Comparison: Clarke whistles and Feadog on Cathal McConnells

Whistle
1

Here is the reel Cathal McConnell’s played on the following whistles:

– Clarke unpainted original (loose voicing, no resistance)
– Clarke original, black paint (tighter voicing, some resistance)
– Clarke Sweetone D unpainted
– Clarke Meg D, silver paint
– for comparison, untweaked Feadog D

http://www.flutesite.com/samples/5clarke.mp3

–James

2

Thanks, peeplj. I enjoyed the comparison :slight_smile:

3

Great playing. I wish I could make any whistle at all sound like your playing on any of these.

I ranked them, according to which sounded best to me, based on nothing more than which sound I liked most (1 being best rank).

  1. Clarke black painted.
  2. Clarke unpainted.
  3. Meg.
  4. Sweetone.
  5. Feadog.
4

Walden, I agree with your ranking…it’s pretty much the order I would rank them myself.

The one exception is session playing: of this group, the Feadog (and perhaps the Meg) are the only ones likely to be heard.

The black Clarke I have is a real gem of a whistle.

Best,

–James

5

That’s a good point. It’s the reason that, while I may personally prefer the traditional one-piece whistles, I usually play the other type, when joined by other instruments.

6

Interesting comparison. I don’t mind the clark-sound (prefer the original), but I don’t like it as much as the Feadog (Gen/Oak/Walton) sound. I know it is silly in me, but to my ear that is how a whistle should sound.