Sweetheart plastic high D - first impressions.

Whistle
1

WooHoo!! Just got me a Sweetheart WD plastic High D!

Here’s first impressions .. I’ll be playing this little gem for a week or more before I add anything else:

OK - it’s machined out of a polymer plastic - so it’s a wooden whistle but using plastic instead of wood - there’s a few advantages to that! NO OILING! YAY!!

Apearance: Stealth black .. nice.
All that bulgey tenon allowance has been turned into something a bit more slick - the visual lines are a lot more pleasing and the logo is laser-etched - an improvement on the sticker-logo for sure.
Conical (the correct cone of course).
O-ring tenon seal - very practical.
The windway is tapered - the windway entrance is massive - this makes the beak a bit chunky, but one gets used to it.
Tone holes are small and nicely chamfered - and obviously hand-tuned (I like to see that!).

Tuning: On the tuner in 2 octaves (even temperament +/- 5 cents). At my altitude, and with the ambient temperature and humidity today, it is in concert pitch with the tenon opened by about 1/8 inch. The usual O-ring tuning spacer is there, I would need 3 of them here and now if I used such things.
C-nat - OXX XOO, although OXX OXX (my fave) works OK and OXX OOO can be gotten without too much effort.
3rd octave .. The D3 is on the tuner .. E3, F3 etc - still finding those.

Timbre: This one is very “flutey” in both octaves - nice timbre balance, it all matches. This is not a Generation style whistle. It has a very pleasant tone with plenty of side-harmonics when you reach for them. As with all conical whistles, the finger vibrato does not yield the classic hard “pipish” overtones - other shading methods give some nicely controled vibrato and “side-tones”.

Volume: Like the “Pro” this whistle is medium-loud. It would hold it’s own in a medium-large session with fiddles and boxes without being “shreeeeky”.

Bell note: This is a bit of a surprise - if played normally, the bell is moderate, but with a little push and some mouth resonance it becomes very strong and can easily sustain a cran without getting lost and without chaotic oertones. Nice.

Air requirement: Medium-high. Compared to a Gen I am needing a little more diaphragm than I am used to.

Back-pressure. different to a Gen or Feadog - it is more in the first octave, less in the second.

Playing characteristics: The 2nd octave takes a little getting used to - it can underblow or overblow until you get its measure - once gotten, it is not too difficult to hit with octave jumps and wide intervals. Articulation takes a little concentration, but it is there.

Clogging: It DOES clog .. for a microsecond after about 1 minute playing - blows thru with one note and plays on as before.

Interim conclusion: This is a Sweetheart whistle - it is plastic - but not mass-produced, all the same machining and care and attention and effort without the overhead of wood-care. In my estimation - good value.

I’ll give it a week and record a sound-clip.
Here’s the Sweetheart website: http://www.sweetheartflute.com/whistles.html

2

Nice!

I’m curious now how the tone compares to the Burke composite.


Oh – on visiting the Sweetheart site, I see a note at the bottom: “These whistles, which have a cork joint lining,should be stored DISASSEMBLED.” Is that a rule for all whistles with cork joint linings? I got myself a used Reviol low D which I have not been disassembling.

3

I ordered a sweetheart high D plastic fife. I hope it will arrive before christmas. Of course i’ll make a review :wink:

4

Yes, anything with a cork lining should be stored unassembled, as the cork will compress over time, leaving you with a wobbly fitting.

5

Compared to the Michael Burke session-bore composite D, the Sweet is a lot more “flutey”. Although Michael’s whistles seem to be essentially conical, they are far closer to the cylindrical - the Sweet has a pronounced cone. Burke whistles can be thought of in the “Perfected Gen” category. Perhaps The WD could be classified as a “Perfected Clarke”?

6

The new WD Sweet whistle does not have a cork lining. It has an O-ring in the socket. I believe that statement was for the Pro Whistle.

I took a ride over to the Sweets about a week ago and came home with the WD Sweet Trio…one body, one whistle head and one fife head. Mitch did a nice job with his first impressions. I love the flutey sound. This is the first fife I ever own. It will take me a little while to get a good consistant sound. It requires a tighter embouchure than I’m used to for my flutes. It’s coming along, and I’m practicing a lot. :smiley:

One thing I’d like to say about the fife, and I was telling Walt Sweet about it, is that calling it a fife might throw people off. A fife plays best in the second and third octaves, and this fife is made to play best in the first and second octaves, as it uses the same body as the whistle. A non-fife player would probably not be interested because they would associate it as playing too high. And, if a fife player got one, thinking they play high, would be dissapointed because it doesn’t play the same range as a regular fife. So, summing this up, the fife in this Trio plays the same range as the whistle.

