Choosing a Whistle...Help!

Whistle
1

Hi All, this is my first post and I’m seeking your wisdom and advice. I have a Feadog on order, but also would like to purchase a Susato because it was highly reccomended. Which model would be the best for not only beginning, but for long term? I was thinking about either the V-Series or the S-Series. What do you all reccomend between those or the other series? I’m also curious about getting the one head and three bodies…and wondering what keys are available when you purchase the bundle?

Thank you for your help!

2

Hey Lori, Susato’s are great whistles in the long term, but not so much at the beginning. They can be very hard to control for someone just starting out on whistle. My recommendation for a great whistle to start playing on at a similar cost would be a Jerry Freeman Tweaked Mellow Dog, which can be found here:

http://www.irishflutestore.com/Freeman.html

Best of luck!

3

As you’ll notice there’s a whole bunch of ongoing debate on this Board regarding expensive v. inexpensive, tweaked v. untweaked, whether Generations have great inconsistency, etc. I think this mostly comes down to different sets of experiences and ranges of experience. That said, I’ll give you my perspective. I think it behooves a beginner to go out and try various inexpensive whistles untweaked and work through your own experiences with and opinions of them - it’s a joyous process and I don’t know that I’d start with tweaked whistles that may or may not remove roughness of tone but also sometimes unique beauty of tone. You can always get tweaked (which are of course more expensive) whistles later or learn your own tweaking.

In MY experience over the last decade or so, I’ve found consistently good Generations, Waltons, Faedogs, and Susatos. The black D/C/Bflat one head Susato set was among the first I ever had and still have; never had any trouble “controlling” them (or at least don’t remember it that way) and consider them an excellent value.

Have fun and don’t get too crazy about which whistle.

Philo

4

Hi Lori,

From one beginner to another, learn on ONE whistle for a while. Since you already have the Feadog on order, that’s the one. I started out with a Susato Soprano D a couple months ago. It’s a nice whistle, but it’s LOUD and I have problems hitting the high second octave. I’m sure if I stuck with it, I’d have been okay. I just received Jerry’s Tweaked Mellow Dog. I LOVE it but the transition was a thing to behold. I started off overblowing the Mellow Dog. Neighbors began to ask if I was keeping an ostrich. :astonished: Also the outer diameter of the Mellow Dog is smaller, just enough to throw off my fingering. Consider a second whistle MUCH later.

Good whistling! Don P.

5

Not bad advice there.

6

Go with Dixon. I especially like the aluminum body model.

7

I 2nd that on Dixons. I’ve only really started playing recently and I have 3 Dixons. Two of them are polys (high and low D) and the other is one of the newer Trads. I’ll probably upgrade to something a bit better once I feel I’m up to it but I have found them to be fairly easy to play.

8

I really think that any good whistle will get you well started. And sticking to one until you’ve mastered the basics is a good idea. Until you can control one whistle well, switching to another whistle is more a distraction than a help.

The trick is getting a good whistle - though not as many as beginners may think, a real dud may put you off whistling.

The thing is that it’s hard for a beginner to distinguish between a good whistle and a bad - starting out, it’s all to easy to blame your own lapses on the instrument. (I have several Generations and Feadogs that have mysteriously improved from “dud” to “really nice whistle” over the time that I’ve owned them). But I also have a Walton’s D, my first whistle, that really is pretty bad. Just unplayable when I started out, barely playable now - fortunately, the Feadogs I bought a few days later were good whistles, and got me over the hump.

If you’ve got a decent whistler who can test-play your whistle, you’re all set. If they can sound good on it, so can you if you work on it. If not - well, I’ve had good luck with Feadogs, Walton’s C and Mello D models, and Clarke D Sweetones (C Sweetones sound OK, but I don’t like the long reach for the bottom hole). I like Dixons, too. I also like Susatos and Oaks, but they do need a bit more breath control.

What would I give a beginner? Two whistles - a Sweetone and a Feadog, both in D. Both are inexpensive (the two together would be $10-12 dollars), both are pretty consistantly good, and they sound quite different.

And tell them that though they will probably end up buying lots more whistles (WhOA is me!), those two whistles could easily be the only ones they’d need for years to come.

I’ve seen some pretty fine whistlers - all far better than I - who either stick to the cheapies exclusively or give them equal time with the handmade models. The high-end models are nice, but many of the best are designed to sound like a “good” cheapie. And once you’ve got the basics down, most cheapies sound pretty darn good, too.

9

Have to agree with DCrom. A “good” whistle is all you really need and chances are that your Feadog will be fine.

I found a Susato to be difficult to control when I started since I was reluctant to play it with the aggression it needed. But if you play outdoors, a Susato handles the wind well and you often need the extra volume.

My first “good” whistle was a Hoover and the low volume suited me well. My mistakes didn’t carry so far and I put in more practice that way.

10

Thank you so much for your helpful advice! I’m anxiously awaiting my Feadog and will wait before ordering a second one. I will keep reading here in order to make the best choice for me for a second one. I’m sure I will be seeking more advice in the near future…in fact, can anyone suggest some good recordings to listen to and learn from?

11

Lori,

This topic (recommended CDs and recommended tunes) has come up many, many times before in this forum Why don’t you search for this topic in the older discussions. I am sure you will find some excellent suggestions.

And thanks for reminding me about those old discussions. There were a number of recordings I still want to check out. :slight_smile:

12

Good advice.

Furthermore the Feadog is very good indeed.

