Chiff and Fipple Forums

I am looking to buy a fairly inexpensive but good quality D Whistle since I killed my poor An Seisiun and am now suffering whistle withdrawls . There are a couple of stores locally that sell whistles, one has Generation, the other should be getting a new shipment of Clarke Originals next week. I was also looking into maybe buying a Clarke Meg online, but I don't know if it's as good quality as one of the others. Can anyone steer me in the right direction or point me to a better option?

I have a black Sweetone D you can have if you want. Email me.

Generations could be killers or very bad. Normally you have to tweak them. My best D whistle is a Nickel Generation D with a tweaked (blue) head from an Eb. It is a marvelous whistle with a strong, sweet but pure and full bodied tone, great response and so on. I've also played some that were really bad and that I couldn't improve much with tweaking (maybe just my inability to get it right all the time).

Clarke originals are kind of cool but I don't like them very much. The tone is quite breathy and sort of round and soft while I prefer the purer sound of some plastic or metal fippled whistles. Clarkes also takes more air than a Generation.

Megs and Sweetones are nice as well. Really nice, pleasant sound. They generally don't need any tweaking to play good, but I don't like them as much as some of the marvelous tweaked Generations out there.

contact mack hoover about a white cap....really a great whistle for the buck.

Henke wrote:Clarke originals are kind of cool but I don't like them very much. The tone is quite breathy and sort of round and soft while I prefer the purer sound of some plastic or metal fippled whistles.

How in the world can the Clarke original be beat?

When I want a good 'un, I reach for my Clarke every time. Of course, I have a little lung power and prefer the breathy sound (which I don't hear in my recordings), so I only have one tweaked to play a little flat to match a concertina that is slightly flat.

Try a board search with the terms "Clarke" and "tweak" if you don't like the air requirements of the whistle out of the box.

fancypiper wrote:

Henke wrote:Clarke originals are kind of cool but I don't like them very much. The tone is quite breathy and sort of round and soft while I prefer the purer sound of some plastic or metal fippled whistles.

How in the world can the Clarke original be beat?

When I want a good 'un, I reach for my Clarke every time. Of course, I have a little lung power and prefer the breathy sound (which I don't hear in my recordings), so I only have one tweaked to play a little flat to match a concertina that is slightly flat.

Try a board search with the terms "Clarke" and "tweak" if you don't like the air requirements of the whistle out of the box.

I have some costly whistles, yet still my favorite whistle, and my first was a original Clarke.

Me too. I may have a buyer for my Michael Burke brass Session Pro, though as I seldom play it (once in the last 3 years at a gig where the other band members said they couldn't hear me).

I made a session recording once, putting the recorder right in front of Jerry O'Sullivan in a giant session and I was sitting on the edge of the crowd. I could hear my Clarke clearly, even with 7 other whistles in the session.

K, getting a feel for the responses: basically if I'm looking for a good whistle for the money, the Clarke Original is a good one to do for? The ones in my town run somewhere between 13 and 15 dollars. Thank you all for your help. By the way, I'm a little afraid of tweaking since that's what made me loose me other whistle

Jerry Freeman's Tweaked Shaw is a lot like a Clark Original only better. I've got one and it's great. You can read about them here: http://www.whistleanddrum.com/Tweaked+S ... f+D%2Ehtml
Good Luck

This is how I tweak my Clarke's, when they need it.

I look down the blowhole and sight along the wood. The center of the metal of the little dimple in the blade should be centered in your sight. If not, take something thin enough to slip in the airway and raise it if needed or use some tool to press down on it until it is adjusted.

It should now play even though it may take a bit of air and sound breathy. Adjust up or down slightly if needed to play both octaves cleanly.

To decrease the breathiness, use some lightweight hammer and tap the metal over the airway downward toward the wood. The end of the airway's exit (the area closest to the blade) should be closer to the wood and have a flatter arch. Adjust these two things back and forth and you will end up with a whistle you will love.

A round toothpick (or similar object, or poster putty, beeswax) can be put in the sides of the windway to focus the air more towards the "dimple" will also reduce air requirements

A little cinnamon oil on the end of the wood helps with the taste of a new whistle.

It's pretty hard to completely destroy it as the metal can take quite a bit of abuse before breaking and the whistle dying. I have never killed one completely, but I did have to mess quite a bit with one C whistle until I got it "just right".