Okay, so today I’m eating my lunch and looking at the pile of whistles on my bookcase and I says to myself, “self, that Feadóg whistle you bought Saturday sounds pretty good but gets a bit ragged in the upper octave while that Walton’s Little Black you bought years ago sounds really great through two-plus octaves except it’s not in tune with itself.”
A few bites later I went on to muse, “self, those tubes look about the same size…”
To make a long saga just a little shorter than “Pigs in Space” – the Little Black head fits the Feadóg body about as well as the Feadóg head does (i.e. slightly loosely). The “new” whistle is better than either of the original whistles, having the correct intonation of the Feadóg plus the pure sweet tone of the Little Black right through two and a half octaves.
Oh, and I apologize for breaking my promise not to start any more on topic threads for a while…
Reminds me of the worst unintentionally funny movie I’ve ever seen - “The Thing With Two Heads” with Ray Milland and Rosie Greer (yes, formerly of the NY Giants); can you imagine?
Actually, it’s funny you should mention that. The intonation was still poor, obvsiously, but the Feadog head sounded better on the Little Black body then it did on the Feadog! I had to put the head back on the Feadog to make sure I wasn’t just losing my mind or had bread crumbs in it or something. Sure 'nuff, the Feadog head sounded a bit ragged in the second octave on the Feadog, but fairly pure on the Little Black, while the Little Black head sounded fantastic on either body.
So, if the Little Black body was just in tune, you could have two good whistles by buying a Feadog and a Little Black and swapping the heads!
Sorry about the new guy question, but what does it mean when a whistle is not in tune with itself?
I have both a Feadog and LBW. I’m currently awaiting delivery of a Hoover Whitecap that I hope will clean up and quiet down the Feadog. I haven’t yet been able to pursuade the head to come off the LBW.
The guitarist’s term is “intonation” but I rarely use it cause most folks who aren’t also guitar players don’t know what the heck you’re talking about.
Intonation, or “in tune with itself” means that the intervals between notes on the scale have the correct mathematical distance between them. I.e. if the bell note (the one with all the holes covered) is sharp, all of the other notes are at least sharp by the same relative amount.
On the other hand, if the bell note is spot on but one or more of the other notes are not, the instrument is not properly intonated or is “out of tune with itself.”
Played solo, an instrument that is well intonated will sound fine, even if the overall tuning is way out. Well, a handful of people with perfect absolute pitch might disagree, but there aren’t many of them around
On the other hand, an instrument that is spot on pitch on the bell note, but that is poorly intonated will sound horrible either solo or with other instruments.
