The News is (Finally) Broken

Chuck_Clark · Post by **Chuck_Clark** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 6:51 pm

I wonder if its the same company that makes those marvelous brass whistles in so many off-keys?

ScottStewart · Post by **ScottStewart** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 6:59 pm

If not Samick, how about Stella? Or maybe Jasmine? Mastersound, you every notice how every decent guitar has a really bad knockoff? Funny thing, a bassist friend of mine swears by Samick, but I think that it's only because it's the only think he can afford with what his wife allows him to spend.

jackorion · Post by **jackorion** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 7:02 pm

I'm not buying into this. Whats the point? A cheaper whistle? As if the original and Sweettones arn't cheap enough. The only people who will benefit from this besides Clarke Co. and the poor workers in the far east (maybe), are going to be the "Tweak Heads". You can buy a box of ten for twenty some dollars and tweak away, disgarding the bad ones to your local dump site. Along with all the others thrown out because parents thought it would be nice to get thier kids into music, when what they realy want is two turntables. I mean what's the demographic nature here?

I'm all for the whistle being great because it's cheap, but hey this draws the line for me. Useless pollution in the name of money. It's not like they are trying to improve apon thier product like a variation in fipple plug material of the original. That would be cool. But this is just money for money's sake.

Jack "I'm calling Greenpeace" Orion

PS The masses don't care about the penny whistle, the ones that do care already have one and the ones forthcoming will find thier way. Or could I be wrong, will this new line make the whistle a common household item like the abflex or the juiceman machine? But wait there's more!! It also slices and dices..............

Tony · Post by **Tony** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 7:03 pm

Scott,
I have a left-handed Hohner copy of a Fender P-bass that plays as good as the Fender.

Bloomfield · Post by **Bloomfield** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 7:07 pm

So who wins the free Meg, Steve?

Mastersound · Post by **Mastersound** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 7:22 pm

The Samick thing is interesting. When my gf, Deb, got sick of watching us jam and wanted to join in I bought her a Samick bass. It's a brilliant guitar for the money. My number two electric guitar is a Samick Strat copy, and it too is a very playable and great sounding guitar.

Samick make pianos and guitars in Korea, and I read last year that Samick Indonesia now turns out some 25,000 acoustic guitars and 20,000 electric guitars every month. It is the world's largest guitar production facility! The list of guitars made by Samick is amazing! Almost every imported brand seems to come from there, although I've seen some well made stuff coming out of Vietnam and China recently too. Then there's Fujigen in Japan who make some of the nicest guitars in the world including the Jap Fenders.

It makes you wonder why the whistle makers don't source their bodies and fipples in Asia and assemble them locally, or just import them and be done with it. If my new LBW cost me US$7.00 it would have been landed in Australia for US$3.50 so the cost of production would have to be around $1.75.

The diehards will always say that US made instruments are best, but I think there's a lot more bang for the buck to be had in Asia. My number one guitar is an Australian made Maton Mastersound, but my other guitars, my banjo and my mandolin are all made in Asia.

ChrisLaughlin · Post by **ChrisLaughlin** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 7:23 pm

The truth is that I love Clarke whistles, especially the originals. I'm just disappointed to hear that their big surprise is that they're using cheap labor to make a super-cheap whistle.
Chris

CDon · Post by **CDon** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 7:48 pm

Clarke say that the Meg is a combination of the Sweetone design with budget raw materials and a modified production process.

This translates to a *cheap* Sweetone? Good grief!

mike.r · Post by **mike.r** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 8:10 pm

What a dissapointment.I was hoping for something more substantial and budget raw material will be rightly interpreted as budget labour by most.A more honest promotion such as"Meg,same %&!" new package,more profits!" sounds more appropriate. Mike

JohnPalmer · Post by **JohnPalmer** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 8:21 pm

Tweek heads!

ErikT · Post by **ErikT** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 8:26 pm

Dale, can you comment on the seam? Is it the same as their previous models?

Thanks,
Erik

Jens_Hoppe · Post by **Jens_Hoppe** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 10:01 pm

Hmmm, since I am not a Sweetone fan in the first place (understatement of the day), I think I will pass on the Meg...

Cheers,
Jens

mike.r · Post by **mike.r** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 10:08 pm

On 2002-03-20 21:21, JohnPalmer wrote:
Tweek heads!

The Sweetone fipple was designed to match a conical bore.A cylindrical bore large enough to accomodate the fipple such as a Gen Bb will yield a fair result but voicing problems will occur on smaller bores making this fipple one of the more un-tweakable ones.Besides,the Gen Bb fipple sounds so good, why bother?I once tried a Sweetone fipple on a Gen D shaft and it sounded dreadfull!The complete package is also one that defys easy internal hole tuning due to the hardness of the metal and only increases the rust factor.If the Meg is produced in brass this would be an improvement but as no mention is made in the promotion blurb I,ll assume its the same rust bucket it always was.Mike

StevePower · Post by **StevePower** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 10:17 pm

The prize was won by Mark Johnston, who was the first to guess that a new Sweetone was on the way (see first page of original thread 'Breaking News'). I'll send him one as soon as I have them, but it may be a slightly long wait (probably end of May).

Thanks for your good humoured response to this thread and the previous one - I hope it was good fun, as intended

Steve

AnnaDMartinez · Post by **AnnaDMartinez** » Thu Mar 21, 2002 12:54 am

I have to agree that exploiting desperate, impoverished people as labor to make a less expensive product makes me very uneasy, and it feels really icky to me. However, with the current situation in Deadwood, and my indulging in "The Politics of the Absurb," and fighting City Hall, we ARE the outback here, really, I am very low fixed income, and think my cause is noble. (LAMO) However, since there are no real legal resources here that I can afford. Hence, and anyone of you is welcome to call me on it, any money I can save on buying the whistles to give to those special kids is another penny I can put into the Anna Martinez Legal Fund. Please, please, please, I need to believe there are ethical caring, civil minded, world citizen, green contientious businesses out there. If there is an expose of Clarke enslaving young, poor, helpless,oppressed litle brown people to make a cheaper whistle, I may have to just lie down and die. I need to believe, you guys! Hopefully, the Clarke company has created a small local economy where these poor families who were getting beans and rice for wages, can have a little more medical care, better food, and become a little more empowered, and not have their kids die off as babies.