13

I’m quite a Susato fan and took to them very easily but I already had been playing other flutes for some years. Other beginners I have tried to assist mostly found the Susato unhelpful, not least because they were put off by the volume.

I think the Mellow Dog is hard to beat for a low price whistle and with a great sound. You’ll have to get one sometime so you might as well buy it now.



Edited as I changed my mind - again!

14

I, too, would suggest you stick with the Feadog you already have.
I am pretty much a newbie to whistle and I got a bunch of cheapies via e-bay to see what suited me best. Here’s what I thought of them:
Generation - they have a reputation for inconsistency and porr quality control and I can see why. Easy to blow and control but the tone seems to me to leave much to be desired. Quite a harsh tone to my ears - all hiss and squeak.
Clarke ‘Meg’ - better sounding than a geneation, I’d say, but a bit of an oddity. The conical bore appears to help you control the way it overblows from low to high octave so it is quite easy to play, but the sound in each octave seems to be quite different. I don’t like the feel of the seam down the back of it.
Waltons - this doesn’t seem to be a bad whistle at all despite the fact that they make it in a variety of ‘novelty’ colours and packaging. The lower octave sounds very nice but the higher octave seems to have a slight tendency to squeak unless you are very carefull with your breath.
Feadog - this is my favourite of the cheapies. The tone is round and clear without much in the way of hiss or squeak unless you are a bit careless with your breath pressure. It seems to need a little gentle coaxing to step up into the higher octave but once there sounds loud and clear - by my standards anyway.
So there you are, a nice bunch of conflicting views - and all valid.
So you can either try a bunch of different ones to find which suits you best, stick with just one whistle and get propely used to it, or just continue with your your Feadog because it is just as good as any other cheapie.
Take your choice ! :wink:

15

As a Noob, my experience has been that, when I started to play, I couldn’t tell if it was me or the whistle that was the problem. That’s why I recommend tweaked whistles to everybody who is starting out. When you buy one of those, you can be sure that somebody who knows what a whistle should sound like has made sure that the whistle you get sounds right.

It’s important to eliminate the whistle variable from the equation so that you can be sure that it’s your problem. My MellowDog showed me that it was mostly myself at fault. Because I had eliminated the whistle as the cause, I could take the focus off the whistle (stupid !@#%$ whistle!) and focus more on my technique (stupid !@#%$ me and my stupid !@#%$ technique!)

Over Christmas, I picked up my old Generation “D” that I had “ruined” by attempting to tweak the sound blade. I found that I was able to produce a respectable song from it, albeit it was quieter than my MellowDog. (see Peter - it takes a lickin’ and keeps on tickin’! :smiling_imp: )

16

Well here’s an update…My feadog FINALLY came! and I LOVE it. So I’m mostly learning on that one…but the WhOA bug bit and in my impatience also ordered the Susato that was my first thought to buy and I ordered a Clarke Sweet tone. To tell the truth I like them all, but I am trying to concentrate learning a song on one really well, then trying it out on the others. I have had more trouble with second octave on the Susato, but I think I can overcome that with time.

It is soooooo much fun to learn. They are so easy to take with you and just play whenever, and having more than one means I can leave one at work and one at home and just wherever!

I have the Clarke tutor book and CD, and there was a book and CD that came with the Feadog.

Thank you for all your helpful advice and I have a feeling there will be more whistles in my future and more questions to ask!!

17

Glad to hear that you’re happy. One of my whistles is a Feadog and I prefer it to either the Waltons or the Clarke ‘Meg’.
I’ve been thinking of getting a Susato but am not too sure whether to get their ‘normal’ model or the VSB (very small bore) and was wondering which would be easier to handle.
Today I just got a Dixon - plastic mouthpiece, tuneable, on a brass body. Given that my other three whistles cost about three quid a piece and the Dixon was fourteen it might not be fair to compare them - but I will.
The cheaper whistles all have their own strengths - like the Clarke is easy to blow a nice tone in the lower octave and the Feadog is easy to find just how hard to blow to get the second octave - and weaknesses, like both the Waltons and the Feadog can get a bit squeaky on occasions if you’re not carefull enough. The Dixons seems to have a lot less ‘vices’ and do more things consistantly well. Its not a particularly loud whistle, but the tone is sweet and even between the two octaves. It is much easier than a cheaper one to find the point at which it will ‘flip’ from one octave to another. It also seems to respond to breath control in a very predictable manner - you easily get the feel of it. The Dixons might not have the warm, rich, earthy bottom notes of the Feadog - but it doesn’t have such a piercing top end either.
In a nutshell, just like a good car, the Dixons handles better.
Worth the money ? Well I could have bought five cheaper whistles for the price, but would have then kept on struggling to overcome their limitations. I feel the Dixons will give me a better chance to improve my playing skill - I already feel more confident with it than any other, and I only got it today !
I would still be interested to know what the Susato whistles are like - particularly the VSB. Meanwhile, my Dixons is not holding my playing back.

18

Nobody has mentioned the Clare as a good cheap whistle. I have two and both are gems. One is brass and one is nickle. I also agree with buying all the cheapies. They play great and are fun to have. You can’t go wrong with the price.

19

Hi, guys. I’m new here and i have a question.Here in Poland i can buy Generations, Clarkes and Feadogs. I’m going to the US this summer, but i don’t know if i can wait until this time…If i MUST buy my whistle in Poland which of them do you recomend?

20

I’m happy with my Feadog. I reccomend that one, of course I’m new too!