Left to right, Mark I, Mark II, Mark III.
I thought it might be worthwhile to post this for reference. It comes up every now and then, and I’ve had trouble finding the thread with a comparison picture.
Best wishes,
Jerry
That is useful, Jerry. I now know my good Feadog is a Mark II (I’ve never been sure before).
Redwolf
I have a Mk III but the store where I bought it had a Mk II on the rack as well. I took a good look at it and I could not even see the blade through the windway. I think there must have been a great deal of variation in the Mk IIs. I have not seen a Mk I.
Ron
What about the black ones?
Hi, Cranberry.
A black Feadog Mark III is exactly like a green one. I can’t speak for the Mark I’s and Mark II’s, but I would expect the same is true.
Best wishes,
Jerry
Jerry,
can you do a picture like that in profile? I think that is very interesting and shows what I believe the fundamental flaw of the Mk II was: The windway & blade are positioned above the edge of the tube. Also, you can see the hump behind the blade change shape and disappear in the Mk III.
Thanks
I have a nickel Mk III that my penpal in Cork sent me. 
I’ve got two mark 1’s that I bought in the early 90’s and a more recent mark 3 (in all black).
Are you sure they are Mk Is? (no bump on the blade, broad, boxy look) I thought they stopped making the Mk Is in early eighties.
I got rid of the bump in my Mark II, and it became more playable. Then I (accidentally) cracked the mouthpc, thereby loosening it and making it adjustable (the mouthpc was stuck prior to that no matter how long I put it in hot water), and suddenly it became a halfway decent whistle. It’ll never be my favourite, but I like it much more nowadays.
From the pics, it would appear that removing the bump in effect turns a Mark II into a Mark I. Thanks, Jerry, I’d never seen a Mark I before.
The old chunky ones were still for sale [old stock possibly, they weren’t exactly popular] in Ireland for 2.50 as late as 1997
They are definately mark 1’s- dark green ‘chunky’ mouthpiece,large wrap around clear plastic sticker just below mouthpiece, with green ‘Celtic’ lettered ‘Feadog’, ‘Irish whistle’ and ‘made in Ireland by Feadog teo.’ printed around it.
another wrap around sticker at bottom of whistle has two green lines,
joined together like so:
(_______)
please excuse my draughtsmanship!
I think that I paid about £1.99 for them (maybe even less) from a local music shop ,at the time of purchase.
Jerry,
what might they be trying to do by adding that bump? What’s the purpose of the bump?
g
This is a mystery. I’ve never been able to find any advantage at all from the bump on the ramp. I’ve removed the bump from various whistleheads, with no noticeable effect at all, as long as you maintain the blade edge and ramp angle as before.
Best wishes,
Jerry
I have a Mk II around the house. It didn’t sound very well straight from the box until I cleaned the little overhanging bits in the windway with an exacto knife. The brass body on my mine was painted blue. Probably powder coated.
Does this comparison apply to Cs? I brought two new Feadogs this very morning from a local retailer. The D is a Mk III for sure but the C is identical to the MkI in the picture, any thoughts?
Assume it has lived in the shop for a very long time, c is slower to sell
My Favourite whistle is a mk 1 with a generation brass body. It’s quiet but it has a lovely sound. My friend lost my first mk 1 and it took 4 years of asking “got any old whistles you don’t play?” before I found another. I think they had the best sound.
I have two Feadog Mk IIIs. Although as a beginner my favourite whistles change from week to week, I must say I always come back to the Feadog - which was the first whistle I bought. The tube seems to be in better tune with itself than my Gens or Waltons, and it handles high register better than my Clarkes originals and Sweetones. Only prob I have is with the bell note which seems to crack unless blown so gently that the note is too quiet. Do any of you experienced tweakers reckon there’s a way to fix/improve that. Might blunting the blade a bit do the trick?
Feadogs are extremely sensitive to anything you do to the soundblade. You may be able to strengthen the bell note by carefully taking a little off the soundblade, but you may find that the timbre changes considerably when you do.
Instead, I would recommend filling under the windway with poster putty. If that doesn’t strengthen the bell note as much as you would like, very carefully scrape a slight bevel on the windway floor edge where it meets the voicing window. If you overdo this, it will have exactly the opposite effect, making the bottom two notes impossible to play at all. However, if you do it very carefully and don’t take it too far, it strengthens the bottom notes.
The only whistles that tolerate making a bevel on the windway floor/window edge are whistles where the soundblade isn’t too high relative to the windway floor. Other whistles, it will wreck. I can’t think of any other factory run whistle I can recommend this for other than a Mark III Feadog.
Best wishes,
Jerry