Let me use the title of a great book from Ian McEwan to summarize my (double) experience with a Chieftain V3.
I posted a few weeks ago a topic titled " Chieftain V3: a brief honeymoon".
It was the story of a Chieftain V3 that I bought new and I was very excited to get. The sound was fabulous but, unfortunately, I believed that it was not 100 % tuned to the right pitch, even after being warmed up. I must say, in all honesty, that Phil Hardy offered me to send the whistle back to him for an assessment or for a replacement completely free of charge. I decided, instead, to return it to Hobgoblin US (great store with great customer service) for a refund. I started, then, my personal search for the “perfect” low D with other brands. I had already tried a Susato : not bad, but with a very demanding finger spacing. After having returned the Chieftain, I bought a Syn low D : nice “reedy” tone, but not enough “breath” and very easy to break into the second octave (be aware; these are my very PERSONAL opinions !). Returned. Then I bought at the same time an Alba Vibe and an Alba Standard. Alba Vibe: good, very breathy, perhaps TOO breathy, similar to the Chieftain but without reaching the sound quality of a Chieftain : sold on E Bay. Alba Standard: great whistle. Creamy, sweet sound, very balanced and easy to play: a keeper. Last (but not least, I know myself) a Guido Gonzato “low tech” pvc low D. Great whistle: loud, great intonation, unbelievable tone for the price
($70.00 shipped from Italy !). Another keeper. But… throughout my search, I was still missing…that Chieftain tone. That beautiful sound. So, five days ago, I decided to order a second Chieftain V3 from Lark in The Morning. It arrived today. It is perfect. Same fantastic sound, perfect pitch, perfect intonation. Well, I know that Phil Hardy is not happy about my first topic, but I must admit: he really KNOWS how to make a great whistle.
I am in my second honeymoon.Thank you for your attention.
In defence of all whistle makers I must say this:
Whistle makers are not like bakers.
If you find rat dropping in your loaf you do not aproach the vendor or the manufacurer - you approach your lawyer.
Whistle makers are not like car-makers.
If youe auto explodes on your favourite stretch of poorly policed freeway going 200 miles an hour, you do not apprioach the manufacturer, you aproach the vendor.
Whistle makers are like whistle makers.
If your whislte is out of tune, you approach the whistle maker. He/She will fix the whistle or replace it with something that suits you.
Whistle makers, without exception in my experience, do not make whistles to get rich. SOme do not even pay their rent by the craft. Whistle makers make whisltes for whistle players. They feel slighted if treated like bakers or car manufacurers .. or ripp-off merchants of any ilk. They are not.
Call your maker - let him fullfill his mission.
Personally, I find the Chieftain V3 an amazing thing. I don’t play irish music on it, but it is the only whistle-like object I have found to successfully play funk and blues upon - simply astounding in that context!
(I know that is a kind of heracy .. so nyah!)
Whistle makers, without exception in my experience, do not make whistles to get rich. SOme do not even pay their rent by the craft. Whistle makers make whisltes for whistle players. They feel slighted if treated like bakers or car manufacurers .. or ripp-off merchants of any ilk. They are not.
Forgodsake Mitch don’t put up crap like that. The majority of people making whistles do it to make a bit of money. There’s nothing wrong with that. Don’t pretend you all run charities to please musicians. You don’t. You do a job, a paid job and fair play to you if you’re happy doing it and have the satisfaction of happy customers. But you guys don’t run non profit organisations, you run businesses. Small ones in most cases but businesses all the same.
Replacing a whistle that’s not up to standard is not a great act of charity, it’s a basic consumer rights issue, it’s called replacing faulty goods. Even when done with a smile. You’re making good a job that should have been done right in the first place.
edited for
Well said Peter. I couldn’t agree more. Gerado was offered the option of sending the whistle back (as it should be). He chose to go an alternate route. Phil Hardy has no reason to be unhappy about his first topic. He did everything a good maker and buisness man should do. And yes, I don’t think many makers (of high end whistles) would survive long if they were not making a decent profit.
I’m too lazy to find and reread the first topic but I suspect that because the maker cannot validate that the original whistle was indeed defective, he has no opportunity to refute the claim. Yeah, I’d be rather annoyed if I were him.
