You sometime tweaked Whistle? :)

Slayer · Post by **Slayer** » Thu May 04, 2006 9:37 pm

It is interesting to know, how many people never tweaks the whistle?
And how many have remained are pleased with the work.

Thanks for polling and answers!

Walden · Post by **Walden** » Thu May 04, 2006 9:39 pm

I tried before... on the Cooperman... rendered it from almost unplayable to all-the-way unplayable. I now play a Freeman-tweaked whistle.

CRC · Post by **CRC** » Thu May 04, 2006 9:41 pm

Tried doing different things on a sweetone but haven't had much success.Recently I switched the heads on a brass feadog in d and a walton irish whistle in d. That was interesting.

crookedtune · Post by **crookedtune** » Fri May 05, 2006 5:16 am

I pretty well took out a Generation D, and an old Clarke as well. I tried tweaking my Soodlum with maybe a bit of improvement. It takes some practice, I guess.

Whistlin'Dixie · Post by **Whistlin'Dixie** » Fri May 05, 2006 5:30 am

I tweaked a Clarke, and a couple of Walton's to death.

I tweaked a Generation, it didn't make a bit of difference, it still sounded crappy.

I tweaked a Feadog, it sounded the same, which was only mediocre.

I tweaked my Oak, and it's one of my favorite whistles now.

I have an O'Briain D Improved, which comes already tweaked, and it's my favorite whistle of all.

Sure, expensive whistles sound great. I like mine. But I have been leaning more toward the "real thing" lately.... I enjoy the sound, look and feel of the traditional cheap whistle.

Loren · Post by **Loren** » Fri May 05, 2006 6:49 am

Whistlin'Dixie wrote:I tweaked a Clarke, and a couple of Walton's to death.

I tweaked a Generation, it didn't make a bit of difference, it still sounded crappy.

I tweaked a Feadog, it sounded the same, which was only mediocre.

I tweaked my Oak, and it's one of my favorite whistles now.

I have an O'Briain D Improved, which comes already tweaked, and it's my favorite whistle of all.

This isn't too surprising, as the main reason most of these inexpensive whistles don't sound as good as they could is that the labium (ramp and edge) are way too high in relation to the floor of the windway. The the typical home tweaking methods don't address this, however the O'Briain Improved does address this issue pretty well, having as he has laminated a new blade (placed lower in relation to the windway) on top of the old, along with the other "standard" tweaks. Really a substantial improvement over the stock setup. (Still enjoying mine, thanks again Blackhawk!)

Loren

RonKiley · Post by **RonKiley** » Fri May 05, 2006 7:00 am

Loren has the answer that is important. When I look for a cheap whistle I look through the windway toward the blade to see how much space is between the floor of the windway and the bottom of the blade. I choose the one with very little space showing. It usually does not need any tweaking. I have tweaked some whistles with great results others with no real improvement. The best tweak I have come up with is a year of practice with the whistle.

Ron

Loren · Post by **Loren** » Fri May 05, 2006 7:07 am

RonKiley wrote:Loren has the answer that is important. When I look for a cheap whistle I look through the windway toward the blade to see how much space is between the floor of the windway and the bottom of the blade. I choose the one with very little space showing. It usually does not need any tweaking. I have tweaked some whistles with great results others with no real improvement. The best tweak I have come up with is a year of practice with the whistle.

Ron

Right you are Ron, the whistle matters far less than the player.

Loren

Congratulations · Post by **Congratulations** » Fri May 05, 2006 7:41 am

I chose the first one, but all I did was put blutack in it. It did make the whistle a much better player, though.

doogieman · Post by **doogieman** » Fri May 05, 2006 8:23 am

I have improved some, destroyed others and not changed still more. Like every one else probably, my attempts were worse when I started.

seisflutes · Post by **seisflutes** » Fri May 05, 2006 9:00 am

I've destroyed a couple and improved a bunch. I don't play whistle that much anymore though, and when I do it's usually my high-end Busman. I do tweak for my non-tweaking friend though.

CRC · Post by **CRC** » Fri May 05, 2006 10:04 am

So, I guess the lesson to be learned is leave the tweaking to the pros.

Chiffed · Post by **Chiffed** » Fri May 05, 2006 10:16 am

I haven't been able to improve my megs, but several of my Gens are much better after surgery. The most successful was a Bb that got blu-tacked, deburred, retuned (lots of filing on toneholes), and slightly blunting the labium.

The only real improvement I could make on Clares is laminating on a new ramp. Killed one, but the other is lovely. Not as nice as my Mellow Dog, though.

Jason Paul · Post by **Jason Paul** » Fri May 05, 2006 11:24 am

I've done the sticky-tac tweak on three whistles, and I think it made a noticeable improvement on all three. It seems to make the upper register easier to play and a little cleaner with little to no negative effect on the lower register.

I did do a little more intrusive surgery on my Walton C though, with some help from Tommy here on the forum. It was almost unplayable when I got it. I spend close to an hour filing/sanding the windway. It plays much better now. Although, I'm not sure that was tweaking as much as necessary cleaning.

Jason

Fitzgerald · Post by **Fitzgerald** » Mon May 08, 2006 12:05 pm

Coming in a bit late on this one. . .

Last Friday, I did the "blue-tack" trick on my Acorn with success - hat tip to the great instructions and posts on C&F! The second octave seems easier (smoother) to reach. Not as much breath in the voice (make sense?).

I did the same trick on my Walton's D about a week prior to adjusting the Acorn.

Granted, they don't sound like my Freeman Tweaked Mellow Dog D or Freeman Tweaked Sweetone D; but hey, that's called "character"!

Have yet to tinker with my Feadog D.

Oh, five whistles within four months . . . no WHOA problem here.

Chiff and Fipple Forums

You sometime tweaked Whistle? :)

You sometime tweaked whistle ?

You sometime tweaked Whistle? :)