Cheiftain high D problem and fix.

Whistle
1

Hi
I’ve been playing a Cheiftain high D for most of this year with for our Morris side.
I bought if because I needed a loud whistle and the Cheiftain fits the bill, it’s very loud.
One real bonus has been it’s ablity to play in strong winds, we play 70/80% of our gigs outside.
So, the first one I got in January was the non tuneable version, a bit cheaper to try it out.
I didn’t really like the tone, it was a breathy open sound if you know what I mean, took lots of air
which took a while to get used to but now I don’t reallythink about it.

As summer came along I noticed it was playing a bit sharp and so as I went around the festivals we
were playing at I took the chance to try a few of the tuneable versions. Most were the same as the non tuneable, breathy open sound but the at Whitby folk week I found a ‘good’ one, so out came the cash
and off I trotted a happy punter.
I did play a few tunes but it was only later I realised they only went up to the 2nd octive ‘g’.
So the first time I played ‘The Rose Tree’ whichhas 3 'b’s in the B part I discovered there was something wrong.
The ‘a’ was playable but sounded rubbish but the ‘b’ wasn’t there at all. I tried and tried to get the right breath pressure, sliding up, tonguing but to no avail.

Then about a week ago getting a bit fed up with it I started trying a few different things like the poster putty thing. BINGO the ‘b’ was there. the whistle was out of tune but the notes were there.
Poster putty off I pushed the tuning slide right in and it was still there, pull it out, gone.
This is when it dawned on me, this type of tuning slide leaves a big gap or wider bit in the middle and this is what was causing the problem.

The gap is about 1/2" long when in tune so out to the workshop, cut a piece of electrical conduit of a similar diameter, 3/8th long, to give enough movement for tuning, and hay presto it works.
See photos below.

This whistle for me is a tool, nothing more. It serves a purpose.
I can’t play my Goldies out side much because they’re too badly affected by the wind but they’re my go to whistles for ceilidh band gigs and sessions.

I may get int trouble fr this but here goes, Phil Hardy has posted videos in the past playing whistles he’s had returned because they were unplayable and has said there is nothing wrong with them, but if they are all the same as mine and because these are mass produced there’s no reason to think otherwise this issue should be sorted. I paid £126 for this whistle and it should work.

Before anyone asks, no I haven’t emailed him because all emails in the past have gone unreplied.

2

A couple more photos to explain things. Sorry for the photos being a bit big.

Where the extra piece of pipe goes in.

In place.

3

Narrowdog,

Your solution is really impressive, clever, and fascinating all at once !

Honestly, it’s in keeping with the notion of “bore hole perturbations”. Is that a term you’ve encountered ? It refers to deviations from cylindrical (contractions, expansions) of the bore diameter at strategic locations in an instrument to improve the sound.

Congratulations + thanks for sharing !

trill

4

Thanks Trill
All I know is that Terry McGee makes a Minimum disruption tenon for his flutes for the same reason.
http://www.mcgee-flutes.com/Minimum-Disruption-Tenon.html
but it was only after I’d sorted the problem that his site came to mine. The information must have been at the back of my mind.

5

I think perhaps a Susato would have met your criteria at a fraction of the cost and without any modification?

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You’re right about the Susato I did try one and yes it worked ok but the low octave is no where near as strong as the Cheiftain
and it’s all about being heard.

7

Nice solution. I have the same model Chieftain, and I also had issues with the tuning slide. For me, the cork completely flattened after a couple years, so you couldn’t pull out on the top of the whistle and expect it to stay. My solution was some packing tap over the cork. It’s been there for 10 years. But I’ve also “retired” that whistle.

8

Your findings are basically consistent with mine in a four-year-old blog post I’ve since suppressed because I didn’t really like it on my blog… Chieftain High Ds play close to Eb as supplied (even Phil’s own demo at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmuT72qzYrE is close to Eb), suffer from problems including unacceptable intonation and quirky second-octave fingerings when pulled out to pitch, can be largely (but not wholly) cured by the kind of bore smoothing/constriction you describe (I had a piece of brass tubing inside mine) and judicious hole taping, but are basically a design that should have been sorted before going into production! So, no, it’s not just you… I’d already sent the first back and got a second just the same, and have since replaced all my Chieftains with less ‘quirky’ (in some cases meaning borderline useless!) whistles.

9

Although I’m really impressed by ND’s ingenuity and I’m chuffed it’s sorted the issues for him, there is no way I’d go to all that trouble with a whistle I’d purchased NEW, if it was an Ebay or UEI bargain fine it’s worth the hassle, in this case it would have been straight back to the supplier.

The last Chieftain I had was a low Eb with tuning slide I picked up for £45.00 off Ebay, according to the listing it had once belonged to a top notch piper and whistle player (whose name I’ve totally forgotten) when it arrived it had three holes partly taped and two of the others were practically oval from being filed out. I figured a professional musician would have a better ‘ear’ than me and if he deemed this necessary to meet his needs who was I to change it, so the tape remained in place all the time I owned it (I had little choice with the two wonky holes) Should you really have to modify an instrument to make it playable?