A really nice set combining the presence of the Pro Plus with the sweetness of the Pro Mellow.

Congratulations, Sweetheart Flutes, on your new baby!!!

7

I e-mailed Ralph Sweet and asked if he has any plan to make in the future a plastic version of
his Resonance low D laminated wood whistle: he said that his son, Walt, is working on it right now…
That would be great: a polymer low D with a conical bore !

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Many flutists find that, after becoming accustomed to playing fife or piccolo, when they return to flute they have much better over their tone and have learned much more efficient use of their air.

–James

9

That fife (or piccolo, or whatever) looks so good… I’d love to read reviews about it!

The whistle is also nice, but I don’t need another one (not RIGHT NOW).
Thanks for the review, Mitch, very complete!


Cheers,
Martin

10

I’m glad to hear people are liking this whistle; I’m planning on getting the fife sometime next year, and may order the whistle as well, if my budget permits.

That gets me excited! I loved the Resonance D I played at Andy’s Music over here a while ago (doesn’t Ted post here? Hi, Ted! :smiley: ), totally different kind of whistle experience than I’m used to (I play Gens and Dogs… had a Clarke and loved it, but it got lost >_<).

Many flutists find that, after becoming accustomed to playing fife or piccolo, when they return to flute they have much better over their tone and have learned much more efficient use of their air.

That’s definitely my experience with my dinky little Yahama fife. Also trumpet; I can’t play for anything, but noodling around on my brother’s horn makes my flute lips much stronger.

11

Time for the ear plugs, sports fans.
Not joking.

12

Many thanks to my friends for their kind words.

To clear things up: The joint seals on a bona-fide o-ring inside the socket. This design applies only to the new plastic, no the old pros. The old pros had a cork joint which needed to be stored disassembled; otherwise, the cork will pack down and the joint will become loose. The o-ring will be much more durable, but I would still take the whistle apart so it will dry inside. I don’t think the new o-ring design will work for wooden instruments. We’re still using o-rings near the outer shoulder as tuning spacers.

Just as Mitch found, the best low C-nat is oxx xoo. This fingering is part of a physical design that gives a just C-nat, C# and D. High C-nat is oxo xxx.

Most dimensions of the windway are the same as on the Pros. We’ve started putting a curved sweep at the entrance, top and bottom, to improve some notes, especially B2. And if B2 improves, then we can voice the whistle to give more on the other notes, especially D1. The result looks larger at the entrance, but the rest of the windway is unchanged.

The little D fife head will swap with the D whistle head. It’s meant to be played the same way, in the same range, as the whistle. Maybe “fife” is a misnomer; maybe it could be called “octave flute”, but it’s my preferred instrument for playing dance music in a band. The embouchure does indeed take a little practice, maybe simply strength as someone has said. I know some fine flute players who never get used to the type of embouchure required. It’s essentially a piccolo embouchure that’s needed.

We are working on the low D in plastic (it’s on my list; maybe in a couple months). Just as with the HiDs, they’ll be machined out of bar stock with the same process we use for wood. The craftsman’s work will be about the same, with better reliability on the voicing bench. The price will be $395.. We figure the plastic LoDs will play as well as the best wooden ones, but now with easier care.

These whistles were engraved, “Pro,” but from now on they’ll say “WD Sweet”. I’ve been making instruments for 37 years now, with the last 4 concentrating on whistles. Dad’s new whistles with a 1/2" bore will have a little different feel; they’ll be marked, “Pro.”

I’ll have to put a proper fingering chart on the website, but meanwhile here are some fingerings for the 3rd octave:

D3 oxx xxx
E xxo xxo or xxo oxo
F# xox xxx
G xox ooo
G# oox ooo
A oxx xxo
B xox oxo
D4 oxx xxx

Walt Sweet

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Hi Walt, thanks for your post.
Can I ask what does WD Sweet mean? (just a guess, Walt Sweet’s whistle/fife in D?)

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My middle name is David, not Daniel as previously published.

15

I’ve got a review here as well:

https://forums.chiffandfipple.com/t/review-sweetheart-pro-plastic-whistle/61274/1

I haven’t been able to persuade the one I’m playing to clog…perhaps a difference in the temperature or in the relative humidity?

Redwolf

16

So…

did anyone ever post any sound clips of these new Sweethearts?

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There’s a video review/sound clip over at Whistle and Drum that I found useful when deciding on mine: http://www.whistleanddrum.com/wd-sweet-model-pennywhistle-in-delrin

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I recently sold my WD Sweet but here’s a tune I very quickly recorded with it on my computer. Not great playing since I was sight reading the music for the first time but will give you an idea what it sounds like.

WD Sweet