Walton's Mellow D Whistle-- opinions?

[mike.r]

Spot on Micah and James.I made A short sleeve from a trashed Gen Bb body to add an extension to my mellowD.Its a nice outdoor(its loud!) whistle but its not my `go for´ whistle...a Generation brass D would make a nicer gift I think. Peace,Mike

On 2002-09-27 19:48, Micah wrote:
Great sound (I've owned about 3) but frustratingly out of tune (including a sharp bell note). I believe mike.r. knows how to make these whistles play in tune...mike?
Micah

[harriswhistles]

I have both multiple Walton D's and multiple Walton Mellow Ds. I care very little for my regular Walton D's so that I've given them to my toddlers to use to bang on stuff with. My Walton Mellow Ds I absolutely LOVE! My favorite whistles that I own (comparing with Faedogs, Sweetones, Generations, Little Blacks).

BUT, the Walton Mellow D's I've bought in the past year for family and friends are not the same as the Walton Mellow D I bought over 5 years ago. At some point Walton changed their fipple design for these. All the new whistles have the hairline surface "cracks" where my old one doesn't. (The cracks don't appear to deeper than just on the surface, and there appears to be no hint of them cracking in two.) The main difference though is the angle at which the air comes out of the windway and strikes the blade.

On the old Walton Mellow D fipples, the air strikes the blade so that it looks like 90% of the air is deflected out of the whistle. This creates a nice, clear tone though it's a bit quieter than other "chiffier" whistles. It also means that it doesn't handle more forceful breath pressure as well and is therefore just a little more likely to squeak until you get used to it.

On the new Walton Mellow D fipples, the air strikes the blade so that it looks like only 50% of the air is deflected out of the whistle. This creates a little more of a chiffy tone that to me sounds like the classic Generation D sounds that you hear Paddy Moloney play. It's more forgiving than the older Mellow D fipples, handles harder breath pressure better, and is therefore less likely to squeak. It does require more air than older Mellow D fipples which I believe is the trade-off of changing the blade placement.

Finally, I've found the whistles to be pretty well in tune with themselves, but a bit sharp when played with other instruments. This can be corrected by sliding the fipple off a little to flatten them. Plus I've added a 1" brass sleeve to the outside end of the whistle to add a little more length to flatten the lowest note just slightly. I'd imagine this kind of intonation adjustment is probably required for any low-end priced whistle.

Loving the Walton Mellow D's,
harriswhistles

[dlovrien]

Had to chime in with a dissenting opinion. In my admittedly limited experience (two samples) with the Walton Mellow D, you would find me using a blade of grass between my thumbs before using a WMD.

WMD = Whistle of Mass Destruction?

[buddhu]

I can't stand Walton mouthpieces, and I 've hated every Walton whistle I've had... EXCEPT I put a Feadog C mouth piece on a Mellow D tube and the result is a really great mellow, almost Clarke-sounding D whistle!

[seisflutes]

My grandmother is learning to play the whistle,and recently went on a whistle buying spree.She got a Generation G,one of those Guiness ones,and a Walton's Mellow D.We both played the Mellow D,and she doesn't like it at all.She says it sounds hoarse.However,I kind of liked it.I didn't really check the tuning,but it did sound a little off.The sound was nice though,I thought.
Just my two cents.

[vomitbunny]

I was just sitting here messing with one. I have the original mellow d, and a walton c. They use the same heads. To make a long story short, I tweaked both heads, but differently. One has extra blade material glued to the bottom, the other to the top. Both blades were carefully placed to get the clearest tone. The one with the extra blade material glued to the top won out.
It makes a difference. Extra material on the bottom usually preserves more of the original tone and chiff, as well as volume. Material on top winds up with a clearer and quieter tone usually, losing much of it's original brand's character.
Read up on the "guitar pick" tweak and try that. On the mellow d, I came out better with the on-top tweak. It's a bit easier too. You can get by with blu tac insted of blue for the top tweak too.
BTW, mine was decent out of the box. Not outstanding or anything, but slightly above average. Didn't matter. I couldn't leave it alone.

[Jayhawk]

Unfortunately, Walton's must have a terrible quality control problem. I just threw one away that I recently bought online that was unplayable. Well, it wasn't totally unplayable, you could play low D up to the middle C, but there was no second octave and the first octave wasn't just "chiffy" it was more wind-tunnelly if I may coin my own word.

