Hi there all,
I’ve got a newish Chieftain Soprano D tuneable. In reading reviews of it, I’ve seen those that say it is “clear as a bell” up and down the registers. I’ve also seen it said that the Chieftains can be a bit over loud in the upper octaves.
My experience of a few days is the latter. Though it is a lovely whistle, and is clear as a bell at least in the low octave, it requires a lot of wind to get a clear tone in the 2nd octave and that tone is quite a bit louder than the 1st. It requires my highland piper’s lungs to blow through the 3rd ocatve. While the tone is in fact “clear”, I fear for any nearby glass.
I wanted a somewhat louder whistle when I bought this, but I was hoping it would be more balanced. Does anyone have any relevant experience or (non surgical) tweaks to pass along?
Thanks all,
Bill
Well, since no one else has answered, I’ll do that much, anyway.
Your best bet for modifying that particular whistle would be to write to Phil and ask him. He made it - hopefully he can suggest something. As for the problem with the greater air demands in the 2nd and third octaves, that is an unfortunate feature of that type of aluminum whistle - also seen in the Overtons. I’m told by far better players than myself that the backpressure you mention is in fact a desirable feature in a professional whistle, but it can be maddening when switching to one from a whistle without the backpressure.
You can play through the third octave? Really? Who are you - Godzilla?
I have always thought the chieftain soprano D very
unpleasant and acrid in the top of the second
octave. The lower chieftains are better.
Maybe it can be tweaked–contacting the
maker is good advice–but you may be
shopping for flowers in a hardware story. Best