Along with ordering my Chris Wall tonight I sent out my order for my Jerry Freeman Mellow Dog in high D, which I expect will get here substantially sooner than the Wall whistle due to the backorder on those.
Actually, I don’t know if Jerry has a substantial backorder or not, but Chris Wall gives you warning that he does. Up to 8 weeks apparently.
So what can I expect out of my new Mellow Dog? Some of the reviews I’ve seen are kind of dated, where they basically show Jerry making one whistle out of two.
Whereas now (if I understand it correctly) he makes the tone body in his workshop from scratch, as opposed to doing whatever he did in the past to somebody else’s tone body, including adding an extension to it.
So, based on a bunch of good reviews, I think I’m in for a treat. However, since some of the reviews are dated, id just like some fresh opinions here. Especially if you received your Mellow Dog within the last 2 years, since those are the ones probably made with his most current technique ( just guessing at that).
I know some people have commented about the Mellow Dog in my other threads and that’s great, please feel free to repeat yourself here. Basically what I’m doing with this thread is trying to reach out to ALL Mellow Dog people to get more feedback.
So come on. Let’s let the dogs out
I have one and like it though I play it less now than I used to. Its very consistent and the notes won’t “break” or crack easily. They have a tone that’s pretty loud but not harsh. It’s not “airy” or crisp: I’d class it as smooth-sounding. I have seem to have trouble in the second octave which is sometimes slow to respond. It’s a really good whistle at a reasonable price, but its not my favorite.
I would compare it to driving a big luxury car vs driving a sports car. The Mellow dog is like the luxury car–smooth, consistent, comfortable. The sports car is nimble, fun, temperamental and less comfortable
This is almost exactly my feeling on the Mellow Dog. Plays great but not my favourite. I tend to break it out when I need a bit more volume from getting drowned out by other instruments. I do play my Mellow Dog C quite a bit though.
My Mellow Dog (d) has sweet and smooth tone. Does not break into squeaks much. Not as chirpy as the Blackbird. Though both seem to be similar in volume, the Blackbird sound ‘cuts through’ a little more, they don’t call it the Mellow Dog for nothing.