Just a warning that not all are playable out of the box - unless you like having a range smaller than a one row melodeon.

Eric

[vomitbunny]

I've had five I've messed with. Seemed more like a design problem more than anything. All the ones I got were fairly playable right out of the box, but had an uninteresting lackluster tone. They all tweaked up to be very playable, but the tone just didn't have the magic that a good gen or feadog can have. They did have sort of an interesting "woody" sound to them, but nothing that really grabs ya. None of my friends prefered it over the gens or feadogs. The best one I found was a mellow d /C
head. It turned out sort of sweet sounding.

[harriswhistles]

I give whistle lessons and start my students on Walton Mellow Ds. So when I buy them, I always buy a few at a time. The only quality control issues that I've found is that sometimes the insertion of the tube into the fipple shaves off a little plastic that remains hung up inside the whistle. Removing those shavings has already corrected the few quality problems I've noticed.

RE: Feadogs and Generations: I really like my Generation Folk D whistle, it's my first and only Generation D and it was perfect out of the box. I can barely put up with my newest Feadog, it's very difficult to get a non-raspy high G. (I hatest my last Feadog, I loved my first Feadog, that represents the three different fipple design changes I've noticed from Feadogs since 1996.)

[vomitbunny]

RE: Feadogs and Generations: I really like my Generation Folk D whistle, it's my first and only Generation D and it was perfect out of the box. I can barely put up with my newest Feadog, it's very difficult to get a non-raspy high G. (I hatest my last Feadog, I loved my first Feadog, that represents the three different fipple design changes I've noticed from Feadogs since 1996.)

Take your feadogs and laminate a new blade on them. Underside, like the tweaked gens. The old feadogs were hard to do, but the new ones do great. A little like a gen but with more of that tubular chiff sound. I tried putting more blade material on the topside too. That works really good too. You come up with a very pure quiet tone, somewhat like a hoover.
I love the new feadogs.

[Jens_Hoppe]

I have an old, battered Mellow D which plays well enough. However, as James and others have said, the bell note is horribly sharp. Which in fact can be said for every single Waltons whistle I've ever tried...

[Zubivka]

I have an old, battered Mellow D which plays well enough. However, as James and others have said, the bell note is horribly sharp. Which in fact can be said for every single Waltons whistle I've ever tried...

Wouldn't a cardboard (plastic, can-tin...) sleeve fix it easily?

[Jens_Hoppe]

I have an old, battered Mellow D which plays well enough. However, as James and others have said, the bell note is horribly sharp. Which in fact can be said for every single Waltons whistle I've ever tried...

Wouldn't a cardboard (plastic, can-tin...) sleeve fix it easily?

I suppose, but I can't be bothered...

[Father Emmet]

The only quality control issues that I've found is that sometimes the insertion of the tube into the fipple shaves off a little plastic that remains hung up inside the whistle. Removing those shavings has already corrected the few quality problems I've noticed.

Yup, unless you do this they squeel like pigs. I really wanted to like the Mellow D, and killed two of them trying to tweak them into decent shape.
I recommend a non-tunable Dixon for grandma, they are only about $15 from the Whistle Shop. They are nicely in tune and the same diameter as the Mellow D, and play under any conditions. They must be blown softly, however.

[Dictyranger]

BUT, the Walton Mellow D's I've bought in the past year for family and friends are not the same as the Walton Mellow D I bought over 5 years ago. At some point Walton changed their fipple design for these. All the new whistles have the hairline surface "cracks" where my old one doesn't. (The cracks don't appear to deeper than just on the surface, and there appears to be no hint of them cracking in two.)

They may crack on you in time. My first two whistles were a Walton regular D and a Mellow D. Both quickly developed an apparent surface crack down the top side of the fipple, through the blade. About three months ago, I took out the regular Walton--it had started to sound bad, so I hadn't played it in a while--and discovered that the crack had gone clean through the entire fipple. That sucker had a 1-mm airgap from top to bottom. The fipple went into the garbage, and the barrel went to Mack Hoover to be fitted for a Whitecap. (A very nice one, too, I must say.)

The Mellow D now sounds about as bad as the regular one did when I quit playing it, so I won't be surprised if it also cracks completely. From the looks of the flaw, I expect it's an injection-molding casting defect.

Dicty