I bought a chieftain soprano D and it just doesn’t sound like a hundred dollar whistle should sound like. I can get a better sound out of my clarke and oak whistle than I can out of my chieftain. The only advantage to the chieftain is that its at least twice as loud. Is this normal? Maybe I just got a bad whistle, or maybe I don’t know how to clean it. Or maybe I just better with cheap whistles. Any comments would be appreciated.
Jack Murphy
The Chieftain Soprano D is a very different creature from the cheaper whistles.
It requires much more pressure to keep a tone, and like you say is much louder.
I find the tone gets better once it is warm (which takes a long time with that thick aluminium)
Take some time to get used to it and find out what possibilities these differences give you (like sliding or easy half-holing on the huge bottom 3 holes).
It may or may not be what you are looking for in a whistle.
Happy whistling
Jeroen
I got a Chieftan E whistle a couple of months ago. It was my first “high-end” whistle. I was seriously bummed when I played it. It clogged easily, I really had to push to get the top notes and the high D and E sounded like an asthmatic mule. I hated it. Every now and again I would pick it up and play it for a bit. Finally, one day I realized that the clogging was probably due to playing it cold, so I vowed to warm it up really good to see if it helped.
I discovered a few things once the whistle had been warmed up properly…
- clogging was greatly reduced
- the tone went from a “fffffff” sound to a “woooooo” sound (if that makes any sense). You can feel the notes through your hands…a wonderful feeling.
- the whole whistle seemed to stabilize in tonal quality
All in all, I was amazed at how great my least favorite whistle sounded!! It instantly climbed the ranks to my top three whistles. I won’t name my top three because the list changes daily…but the Chieftan is always in the list.
I found that you just can’t pick up a Chieftan and start playing. You also can’t put it down for very long before it gets cold…so while I’m browsing the web for tunes to play I sit on it…yes, you heard me right…I sit on it (depending on where you place it it can feel kinda good…kinda like climbing up the rope in gym class)
I love my Chieftan and plan to buy more…but I must admit that I had to do a little clean-up work to remove some minor metal shavings and burrs from inside the fipple area.
On a final note, I always put my finger over the windway and blew to clear the clogging…I send a special thanks to whoever said in a post that sucking to clear the clogging was better than blowing with the finger over the airway to clear clogs…I’m sorry that I can’t remember who or where I saw it…but that advice really helped me to appreciate the Chieftan all the more.
Good luck with your new whistle!!
Eric
Eric, I am so happy you posted that post. I bought a Chieftain C off Ebay a few months back, and have never figured out why people would trouble with them. I now have new hope and look forward to going home and trying it again.
Thanks!
Starr
Jack
The rest are right. The Chieftain, like the Overton, is a whistle that requires a bit more care on your part. It must be warmed up properly.
I find that with a high D, that can be easily accomplished by reversing the whstle, covering the finger holes, and blowing strongly into the bell. If that seems unseemly in public, try keeping it in an interior coat pocket or even tucked into the back pocket of your jeans.
Also, you’ll need to get used to pushing your breath a little harder in the upper octave, something no cheap whistle has ever demanded of me. I’m assured by the better musicians here that that’s good and not bad, albeit I couldn’t tell you why.
If all else fails, contact Phil about it. In the unlikely even that the whistle is bad, I am certain that there is no maker around who would be any more likely to quickly make it right.
Hmmm…
The chieftain D was my first high end whistle as well. I purchased it before I joined the c&f board.
I have been very pleased with this investment. I may have just lucked out though. Yes, it does required a little warming up and a little coaxing as well 
I removed the what I would call dental floss and replaced it with teflon plummers tape. Thanks to the suggestions of one of the members of the c&f board. It makes for a better seal and the mouth piece will not get stuck as easily that way. Done that, been there!
It does help to clean the mouth piece out every now and then. I do not know what this will do to the aluminum, but I find swishing it around in a cup of hydrogen peroxide helps to get the gunk out. And also reduces clogging.
I have not had a whole lot of luck with other keys in the chieftains. I had an A, returned it, it was too flat, even when I would allow it to warm up. I have a C that I am not all that thrilled about. Would rather play the susato C that I have.
