I’ve heard nothing but good reviews of all the different tweaked whistles.
And I’ve been looking at the Freeman and the Vargas tweaks, but I don’t know what the difference is.
Now I’m not limiting anything to these two tweakers, I’m just wondering if there are distinctions among the tweakers just as there are distinctions seperating the makers of whistles.
For example if you take a feadog in D or a gen Bb, how will the playing characteristics change from one tweak to the next?
I don’t have any experience yet with Freeman whistles (I hope to soon), but I believe that he adds a bit of plastic to the sound blade, in addition to some other stuff. Vargas whistles have their fipple cut in half, then put back together and they are covered with shiny plastic stuff. I have a vargas generation, and it keeps that generation sound, while being more playable.
And I’ve been looking at the Freeman and the Vargas tweaks, but I don’t know what the difference is.
I shall not speak for Mr. Freeman, but I can speak for myself about my tweak:
Boody is correct in stating that the fipples are cut in half.
I chose this particular method because it’s very easy to obtain the exact same
results over and over again, which means every whistle has the same sound and playing characteristics.
The cavity below the windway is filled with epoxy-resin,
and then the halve’s alignment is adjusted in order to re-voice the fipple.
Then the halves are chemically welded together.
This produces a very strong bond, and the fipple can easily take a drop from a height
of ten feet without breaking the bond.
The fipples are coated with a thin layer of glossy epoxy-resin for cosmetic reasons only.
The current whistles are also made tunable with the aid of a tuning-slide.
Tuning range is approx. a semi-note flat/sharp, in other words more than enough for any practical purpose.
My tweaked whistles keep their characteristic sound, but have a cleaner high register,
behaves better and are easier to play.
Loudness is roughly the same as for the original untweaked whistles.
For example if you take a feadog in D or a gen Bb, how will the playing characteristics change from one tweak to the next?
I may be able to answer half of your question, that is, how my tweak affects the sound of these whistles.
The link below shows Tony Hinnigan testing a few Feadog D’s.
http://www.kerrywhistles.com/movies/Hinnigan_Feadogs_06a.wmv</a](http://www.kerrywhistles.com/movies/Hinnigan_Feadogs_06a.wmv">http://www.kerrywhistles.com/movies/Hinnigan_Feadogs_06a.wmv</a)>
The issues he’s adressing is something every Feadog owner would reckognize
as being true. Those Feadogs can be a “bit of a struggle”. (Quoting Tony Hinnigan)
What my tweak does regarding Feadogs, is removing all those negative comments
Tony Hinnigan is making about them, but without affecting the characteristic sound.
The Generation Bb whistles are a different cup of tea though, as they’re
generally very good straight off the shelf. The clunkers are few and far between,
and tweaking them produces less difference compared with tweaking Feadogs and Generation Eb, D etc.
Thanks, I was wondering if tweaking them changed their “sound” as well as playability. From your answer, emtor, I’m guessing no. Which is a good thing. 
But Does anyone care to share information on the Freeman whistles?
Edit: I have just now noticed the thread below this one answering my question 
Thanks, I was wondering if tweaking them changed their “sound” as well as playability.
No, the basic sound is not changed, just the small things that people tend to complain about like a shrill upper register, raspiness, a “dirty” high G etc.
I would assume that the same is true for Mr. Freeman’s tweaked whistles too. and it would be fun to let people compare his and my whistles some time.
My guess would be that the differences would prove to be fewer than the similarities.
emtor,
I’m considering buying one of your Bb’s, so I was hoping you could describe to me the differences (though you said they were less) between the untweaked and the tweaked whistles.
Leachim,-check your PM 
This produces a very strong bond, and the fipple can easily take a drop from a height
of ten feet without breaking the bond.
My Vargas’ Gen Bb dropped from my bag to the granite floor of the subway. And it broke. Luckily, after glueing two pieces with epoxy, it is OK again.
What were you doing above ten feet from the floor?
The fipples used to be glued with superglue. Now they’re “welded” with a solvent designed for that purpose, and can easily take a drop from any height without breaking.
What were you doing above ten feet from the floor?
Maybe the whistle sounded so great that he went into orbit and dropped it?
Wanderer has a good site with many tunes and some excellent whistle reviews. His site is at http://www.tinwhistler.com/index.aspx. Under Whistle Reviews, he discusses the Freeman Mellow Dog in some detail with excellent photos of the tweaks. I do not have a Vargas whistle so cannot compare them to Jerry’s whistles. However, I just got a Freeman Mellow Dog set of C and D tubes with one head. These may be the last whistles I ever buy (ha!); they are that good. The set cost $41.50 plus shipping - that has to be the deal of the millenium.