I ordered a whitecap from Mack Hoover. This is a replacement fipple that fits on a standard Generation-sized tube (Feadog, Oak, Acorn, etc). It is made of white polymer–thus “whitecap.” It is $20.
This doesn’t sound like something to get all worked up over when you first hear about it. I figured I would buy one and stick it on a Feadog tube just to see.
Well, I’ve had some trouble getting the original fipple of a Feadog, but did have an old brass Generation D tube handy when the whitecap arrived, so I used it to try it out.
WOW.
No other word suffices.
$20 for the whitecap, $6 for the tube, and you get a whistle that is now as good as any I’ve ever played.
The volume is very soft, just slightly louder and with a bit more bite than the Burke Al-Pro D. The octaves are beautifully balanced: you can play all the way up without it going shrill at all. The tone is just lovely, clean and clear but bright, not dull at all.
I would recommend a whitecap to anyone. It’s the best $20 you’ll ever spend on your whistling.
Along the same lines is Gary H’s retro-fit head. I recently received one of these from Gary and it turned my “pretty good” Oak D whistle into one of my top two favorites. The Oak is now louder and cleaner sounding, with less breath control squeeks and squawks…really a very nice whistle. It still retains the “Oak sound” that I like (compared to other cheap whistles) and is very “poppy” and responsive.
I’ll have to get a white cap at some point and compare the two.
Same here, whitecap on D Generations, quickly becoming my favourite whistle. Incredibly efficient, so much so i can pretty much play for as long as i can hold my breath. I usually have plenty of stale air still in the lungs by the time i have to take more air in! Beautiful pure and penetrating sound, very balanced.
Whitecap on a Feadog tube is my favorite whistle. Even after several months of swearing by a new Burke I received, I find myself going back to my Whitecap/Feadog almost exclusively again.
I also had trouble trying to remove the fipple from a Feadog D. I used the boiling water and soaked it over and over but no luck. What else can one do to remove the fool thing?
Well, if you’re just trying to make it tunable, don’t bother, The minimal gain isn’t worth the effort. If, OTOH, you’re removing it to put a Whitecap on it, just use a sidecutter or a small file to crack the plastic and it’ll come right off.
Boiling water can and will warp a mouthpiece. I just ruined one trying to get it off an acorn the other day. Carefull about how you grip it. On mine the beak twisted slightly, and the windway warped both sideways and inward. Shame too. It was really decent for out of the box condition.
My Whitecap topped Feadog tube has been my favorite high D for a couple of months now. My Whitecap/aluminum tenor A that I got a few weeks ago is easily the best of my “midrange” whistles. And, last but not least (tada, drumroll) the Whitecap/aluminum low D that fell into my hands two days ago is unbelivable. As advertised, it’s not loud but, holy cow, does it sound nice! I can hardly believe that little old me can make sounds like that come out of a whistle! My other low D’s will probably not see me much in the coming months.
Well, that’s good news, since my Whitecap will be shipping on Monday. Although tweaking experiments did some good with the Feadog, I thought I’d move up a notch with the Whitecap.
Fortunately, the mouthpiece to my Feadog came off instantly with just a few seconds in hot water–hot enough to blister, but not quite boiling.
My Whitecap/Generation is my favorite whistle for playing in the house. It’s quiet and sweet, and doesn’t bother my wife/cats in the high register.
It is not so much a session whistle, as it downright refuses to be played too loudly (of course, this is usually a good thing for me, but when I am trying to learn a tune in a slow session I usually need to hear myself).
Anyway, I quite agree. Everyone should have at least one Whitecap. And Mack Hoover (a darn nice guy) signs and numbers his mouthpieces, which is kinda neat.
FWIW, I sent Mack an Oak C. He put a Whitecap on it and says it may be his favorite C. I happen to disagree with Mack, in that I can’t imagine that it could equal his skipole/whitecap conical C that I have (recommended by Glauber–thanks again). BTW, as part of a somewhat complicated series of transactions (including the Oak C), Mack sent me a Sweetone C with a whitecap. Unfortunately, its octaves are a little out of synch, but it’s a very beautiful sounding whistle. In its own way it’s as remarkable a transformation as putting a whitecap on a Gen.
Well here’s a little history. I started playing a little over a year ago on a sweet-tone D.
I purchased an elfsong about a month after that and while I loved the appearance of it and the sound was wonderful I had some clogging problems with it and it was just a slow player for me (I couldn’t play it as fast or as well as my sweet-tone) so I ended up selling the elfsong and just sticking with my sweet-tone.
I didn’t play it much over the summer and started getting back into it again this fall and once again started the quest for a new whistle…although I enjoy my sweet-tone its kind of raspy & buzzy and has a terrible natural C and I kinda wanted to get away from the toy like appearance.
I first bought a 2nd hand low D mid-east brand and liked the sound but the reach was TERRIBLE.
I got enough christmas money that I bought a burke narrow bore al-pro. I got it within a few days of ordering it because he had it in stock. It was a beautiful instrument but it sounded a lot like my sweet-tone a little sweeter but very similiar. It also had a noticeable breathe jump when going from a 2nd octave F to a 2nd octave G…I’m not sure if thats a normal occurance or if I just got a clunker but I ended up returning it because looks alone wasn’t worth a $100 price jump from my sweet-tone to the burke at least for me.
So I finally took the advice that I’d recived several time’s in my quest for a whistle and e-mailed mack hoover to place an order. I really liked the idea of the two peice clare whistle so that I can pack it around easy so I bought a clare and ordered a whitecap from Mack. Well since the whitecap plus the clare that I bough myself I still had plenty of my $110 left from my burke return so I ordered a whitecap G with an aluminum barrel also.
Received em both in the mail today and they are SPECATACULAR. The clare with the original head was raspy.. squeeky… you name it …pretty much unplayable. With the whitecap its everything I am looking for in a whistle. And the tenor G whistle is also just wonderful. They are nice looking whistles and are worth many times the price.
I will be ordering more whistles from Mack…I don’t need to look any farther for great whistles.
I added emphasis above because I think this statement absolutely sums up Mack’s instruments and why I love them. Not that I have that many, narrow bore C and D, a CPVC D and my Whitecap/Acorn hybrid. Still, my lungs are not what they were a few decades back. I’d hate to even TRY to play a trombone any more. The wonderful thing about Mack’s whistles is that I can simply play the music and not have to worry about where I’m going to get enough air to finish.
I just got my whitecap - nothing to put it on yet as I plan to make my own tubes. But wanted to add that dealing with Mark was a pleasure, and the whitecap showed up on my doorstep before I got around to paying for it!
Pretty much everything everyone else has said. Uses no air. Very sweet. Good gosh you can blow this thing into the stratosphere. Too bad I don’t know the fingerings up there. I wonder what a Bb or G would sound…like…no…Whoa taking…over…must…hold …on…I just got the whitecap today…my…medicine! I need my medicine!
Wow. Quite a change in breath. Yesterday I was blowing on the syn and shaw mostly. This plays more like a dixon. Oh man. I could buy a LOT of whistles with my tax return…
