I am new to the whistle and I am playing a Feadog. I am having trouble with the 2nd octave as well as getting low D from say B or A in the first octave. It seems to sputter out and do a bit of squeaking. The 2nd octave squeaks and sputters too. I certainly accept my part in this, but I am curious as to the influence of a good whistle vs the one I have, I paid $9.00 for it, on getting a cleaner sound and ease in the 2nd octave.
I believe I am just trying to put to much breath on it or at times not enough but can’t help to wonder. What brand would anyone recommend?
Thanks
MAtt
Tell this man how to tweak his whistle!
One can tweak a whistle? I’ll look for some posts or if anyone has the links pass them on. Thanks IB
like the sticky above this thread?
I wouldn’t go to the tweaking routine just yet, personally. A lot of what you describe may be a matter of breath control and properly sealing each hole with the pads of the fingers (Don’t use the finger tips!). It may take some time but if you play/practice regularly you should see improvements in a short time. Relax, have fun and don’t strangle the whistle. Each note requires a specific amount of air pressure to speak so it takes a little time to figure that out. The pressure increases from the low notes to the high notes. And it can seem like a real trick to go from second octave A’s and B’s back the notes in the first octave, particularly the bottom D. Play as much as you can as often as you can and it will all sort itself out.
You may be right on it there for one of your issues. A Feadog doesn’t usually require much air at all to keep it going (relatively speaking). I’ve played Feadogs for many years. I have several that are around 25 years young now. All are untweaked and play very nicely when I play them very nicely.
You’re opening a can of worms there. Different whistles suite different players and there is no one whistle or best whistle out there - just different whistles. I own many, many, many whistles, but really the Feadog is still a decent whistle even at $9. There are a couple sterling silver Copelands for sale at the moment. Maybe you’d like one of those. 
But were you to buy one of those now I would bet that you’d still get the same squeaks and sputters out of it until you get comfortable with it. Practice and patience might do you more good than another whistle. But that’s just my opinion.
Just keep at it. You’ll do fine with the Feadog.
Feadoggie
Good news all around. I always get a little nervous when it comes to making my own adjustments on things when they are working. I don’t mind fixing things when they are broken but recognizing that I might be the problem is more difficult to determine. I like the idea of more practice and patience. Thats seem to be common theme on this board and the piping board. Thank for your tips. I’ll just keep on keepin on.
MAtt
You should be able to do just about anything with a Feadog assuming there’s nothing structurally wrong with it. Check all around and inside the head for little extraneous bits of plastic and get rid of them.
Try a bit of mild dishwashing soap solution in the windway to discourage clogging. Couple of drops in an ounce of water dribbled in and shaken out should do the trick.
Make sure you’re fully covering the finger holes–the low notes are especially prone to problems with leaky fingers. Breath control is tricky on the low notes but will come with practice.
For the higher notes, try articulating from note to note with a bit of tongueing. Silently say the letter “T” as you play the note. That extra little burst of air will get the note speaking more easily.
Beginner friendly whistles;
Freeman Mellow Dog
Freeman Blue Bird
Dixon Traditional
There are others, but costs go up from there.
I own three untweaked Feadogs and I still don’t play well enough to get a great sound out of them.
Started playing in Feb, and I play every day.
YMMV.
Even after I had learned to produce reasonable sounds from my other whistles, I still couldn’t get them on my Feadog. The bottom D was so weak that I couldn’t get a sufficiently loud note without it breaking, no matter how well I controlled the air speed and no matter how I shaped my mouth cavity and lips. The second octave G was a shrieking buzz when I blew hard enough to get the second octave at all, BUT I used the bluetack tweak, and even though I did it crudely, the whistle was transformed. The low note became strong enough to be usable and the second octave G produced a musical tone. All the notes improved in sound quality and strength. The tweak made more difference on this whistle than it did on any other.
BTW, when I tried the same tweak on my rather good Generation B-flat, the playability and sound quality took a huge nosedive, so I just removed the bluetack and joy was restored.
Yes, to Lancelot’s point, I think the bluetack/poster-putty tweak might be worth trying. It’s easy to do and it is reversible and non-destructive. I guess the current Feadogs may not be quite as consistent as they may once were.
Feadoggie
It’s natural for a beginner to have doubts about their instrument. It’s very unlikely to be the whistle but most likely not consistently covering the holes properly and lack of breath control. Don’t worry too much about it, just make sure at the very least you pick up the whistle for a blow every day - even if it’s just for five minutes. It’s a long time since I first learnt the whistle but have been learning the flute and I had similar problems to start out. As long as you play every day you’ll see steady improvement.
Hi MattMads -
You might find some help on this recent thread too 