Okay found it.
Moreover, when the product is not returned to the OEM, he cannot perform an investigation of the cause of the said problem and ensure that other product was not affected.
I returned the first Chieftain to Hobgoblin USA because I live in the USA
and they immeditely refunded me. To send the Chieftain back to UK for an assessment would have meant probably a one month process (8-10 days to go there, a week for an assessment or replacement, and again 8-10 days to come back).
I don’t see anything wrong if a customer returns a newly purchased item for a refund instead of sending it to the maker. Phil knew that I was returning the whistle to Hobgoblin USA therefore he still had the possibility to ask them to send it to him for an assessment .
But the reason of this post is NOT to complain about possible tuning problems about the first Chieftain. On the opposite, it s a positive post where I say that I missed the Chieftain’s beautiful sound so much that I finally bought another one ! And, as I already said, I guess that Phil Hardy really knows how to make a great whistle. In fact, among the low Ds that I bought and tried, the Chieftain V3 is actually the one that I play, and like, most.
I think gerardo did fine. As Peter has pointed out elsewhere, it shouldn’t be the responsibility of the end user to be part of a maker’s quality control experiments, unless that’s a role that the user wants to take on voluntarily (which is OK, too). Especially when you’re purchasing through a retail channel. You just want a well-playing instrument for your money. In this case, the relationship was between the vendor and the customer, and the vendor did the right thing. If Hobgoblin then want to return the whistle for inspection, that’s up to them and the maker.
So it’s okay to publicly air perceived quality issues before the source of the problem has not been identified?
As Peter has pointed out elsewhere, it shouldn’t be the responsibility of the end user to be part of a maker’s quality control experiments, unless that’s a role that the user wants to take on voluntarily (which is OK, too).
I did not read any evidence that consumers were unwittingly used as beta testers.
Especially when you’re purchasing through a retail channel. You just want a well-playing instrument for your money.
The consumer was guaranteed that by both the vendor and the maker. It boils down to time and patience, which apparently is “cultural”, as someone else noted in another similar thread (and look how that turned out for the OP).
Yes. Dale has made the parameters of that kind of commentary abundantly clear. Please reread his guidelines.
And I said nothing about beta testing.
Too bad Dale’s guidelines are not retroactive:
I don’t want to get into a food fight, but rest assured, you are NOT the only person to ever have had tuning issues with that particular brand of whistle.
My hyperbole for your hyperbole, “…quality control experiments…”.
I’ll chime in on part of this discussion, leaving alone the issues about quality control and customer service.
Certainly there are a few success stories, but for the record, in my own experience, and from what I’ve heard from several other makers, it’s difficult to make a profit, let alone a living, making whistles. (Not to mention, it’s difficult to make a whistle in the first place!)
Best wishes,
Jerry
Thanks, Jerry. I think you just saved lots of people from the trouble of sending you (and other whistle makers) credit crunch begging letters!
btw - do we know if any US Presidents played whistle? On my side of the pond, the Queen is a closet ukelele strummer.
Stay hoopy,
Mike
Wait a minute. I started this posting as a POSITIVE review of the Chieftain and of its beautiful (almost unique) sound.
I even called it “Atonement” (forgive my use of English, I am a foreigner) to express my respect for Phil Hardy and his products. I believed that this post could balance the effect of my first one. And this is an open forum, I guess that it should be allowed to express disappointments or, on the opposite, joy for a good purchase when it happens. Instead, unfortunately, it’s becoming a sort of “negative” discussion with fingers pointed against either the buyer, or the vendor, or the maker alternatively. Sorry that this happened, this was not the intention. I just wanted to say that, all my personal experiences with Chieftain whistles balanced, I am enjoying my current Chieftain V3 and I am very very happy with it. To the point that I am selling my two other low D whistles (I will not tell you the brands but they are both high quality and well respected makers) and just bought from a forum member a second hand Chieftain NR.So, I will be finally left with two low D whistles : both Chieftain. Phil, I guess that now you are smiling and got your revenge ! Cheers.
And how do you propose that would work?
I’m not sure what the argument is here. The OP had several options available, he chose one, and now he’s happy. His posts document his experience. Implying that he had some other unfulfilled commercial obligation toward the maker seems off to me.