Morning all,
I recently bought a Clarke Conical whistle. I have never played a conical whistle before, and was pleasantly surprised with the stability of the notes, even up to the third octave. However I found that it’s sharp and want to tune it. In the past, I’ve tuned Generation whistles by placing the mouthpiece in hot water to adjust. Can I do the same with a Clarke? It would make a sweet whistle if I could. Thanks.
Your whistle is a Sweetone or Meg, plastic head on metal body?
If so … Yes, you can tune it. And there’s no need to place it in hot water. The Sweetone/Meg head is not glued on. Just grasp the head and pull and twist back and forth firmly but slowly. You should be able to move the head a few mm to flatten the tuning, and realign it to center. The seam on the tube makes movement a bit tricky, but it’s not too difficult.
IF it is a clarke original i make sure the wind cutter indent, is equal or a hair above with the wood fipple (if you look at it through the wind path) and i soak the wood plug in almond oil, it seems to tighten up the sound a little