I have one of these $4.00 wonders. I’ve always liked the sound…kinda like a whistle with an Irish accent. But the darned notes are as out of tune as a wet set of pipes. So I drilled out some of the finger holes to bring them up a little in pitch. The F# hole is now BIG. Any bigger and it would be too big to finger. But the whistle is in tune. I’m not fond of playing it at home. It’s loud. But when with others it’s always the first thing I reach for. It blends well with fiddles. It has a round, open, loud, slightly chiffy, slightly airy sound that blends well with the sharpness of the fiddle. If you have a set of drills (or a small rat-tail rasp file) you can turn this into a decent whistle. You’ll need a tuner too. And all the mouthpiece needs is a little sticky tack. No need to toy with the blade. It’s fine as is.
I’m one of the lucky ones that ended up with an in tune Mellow D and it is a good one. I’ve given most of my lower end whistles away to others that have shown an interest but I keep the Mellow D tucked away. When I do bring it out it’s a real treat.
jim
I agree that the sound of these whistles can serve to blend in and are not as “edgy” as most, which can work in a smaller group setting, however, mine takes more air than my other whistles, thus I have to rethink my beathing when I switch to it. That’s tough on a country guitar picker who’s still trying to conceptualize an instrument that doesn’t allow you to smoke and play at the same time. Slan you’all
Whitmores,
When re-tuning by filing holes, is it better to start at the top or bottom end for filing, or does it not matter?
I have a very underused Mellow D, so I might give this a go at the weekend.
cheers, Martin
I bought one on my first trip to Ireland in 1998 and didn’t like it at all. Recently I bought another one from the Whistle Shop and found they had changed the design. The new ones are a significantly different length and they sound MUCH better.