Do all Feadogs sound this well?

Tommy · Post by **Tommy** » Mon May 02, 2005 11:30 am

After putting sticky tac in all of my whistle heads that have a cavity under the wind way. I found that the head could be swapped on most of them. After trying every tone tube with each head and every head with each tone tube. I found my Feadog original Irish whistle tone tube to be right on tune and with itself no matter which head was on it. It is the black one for $8.95 from Melody's music and harp shop. Did I get lucky with this one? Do all Feadogs sound this well?

Darwin · Post by **Darwin** » Mon May 02, 2005 11:37 am

My Feadog tube is excellent. All it needed was a Hoover Whitecap to make it perfect.

Jayhawk · Post by **Jayhawk** » Mon May 02, 2005 2:05 pm

I seem to recall that Cillian O'Briain (the pipemaker and tweaker of O'Briain improved whistles) worked with Feadog to improve their tube and they adopted his measurements...but don't quote me on that.

My feadog tube is well in tune. Tonewise though, I think the O'Briain tweaked head (which is essentially sticky tack with plastic blade replacement) sounds much better, but it's not anymore in tune than the feadog except for the upper notes which are slightly more "on" with less air.

Eric

burnsbyrne · Post by **burnsbyrne** » Mon May 02, 2005 3:32 pm

I put my Sindt D head on a brass Feadog tube and I love the sound. The Sindt tube is made with the assumption that C nat will be played by half-holing rather than cross fingering. Since I am not too good a player and I like to cross finger the C nat the Feadog tube works great for me.
Mike

Jack · Post by **Jack** » Mon May 02, 2005 5:08 pm

Simple answer: no.

Bloomfield · Post by **Bloomfield** » Mon May 02, 2005 5:25 pm

Cranberry wrote:Simple answer: no.

The simple answer is yes. Cranberry is confusing the question with something to do with leather shoes and salvation.

Mind you, older Feadog tubes may be a different story, but even the old ones I've played were good.

Jayhawk: You are right about Cillian O'B. He claimed in an interview that he used to re-tune the Feadog tubes until they took his hole measurement/spacing. He's been using untweaked Feadog tubes since. (Only trouble with this account is that when I compared a really old Feadog tube with a brand new one, I couldn't see a difference in the holes.)

RonKiley · Post by **RonKiley** » Mon May 02, 2005 6:03 pm

The Feadog I have is excellent right up there with my best whistles. (Best as in my favorites). I intend to get another one as soon as I am in a store that has a few to choose from. I would like to have one untweaked.

Ron

Jack · Post by **Jack** » Mon May 02, 2005 6:13 pm

chas · Post by **chas** » Mon May 02, 2005 7:17 pm

It's funny, my Feadog head only sounds decent with an Oak tube on it. It's weak and out of tune with its own tube, but strong and in tune with the Oak tube. This is an older brass tube.

Jayhawk · Post by **Jayhawk** » Mon May 02, 2005 7:48 pm

Bloomfield - Maybe there is significant undercutting of the tone holes you haven't noticed?

Eric

StewySmoot · Post by **StewySmoot** » Mon May 02, 2005 8:01 pm

The answer is no.

First one I ever owned was absolute crap. Threw it in the garbage where it rightfully belonged.

2nd one I played (my sister in law's) sounded near perfect.

You got lucky

peeplj · Post by **peeplj** » Mon May 02, 2005 8:15 pm

My first Feadog I thought was horrible. I did some extreme tweaking and wound up liking it ok. That first one is still around, but in all honesty it sees more use as a back scratcher than as a whistle these days.

I bought another a few years later. I like this one fine, fact is there are days it's my whistle of choice.

I am not sure whether the first whistle was as bad as I remember, or whether I just wasn't ready for that kind of whistle yet. Feadogs do take lots of control, particularly on the upper octave. Also they play better if warmed just a bit before play--fact is, I've not found many whistles that don't.

Also I have lately picked up my Susato whistles more and more. The upper octave is no longer particularly hard for me to control, and I have also realized that really a Susato is on a par with a Feadog for volume. Both are pretty loud whistles. You can use a Feadog in a pretty big session and you'll not have trouble hearing yourself, same of course is true for Susato.

--James

Dazzle1 · Post by **Dazzle1** » Tue May 03, 2005 3:55 am

My Feadog sounded pretty good, better with the Blutack fix but superb with the Whitecap.
Mack to thank for that and James for pointing me in the right direction

D

peeplj · Post by **peeplj** » Tue May 03, 2005 6:00 am

Whitecaps are a whole 'nother kind of wonderful. I don't think you can ever go wrong with a whistle (or a fipple) made by Mack Hoover.

I have two whitecap D's, one sits on an Oak tube and is outstanding, the other is his recent redesign on his own tube, and it's even better than that. These compare well to Burkes in terms of playability and response.

--James

walrii · Post by **walrii** » Tue May 03, 2005 7:42 am

I'm a newbie with the usual collection of cheapies. I like my blu-tacked Feadog the best (I honestly cannot tell much difference with the blu-tack beyond a slight improvement in the tone). I didn't like it at first as it takes better breath control than the Sweetone or LBW. As my breath control got better so did my opinion of the Feadog. There was an earlier thread on this site concerning the development of Feadog mouthpiece. It has undergone several improvements over the years. Mine is the latest and, presumably, best model.