Irvine Tweak - Nice Mellow Whistle

[dfernandez77]

Tommy Dion sent me an Irvine tweaked Walton's Mellow D to give as a gift in the little fundraiser I'm doing. So I took the opportunity to check it out and play it.

The tweak as explained in the note that came with the whistle:

The Irvine tweak consists of New Tweaked Walton's Mellow D. All excess plastic left by the factory has been removed, and wind way is clear. The cavity under the wind way has been filled to add in stabilizing the tone. A new blade has been made of brass, and secured with a plastic pin. The new blade is set closer to the wind way exit to produce a softer tone, and provide a smooth surface for the air to move across. The brass also compliments the appearance of the tone tube. Walton's tone tubes are made a little short causing the bottom d to be sharp. A perturbation has been added in the tone tube to correct this and make a stronger note. The Irvine tweaked Walton's fipple has a very smooth, mellow, and stable tone.

To be honest, I have not played an untweaked Walton's mellow D, so I had to judge this whistle on it's own merit. There's a few quick pics and a sound clip below.

Here's some of my impressions. The wind-way is open, so the breath requirement is like a regular Generation. Intonation is pretty good, as good as (better than untweaked) any other whistle in this class. On this whistle, C natural plays in better tune and focus with no breath adjustment at 0XX000 than a Generation. It's warm and humid here so my fingers were a little sticky, but still the whistle is an easy player. The voice is warm, smooth, and a little breathy - like somewhere between a Generation and a Shaw.

Altogether it's a very satisfying, easy playing whistle, with a warm and mellow tone. Whomever I ship it to at the end of the fundraiser should be very pleased.







A note about the sound-clip. I am working with a new condenser mic and the coloration seems more lively than my previous mic. It's also very sensitive, so I had the input level a bit high. Maybe I need to soften the room. The tone in person is a touch less strident than the sound-clip.
http://www.beancurdturtle.com/Whistle/I ... llow-D.mp3

Do you have one? What are your thoughts? Comments are welcome!

[raindog1970]

It doesn't appear as though the brass blade overlay is fastened on with the plastic pin, but rather that it's used as a stop point in obtaining the optimal positioning before gluing... which is a brilliant idea.
By the way, nice rendition of Marcus Hernon's Air... have you heard <A HREF="http://www.acidplanet.com/artist.asp?PI ... 9">mine</A>?

[dfernandez77]

By the way, nice rendition of Marcus Hernon's Air... have you heard <A HREF="http://www.acidplanet.com/artist.asp?PI ... 9">mine</A>?

Thanks for the kind words. I've heard yours now - nice work. Much better ornamentation than me, especially the vibrato. I've been too lazy to work on my vibrato.

[blackhawk]

I have these in the keys of D, C and Bb, and they are excellent whistles. I'd put the Bb in the category of a quiet Burke Bb, for one tenth the cost.

[Dale]

Just got this whistle from dfernandez. It's lovely. I'd just add that one of the really neat things about this design is that you can get a really nice range on the quiet-loud continuum by varying how soft-hard you blow, but with virtually NO change in the pitch. Mellow low end. It's got a bit of rasp at the upper end, but I like that.

[slowair]

Tommy sent several whistles that he tweaks and makes for the NE Whistle Gathering. Most everyone tried them and had positive comments.

To me, all were pretty darn good. Wasn't wild about the wooden ones, but the one that really got my attention was the D whistle made with a Generation Bb fipple and a matching diameter brass tube tuned to the key of D.

Nice mellow, warm tone. Almost flute-like. That would be my pick of the litter.

Mike