I also had a non-tunable G which I returned for a tunable Kerry-Pro. Now that’s a nice whistle. It’s funny the Kerry pro G does not require as much air as the C chieftain.
I bought a susato VSB and played that for quite sometime I soon found myself back on the chieftain. I find it more forgiving than the VSB.
Oh well that’s my 2 cents worth. I only wish I had joined C&F sooner, I would of done my homework and not have been disappointed in a few of my investments.
Sometimes it can be a gamble. And if you are totally unhappy, see if you can get your whistle worked on by the maker or perhaps you can exhange it for another.
Laura
I don’t have a Chieftain but I have a Kerry Songbird, and it is very thick and heavy aluminum like the Chieftains. I thought it was junk at first because I didn’t realize it had to be warmed up. I e-mailed Phil Hardy about it and he asked if I was warming it up. Once I spent time properly warming it up, I loved it! It had a beautiful sound and felt lovely.
Cees
Hi People and Chieftain owners.
As you may or may not know,the Chieftain high and low whistles DO need a deal more puff than your average plastic headed whistle and will need to be warmed up before playing in tune as they are ALL amde flat so as to come in to tune when warm.
Also a number of you have told me that you think the whistles are flat when warm,well they DO need to be played with quite alot of attact to get the pitch up,this is to make the whistle respond correctly to the players that are used to a low whistle.
All the large bore low whistles are made with the low whistler in mind ,thats why we have made the Kerry Songbird so that the tin whistle players can play softly on it without much back pressure and it will respond up to the top of the upper reg without any problem.
Plaese contact me DIRECTLY with ANY problems you may have with our whistles as I will be very happy to help you sort them out.
Once again all our whistles carry a lifetime warranty and if you are not entirely happy with your whistle I will repair/replace it.
So,please remmember,lots of puff and warm them up.
All the best
phil.
I have a low D Kerry Pro and it acts the same way when it’s cold. I’ve got to believe any similar, all aluminum whistle will have to be warm to play in tune without clogging. I’ve wondered how the pros manage when they have to change instruments. Obviously, they have to sound good from the first note.
Well, last Saturday night I saw the Battlefield Band perform. The whistle player/piper (Mike Katz) used four different Overton (or Overton-like) whistles. Sure enough, between tunes he was usually holding both hands around his next whistle’s mouthpiece while blowing air through it.
It apparently worked - he sounded great.
As with nearly all my whistle acquisitions, my Chieftain soprano D was a gift from my wife several years ago. I had some difficulties with it, but to me it was my own inadequecies not the whistle. While I didn’t play it regularly, I still pulled it out for particular pieces because, when warmed up, I loved the tone … especially in the first octave. Recently, I’ve begun playing it more and find that it is a wonderful instrument now that I’ve grown into it a little better. Not to discourage, but to me it doesn’t seem to be a true beginner’s whistle though it is a very nice whistle and now one of my favorites.
I have a Sweet Killourhy whistle in rosewood which definitely plays like a far different beast after it’s warmed up. After about the first fifteen minutes of play, the tone sweetens, the upper register looses its shrillness, and the upper register actually seems to come perfectly into tune with the lower.
I always figured it was because the whistle is wood and needs to get “wet” to seal the wood and play correctly. I never realized a high-end whistle must be warmed up to play correctly.
Now I can’t help but wonder if the reason so many folks dislike Sweet whistles is they don’t give them a chance to warm up well before they give up on them.
This has been a valuable thread for me…I’d like to thank all who have posted.
–James
http://www.flutesite.com
i was lucky enough to see finbar furey perform a couple of months ago- as you may know,the legend goes that it was finbar who approached bernard overton to produce a low g,and later, low d whistle, to replace a cheap indian cane whistle that he used to perform on, until someone sat on it! anyway,finbar played a range of low and LOW LOW whistles,which he fished out of a plastic bucket at his feet. i,m sure that they streamed water from their ends when he lifted them, which made me wonder if he kept them in hot/warm water to prevent clogging and facilitate rapid in tune playing? certainly the sound that he got from them was marvelous (he,s no slouch on pipes either)!!. i own a chieftain low d, and agree that it really needs thoroughly warming up to speak properly- but then really seems to come to life,with the notes vibrating under your fingers. maybe i might hope to emulate finbar,s playing, given a couple of decades practice!!
