the Oak is a bit softer and has a much clearer tone in the 2nd octave.

If you haven’t tried an Oak, that might be something to look into. They are about my favorite of the inexpensive whistles.

–James

13

Hi, Sonja.

I’ve been watching this thread with interest. I’m expecting a batch of Mark III Feadogs in the mail Monday or Tuesday. I’ll do some prototyping and see how they turn out. If I can come up with predictably good tweaked Feadogs, I will probably offer them. The goal, as with the tweaked Generations, will be to make a whistle that’s true to its identity as a Generation or Feadog, but clean playing and clear – what you would consider close to an ideal example of that kind of whistle.

Best wishes,
Jerry

P.S. I haven’t forgotten your project.

14

I too have had inconsistent luck with Feadogs. I have an O’Briaian Improved Feadog which is heavenly (and more expensive), an untweaked one which is pretty nice, and another untweaked one that’s pretty awful. If Jerry starts working on them, then you can definitely get a good one!

15

What can i say!
I own 3 feadogs, all play just fine with only the repositioning of the head,
Maybe I was just lucky?
I love the sound of a feadog, to me a slightly rustic sound is appealing, and it works in great for session play,
but i guess everyone has different ideas and opinions,
all of which i respect,
Regards David

16

Ah…what’s that about the repositioning of the head? Do I just do the soaking in very warm water thing, then play with it to see if I can get a better result?

17

Hi, Darwin.

First, let me say, I’m really enjoying your posts.

As to the repositioning of the Feadog (or any whistle of that type) head …

Heat a cup of water piping hot but not boiling. Immerse the whistlehead in the hot water for a few seconds. Twist and pull off the head. It should come right off. If not, heat it again and try again.

The main purpose of this exercise is to make the whistle tunable. Once the adhesion between the whistlehead and tube has been released, you should be able to adjust the whistlehead up and down on the tube to get it on pitch.

I would recommend that you try filling the cavity under the windway with poster putty (“blue tack”). It’s available at WalMart next to the crayons, or just about any hardware store, home center or office supply chain.

Make a ball of poster putty about the size of a large pea. Drop it into the socket end of the whistlehead so it falls into the cavity under the windway. Tamp it down with something that has a flat end (exacto knife handle, unsharpened pencil, etc.). Add or remove putty until you have a nice, flat surface that’s even with the end of the windway. You may find that wetting the end of the tamping tool gives a better finish by preventing the poster putty from clinging to the tool.

The purpose of this tweak is to reduce random air turbulance inside the whistlehead. You may find that the whistle becomes easier to play and cleaner playing after filling under the windway.

If you determine that this tweak improves the whistle to your satisfaction, the next thing to do is to evaluate whether there has been a tradeoff in the brightness of the sound. In other words, does the whistle sound a little subdued after installing the poster putty? If so, and if you would prefer it to be brighter sounding, you may then choose to remove the poster putty and go to the advanced version of this tweak, using an accoustically transparent material under the windway. In case you’re interested, here’s a link:

http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?p=180648

I would fill with poster putty (plumber’s putty works just as well, BTW, in case you have any on hand) to test whether it will improve the whistle before going on to the accoustically transparent fill, which is much more work. If the poster putty fill doesn’t help, you won’t have wasted your time.

Best wishes,
Jerry

18

You may not even need the cup of hot water. On the two Feadogs I bought recently the heads weren’t glued or were so lightly glued I was able just to twist the head right off.

I love saying that, “twist the head right off.” There’s some people… Eh, oh, uh, just musing, never mind.

19

My first whistle was a brass Feadóg with a green fipple. I bought it at a local music store. The selection was really poor and the saleslady was very condescending, but I didn’t want to wait an unreasonable amount of time (like overnight) to purchase one on-line. :slight_smile: I was pretty disappointed with it. I had a real hard time blowing a clear bell note, and I got hateful looks from my dog when I attempted anything in the second octave. Of course, I was also brand new to whistles.

I applied the poster putty fix under the windway as Jerry describes in this thread and elsewhere. It was an amazing improvement. Today, my most whistled whistles are my Hoover CPVC and my Dixon. However, I still keep the Feadóg within easy reach. It doesn’t sound as refined as my other whistles, but I like that.

20

I must have really lucked out with my Feadogs - I picked up a couple in Cork that played OK with no tweeking needed (unlike the Walton’s I got at the same time - even after tweeking it’s just OK). They are pretty rough-sounding whistles, though - not my favorite, but responsive and well-in-tune.