My Laughing Whistle is wonderful but I am having a heck of a time keeping it from clogging up. I read the notes from our fearless leader on using soap to prevent this But, I tried this method(putting the soap/water mix in the whistle opening that I blow into with no improvement. Maybe I’m stupid? Does this mix go in the opening on top of the fipple instead ? Does anyone out there have any suggestions? I really love this whistle, it is so clear toned and plays in tune but it is frustrating to not be able to play over a tune or two before having to do something about the clog.Help!
I got a laughing whistle last summer which had a big clogging problem then. But a few months later, it got much better, no explanation for that. Maybe you just should wait a while.
My Laughing whistle was the same: clogging up quite a bit at first, but after weeks of playing it got much better. I guess the owner’s manual forgot to mention break-in! Lovely whistle though… so crisp and clean in the second (even third) octave. Quiet too - great for late night tootling. Give it some time and see if it improves.
Use Jet-Dry… works every time. 
Recently acquired a Trad Hoover D and am getting the same problems…hopefully this needs to be broken in as well…can hardly play one tune all the way through which is really annoying as I can tell that its sounds lovely…
Oh well …hopefully some patience may work we shall see
C
Does anyone know what causes this change? What happens during the ‘breaking in’ period?
On 2002-02-09 19:54, avanutria wrote:
Does anyone know what causes this change? What happens during the ‘breaking in’ period?
Well, I had a lot of trouble with my Laughing Whistle clogging at first, but also experienced much less trouble after playing it awhile.
I think what happened is this. Without realizing it, I developed a habit of quickly sucking a little air back through the windway when I have a chance. I think this clears the moisture out before it becomes a problem.
I also use the soap trick and try to keep the fipple-end of the whistle warm, but I always did those things.
I know it sounds gross, but it seems to help a lot.
–Jay
Well as if by magic…practically a day or so after my last post on this subject some sort of cosmic manifestation happened and now my Hoover sounds like it has been dropped from the unclogged whistle heaven in the sky…it obviously didnt like me moaning about it..very strange.
LaTers
ColemaN