I shall give my Chieftains low A a new chance. Thanks so much. I had written it off as a bad purchase but it was given to me as a gift. I really had no idea and no way of finding out (got it in pre C&F days).
I was frustrated at the fact that it is non-tunable. Its at concert A but nobody seems to play at concert. All are a little sharp on the records etc. Thus, if it sharpens up a tad when its warm, maybe it will work out.
To my credit, I always did know that you really had to supply a lot of air. Its too dang loud for my apt. The ol ladies upstairs already suffer through my morning hour of D whistle from 7 to 8 as it is. What must it be like to listen to ROLLS over and over and over?
Is this characteristic of other aluminum whistles or just this line because of wall thickness and wide bore??
This is all very helpful.
Thanks jack for bringing up the question.
I got my Chieftain soprano D about 1 1/2 years ago and it proved a bit too much to handle at the time. So I sort of left it alone.
The only reason I did not sell it was that it was so undestructible, I thought I would take it on a camping trip and may be use it as a weapon or at least as an extra pole for my tent.
…now I find out all I had to do was warm it up !!! duhhhh!!!
and I tought I was such an expert on whistles…
very humbled Otter
…I sit on it (depending on where you place it it can feel kinda good…kinda like climbing up the rope in gym class)
A trained Freudian like me cannot possibly let that go without comment!
But discretion can be the better part of valour!
Steve 
Steve,
It’s not so much climbing UP the rope as coming DOWN.
Otter,
I saw a bunch of youngsters in the park playing t-ball with a Chieftan low D. Even after one of them hit a home run with it, it STILL sounded great! Just kidding…a home run in t-ball???
Phil,
You’ve got some great whistles. I sincerely thank you for my E. The tone is warm, complex and stable with nice chiff. (It has also proven useful for my 2 year old to break windows with) I have no doubt that eventually I’ll have just about everything you make in my collection. Which brings me to a point of concern…I heard that you may not be producing your brass “Gold” whistles anymore…is that true?
peeplj,
I got a Sweetheart C on ebay a few weeks ago. Thing was unplayable…low D was as week as a cheap whistle…middle D HAD to be played OXX|XXX (I always cheat). I wrote it off as a decent WhOA purchase.
Last week, my wife bought me a good bottle of single malt scotch 'cause I did such a good job on the backyard. That night at about 3:00 am, I sat in the garage and played the sweetest, purest tunes on that whistle…I sounded awesome…no squeeks, good chiff, the octave shift was easy to hit and the lower register was strong and sweet. The next day I was back to squeak-squawk-rhhhmphhhh. It was not my imagination…that thing played great the night before!!
Anyway, I think that anything made of wood demands good single malt scotch vapor along with bore oil.
Seriously though, are all you people with wooden whistles using bore oil on them? Bore oil is available from any place that sells piping stuff. Wood NEEDS it. It makes a difference in the way the whistle plays and how long you go without cracking or warping.
OIL, OIL, OIL,
Eric
[ This Message was edited by: vaporlock on 2002-04-12 05:12 ]
[ This Message was edited by: vaporlock on 2002-04-12 05:15 ]
Don’t forget that a wooden whistle needs to be “played in” just like a new wooden flute, in addition to using bore oil.
First week, play no more than 5 to 10 minutes a day.
Second week, extend taht to 15 to 20 minutes a day.
Third week, no more than 45 minutes a day.
After that, should be good to go.
Also, don’t forget to dry the bore of a wooden whistle after each playing to help prevent warping and cracks.
–James
http://www.flutesite.com
I got a used Cheiftan A. I LOVE IT. It always sounds to be intune with itself…and perfectly pitched when warm. I love the mellow sound. I am new to whistling…so I only regret is that my playing doesnt do justice to this lovely whistle. Having tried a used one…I will now consider paying full price for one of those keys that i STILL HAVE TO GET. (whoa is me)