My 1st whistles arrived!

[KATaylor5]

Well, I waited for that freakin' UPS guy until nearly 8 p.m. but they're here!!!!

Yeah, this whistle thing is totally addicting. THis is my first shipment so of course I ordered a bunch to try them all out. and I'm already thinking of getting more...yikes.

It's fun that some of the whistles aren't 'bad' or 'good' per sae. Just different:)

I ordered 5 high D's. The smoothest one throughout is the Freeman Mellow Dog. Fun. But I love the semi breathy sound of the Clarke original, I think I like it a little more than the tweeked sweetone I received! I'm still waiting on the Tweaked Shaw to come in. The feadog is a gutsy little thing, the brightest of the 4...prolly cuz it's 20-30 cents sharp in the first octave...yikers.

The C whistles seem to be tricky little beasts. I only got 3 of those to start; orig. clarke, generation nickel, and a sweetone. I don't like the sweetone C too much, it does jump to the next octave too easy...it's a little squeaky and wild. THe original clarke C is nice and the generation aren't bad.

I also got a generation Bb which I will probably send off for tweaking but it's pretty nice! The Eb has a pretty good tone but it is also very sharp.

I can't believe how decent these little guys sound!

I'm so happyyyyyyyy!!!!

I need to find that procedure that tells you how to loosen the mouthpiece...I don't want to venture into tweaking, but I would like to make it semi tunable by being able to pull the mouthpiece out a little.

My clarinet lungs are a little strong for these buggers....I think if/when I ever upgrade, I'll like having whistles that require more air to play and have more backpressure.

Thanks everyone for your encouragement and recommendations!

now if that kerry low d would just come in.....moohahaha

[Jason Paul]

To get the heads off, just put the head in hot water and pull it off. I was able to get the heads off my brass Gen D and Feadóg pretty easily. I had no luck getting the head off my brass Gen C.

Avoid actually setting the head down to rest in the mug (or whatever you have the hot water in). Letting it rest has been known to warp the mouthpiece. So, just hold it in the water for a little while (10-20 seconds or so).

Jason

[preacher]

After the mouthpiece has been in the hot water use a twisting and pulling motion to set it free.

[swizzlestick]

Tweaking the blade of a whistle may be beyond most of us, but I do think you should consider the blue poster putty tweak. It's easy to do and you can always fish it back out if you don't like the sound.

I've done this on every cheap whistle I have and it worked wonders on some of them. Especially my Generation Bb. It sounds so good that I decided not to put one of Mack Hoover's tops on it. (At least not yet. Mack's Whitecaps/Blacktops are the ultimate tweaks in my book.)

The poster putty tweak is well described at http://www.chiffandfipple.com/tweak.html. Don't even consider the wax option; this is far easier.

[KATaylor5]

Thanks guys.

I put some really hot tap water in a mug and held the feadog in there.

Nuttin. I tried to twist a bit but I didn't want to crack it.

Actually both the feadog and my freeman mellow dog have hairline cracks in the mouthpiece. Is this normal? Actually, now that I looked at them...all my plastic mouthpiece heads have hairline cracks, not scratches cuz I can feel them with nail. Hmph.

Ok...back to the soaking. so i tried again and still nuttin.

Maybe I'm just being too gentle with it? After all, it's my first baby whistle haha.

yes the sticky tak thing seems low risk enough for me to be willing to try. But i have to get the darn head off first. Hmmm.

Should I just really try to yank the thing?

[swizzlestick]

You may be keeping it in the water too long. The idea is to expand the plastic head quickly and twist it off before the tube expands.

I did break a Generation head on an F (very tight fit), but D whistles have not been a problem. And the crack was easy to fix with a little superglue.

Small cracks in the head should not affect the sound, but it does seem odd that they are all cracked.

Edited to add: I just grabbed my Mellow Dog and took a look at it under the stereo dissection microscope I keep on the corner of my desk. (Everyone should have one of these for whistle examinations.) Anyway, to my surprise there is a hairline crack just below the window. Might be related to all the extensive modifications that Jerry does to the windway and blade, but it doesn't seem to go all the way to the base of the mouthpiece and it certainly does not affect the sound. My Gen Bb also has one, so this must be more common than I realized.

