Hi there,
I’ve got a lovely Greenwood high D whistle (blackwood), but don’t really play it a lot because of the tuning slide. With the slide in, the whistle plays in Eb, which means that I have to pull it out really far (1.8-2 cm) to make it play in D. At the point where the whistle plays in tune, the slide is rather loose, so I often move it accidentally while playing and thus it gets out of tune again (apart from the fact that everyone tells me the whistle looks ridiculous with the slide pulled out that far).
A friend of mine also owns a Greenwood high D and doesn’t have to pull out the slide half as far as on my whistle - so could all those Greenwood owners out there perhaps share their experiences with me? How do your tuning slides work? Is it me (blowing too hard or whatever) - or is my whistle different from the others?
Michaela
the slide on my greenwood was really long, too…and you had to pull it out further than you’d expect to be in tune. But the slide wasn’t loose at that point, and you could pull it out a good deal more before it became wobbly.
Best bet is always to send it back to the maker for repairs. Tightening up a tuning slide is not terribly difficult and will take him all of 2 minutes.
As a temporary fix for the looseness, you might try a bit of teflon plumber’s tape. It won’t hurt anything, comes off when you want it to, and will give you a good seal. Mack Hoover suggested it for keeping my whitehead on a brass Clare barrel, and it works great.
I had two Greenwood D whistles with completely different (wood) lengths. The shorter one (which liked Eb better than D) was an early Greenwood. When I pulled it out, it played in D, but I had the same tuning slide issue. Teflon tape is an option I’ve always liked.