Inexpensive whistle poll...

[riverman]

I had a black painted Clarke Meg, and it sounded toylike. I bent it, so I bought a Clarke Sweetone in natural tin, and this one sounds toylike only when I try to play it too quietly. There is supposed to be no difference between the cheaper Meg and the Sweetone, but I'm not sure there isn't.

[RaincrossWhistler]

I've had a 2-piece Clare for ten years. The tone is solid in both octaves, though a bit on the thin side, but it has good volume. The best part is that I can carry it in my pocket wherever I go. On the higher end, I have a copper Elfsong D that has a wonderful round tone with a little chiff, and great volume.

[D4rksh0gun]

my first real whistle is a Clarke origeonal. an dangit, im in love with it! i play it everywhere! i wanna pick up a meg, or a feadog, but i want to order a meg first...

[Key_of_D]

Hmmm... Those Clarkes seem to be taking up a huge chunk there... Good. Haha. Because, they really are great whistles for the money. Now, I've only bought two Megs myself, one a Black D, and the other a silver painted C. The C, has tuning issues, but the notes sound pleasant, other than out of tune. The D, at least mine, is one hell of a whistle for 3$. I really can't complain about it. It beats most of my other whistles that cost 10, 13, even 20+ dollars. Except my Burke of course I started on a Clarke Original, and I believe they're great beginner's whistles. I've heard lots of others have also started on the Original. They're great whistles, other than that Meg C...

[hoofbeats]

Okay... I only have one whistle, a two-piece Clare that I bought a few weeks ago, so I don't really have much basis for comparison but I'll chime in anyway!

I mostly bought the two-piece for convenience (it easily fits into all but the smallest of purses ), but I've found it pretty easy to play. I'm not sure about the tuning as I don't have an electric tuner yet and have to rely on my horribly untrained ears and a guitar tuner

I'd say try 'em all... that's what I'm planning to do eventually!

[chrysophylax]

In fairness I hit Feadog but mine is a little bit of a frankenstein. I had an old one with a lovely mellow sound that was badly out of tune with itself. I got a freeman tweaked feadog a year or so ago which was a great player but a liitle weak sounding. One day i put the old feadog's head on the tweaked body and with a little work i had one of the finest whistles i own.

[stevetcm]

Can't really understand the popularity of the Feadog in this poll, the two that I had were not good, maybe a bad batch. I've got a Meg which I didn't really take to until I played in company, it's easy to play but it needs a bit of push to get the best out of it.

[DCrom]

Best cheap C? I like Walton's the best, but the Oak C works well for me too. Not terribly fond of the Sweetone/Meg C. The rest fall somewhere in the middle.

Best cheap D? Depends on what you're looking for, I think - I've found *something* to like about most of them. But I voted "Feadog" - I seem to gravitate to my Feadogs more than any other cheap D I own.

[Jayhawk]

I voted for Clarke original - it's my favorite at home practice whistle since my wife hates whistle in the house (the Clarke is mellow and flute like enough to work, though). I did have to squash the airway a bit to decrease the breathiness.

I have one of those O'Briain tweaked Feadogs Peter refers to in page 1. It would have been my choice, and an untweaked feadog is pretty close in sound to it, but O'Briain's tweaked version is my session whistle.

Some day I'll have to try one of the Feadog Pros...Bloomfeld's powerpoint on it was, um, illuminating?

Eric

[Wanderer]

I understand the feadog reaction. The whistle has lightning fast responsiveness, is easy playing without taking a lot of breath, is well in tune, and has a great traditional character in tone. Of course, that tone isn't to everyone's liking--different people have different tastes--but one could hardly fault the instrument itself for that.

For me, the vote is a tossup between the Feadog and the Sweetone. The Feadog has the Sweetone beat for pure character and Irish chutzpah. But I ended up voting for the sweetone. If it hadn't been for the Sweetone appearing a decade ago, I may never have gotten as into the whistle as I am. It was the first whistle that let everything "click" while I was playing.

[buskit]

i find that feadog has been the easiest 4 me to learn with, ive had clarkes but prefer the feadog