Marvellous Meg

[Craig-y-Nos]

Now I have never had very much success with untweaked cheapies - due more to my lack of skill than to the whistles - and I have never liked the Clarke Sweetone High 'D'.
So why, when I saw a box of Megs in the local music shop, did I but one (a 'D') ?
Fellow WHOA sufferers will know the answer - because it was there!
Anyway I get home and prepare to play, sure in the knowledge that the Meg would soon join the pile of reject whistles.
But wait......this whistle is good. In fact it is very good. I really like it.
OK it is not as good as my brass Copeland but then the Copeland is not fifty times better than the Meg which is the number I could buy for the same price.
It goes to show that one should never approach anything with a pre-conceived view and that cheap most certainly does not equate with bad.

[Butterfly]

I have a Meg C and I love it! This also goes for my Sweetone D's, one ( Jerry- ) tweaked, the other one untweaked.

[Craig-y-Nos]

Butterfly wrote: "I have a Meg C and I love it! .......

Hi Butterfly
I will probably pick up a 'C' next week when I am in town. I hope I like it as much as the 'D'.

[buddhu]

Butterfly wrote: "I have a Meg C and I love it! .......

Hi Butterfly
I will probably pick up a 'C' next week when I am in town. I hope I like it as much as the 'D'.

I still like Sweetone Ds and I don't mind the Meg Ds, however the Sweetone Cs I've had have struck me as being less reliably in tune, and I'm not over keen.

[Wormdiet]

I really like the mellow "conicle"ness of my Meg D. Much better than my new-style Oak.

My Meg C is a hunk of crap. Completely out of tune with itself.

I think it all depends on how recently the drilling jigs were calibrated at the factory.

[lisdoonvarna]

My D whistle of choice now is a Sweetone (silver or black). I own a Dixon, (do like this one too-a close second- Its tunable, but it slides very easily and it needs to be taped into position so it doesn't slip out of tune). a Feadog, (not crazy about the weak lower register), a Clark (takes a bit more air than I like, became an intolerable clogger), a Shaw,(too much breath required, out of tune with itself and so loud in the upper register I was concerned about my hearing). The Sweetone mouthpiece is designed by Copeland - what more can you ask for? It doesn't clog, volume fine, you can tune it, it has just the right air requirements for me and the tuning with itself hasn't been a problem for me in any of the three I've bought. I'm less thrilled about their C whistle. The finger stretch is a bit wider than I'm used to between the bottom two holes. I really like my black Clark C whistle. It's been perfect.
Pat

[fearfaoin]

The Sweetone mouthpiece is designed by Copeland - what more can you ask for? It doesn't clog, volume fine, you can tune it, it has just the right air requirements for me and the tuning with itself hasn't been a problem for me in any of the three I've bought. I'm less thrilled about their C whistle. The finger stretch is a bit wider than I'm used to between the bottom two holes

I have the same complaint about my sweeTone C.

I still mostly play D sweeTones. The only problem I've noticed with
them is that the plastic on the ramp seems to degrade over time. I
don't know if I'm just rough on whistles, or if I have plastic-melting
breath, but I have two that have visible degradation on the edge of
the ramp. These cause some real ugliness in the upper register.
I've cleaned up one of these with sandpaper and a piece of an
emory board, but the other might be a lost cause: it has some nasty
dents at the ramp edge. Luckily, they're cheap!

[IDAwHOa]

We have never liked any of the "cheapie" whistes other than the Mellow D. They just sound too rough to us and Renee does not like the ones that have the seam down the back.

Wood is our preferred whistle material.

[Crevan]

I had a Little Black Whistle for quite some time and it was, by far, my least favourite whistle. The notes in the higher register were just not useful in any way. Recently I found it in my whistle vase and decided to tweak it. I did the putty trick and tried sanding it down...still it didn't change much. Finally, I built a whole new sound blade for the whistle and it is now my favourite D. And I have a Burke! I won't be underestimating the cheap whistles any time soon. A whistle that costs $5 and rivals my Burke D is a whistle worth keeping.

[peeplj]

I did that same thing on a Walton's Guinness--removed most of the blade and rebuilt it with superglue.

It is also a great whistle now.

--James

[Rosee]

I have one Meg D that's a surprisingly good whistle, and one that has the bottom hole in very much the wrong position, throwing off the intonation. You never know what you're going to get when you buy them. No more Sweetone, though. The one I had encountered a blunt object and got dented in an unfortunate location, again throwing off the intonation.

I think, like a fine wine, my LBW improved with time. I let it age in my desk for a few years and it was much better when I next picked it up (or found it again)

[clark]

I gave a workshop after a concert my band did in which audience members could learn some tunes. Each of the musicians in the band broke off into small groups and we found out what the level of the musicianship was in the group and then went from there. We used Megs which we gave to all the workshop participants - it was great promotion and the price was right. The place where I ordered them even gave me a discount because I was buying so many ...the cheap got cheaper.

Clark

[Key_of_D]

I'm with lisdoonvarna,
I have a Meg C, and it's slightly out of tune. More noticeably the A and Bb notes. It is nice how the fipple hardly clogs, unlike my Syn C... The Syn clogs in no time flat, at least mine does. But anyways, back to the Meg C. My bottom two holes are also spaced more than normally, I'm no expert on whistle building, but I think the top five wholes on the Meg C are drilled up too high on the pipe. When you put an Original Clarke C (wooden fipple) put it right next the Meg C, so that the bottom of the pipes are perfectly in line with eachother, you'll see a big difference in spacing between the two whistles and their bottom two wholes. As well as the rest of the wholes not being parallel with the Original Clarke C. I figure it would be a good comparison seeing that they're both conical bored. But if you do the opposite with the two whistles, and line them up so that the very top hole (or the A hole haha...) is lined up with eachother, then all but the very bottom holes line up. Weird? Maybe this the cause of the Meg C's tuning? I'm not sure, but thinking it could be. My Original Clarke C, is very much tuned.

Anyways, I'm a big fan of the Sweetone D and Meg D I own. I think they're great whistles, especially the Meg, only costing 3 bucks. Can't beat that. At least not for the money. Just wished the C was as good! Or at least in tune.