[KATaylor5]

Swizzle,

The head I tried to get off was my Feadog D. I'm gonna send the generation Bb to Tommy. It's pretty good the way it is so I'm sure it will only be better when he's done with it. I didn't want to break the Gen. Bb head. Out of the lot of whistles I got today, I figured if there was going to be a casulty, it could be the feadog and I could just get another.

Ok...quicker dip this time:).....dang. haha. This little feadog just wants to stay where it is.

Oh well...it's after 1 a.m...i try again when I'm not so sleepy.

I dipped my Eb Generation, I scraped a little glue off with my finger nail but still couldn't get the head off.

I'm probably just babying it too much...I probably don't want to see anything happen to it, even though it's only a $7 whistle haha.

Well, at least trying to yank off a whistle head and maybe breaking it isn't as scary as when I saw my clarinet repair guy DRILL holes into my instrument to pin it cuz it cracked.

When he said, "You may not want to watch this..." I should have listened to him. I sat there in horror as my Buffet R-13 was shoved onto a drill bit...4 times.

[Butterfly]

I'll like having whistles that require more air to play and have more backpressure.

I think they should then have less or no backpressure at all.......

[Tommy]

It is not nessary to remove the fipple to do the sticky tac tweak. Go to the hardwear store, walmart, or Hobby lobby, and get a long wood dowel about 3/16'' or 1/4'' (they are mostly 36'' long and cheap) Make the stick a little shorter so it is easy to handle, and push the sticky tac in a little at a time. Look through the fipple window to see when it is flush with the bottom edge of the end of the windway.


Now where is Fearfaoin to check my spelling?

[fearfaoin]

Now where is Fearfaoin to check my spelling?

Heh. I actually rather enjoy your spelling. It's usually just creative
typos that end up being great puns. I don't know how you do it.

For example, "hardwear" makes me think of:

[Jerry Freeman]

The "hairline crack" you're describing isn't a crack. It's the joining line where the molten plastic that was injected from the bottom of the mold rose up along the sides and met at the top of the mold. If you look closely, almost all injection molded whistleheads have a similar joining line.

Best wishes,
Jerry

[Tommy]

Now where is Fearfaoin to check my spelling?

Heh. I actually rather enjoy your spelling. It's usually just creative
typos that end up being great puns. I don't know how you do it.

For example, "hardwear" makes me think of:

LOL LOL LOL I knew you were lurking out there someware.

[KATaylor5]

The "hairline crack" you're describing isn't a crack. It's the joining line where the molten plastic that was injected from the bottom of the mold rose up along the sides and met at the top of the mold. If you look closely, almost all injection molded whistleheads have a similar joining line.

Best wishes,
Jerry

Ok, that makes me feel better. As a clarinet player, anything resembling a crack puts me into a state of panic

By the way Jerry, one of the whistles I received was your tweaked MellowDog I like it alot.

thank you so much for the work you do! Most people wouldn't bother fixing newbie like whistles for those of us just starting out. It really helps having a bit of an upgrade to start out. Thank you

Kim

[picardy third]

I'm not sure if anyone above mentioned this, but that Generation C that you have won't come off with just a mug of hot water. It has to be neatly broken off (which Jerry does oh so well). He could explain it better, but it has to do with the design of the fipple and how it is attached.

Incidentally, we were performing MWS's Freedom for a 4th of July concert. The piece mods from the key of F to G, so I needed to go from a C whistle to a D. Since I can't get seem to get my hands on a Sindt C, in a panic, I ordered Jerry's tweaked brass Gen. C and it did a wonderful job. It is very neatly done-you wouldn't know that the whistle had been broken! So I started the piece on the tweaked Gen. C and ended on a Sindt D.

P3

[swizzlestick]

Thanks, Jerry.

I wasn't worred about the cracks since I have had no problems with them and no one else has been reporting problems. But it did seem odd that so many whistle heads have them. In normal light, I doubt that many people even see these lines, but they really show up under a microscope.

As a new owner of a Mellow Dog, let me add that I am very impressed with your workmanship. Looking forward to seeing that new line of whistles you are working on.