I would like to hear if anyone has all three of these whistles and how they compare?
are they all suitable for beginners.
I (only playing a few months yet) have a NEW dixon soprano D received last week and decided I do not like it, now I am considering JF (tweaked) sweetone, clare, tweaked shaw, waltons mellow all soprano D…
Just to get more experience but before that I want to hear your opinions, trying to find what I like and then stick with it until I can play a bit and have saved up for an overton!
I have the Sweetone and the Clare. I love the Clare and the Sweetone is very nice. But, you can not go wrong with a JF tweaked anything. I have a Walton’s little Black whistle which I like a lot. I understand that the Mellow D is much better. You can buy an untweaked Sweetone and a Clare for less than $20. Not bad for a pair of musical instruments.
I have a tweaked gen, JF style, but I managed to do it myself after reading numerous post on the subject. I love it. In fact my fav at the moment. Warning! The gen I tweaked is the only one that really turned out great! I got very lucky! I have a feadog which is unplayable at present due to my tweaking, and a walton mellow d that is only somewhat improved. I did manage to improve the air problems on a clarke by flattening the top of the windway. I worked on a gen c, but havn’t really manage to make it better or worse. Two oaks that were fine out of the box, until I ruined one, and a little walton that plays very well, but doesn’t sound very pretty.
Being that the tweaked gen is my fav right now, I’d look into getting one of those. Or an Oak. The oaks I have are quite good right out of the box. Not as good as the gen, but not that far off either.
The sweetone I have has been unusually good, with no modifications. Everyone should own at least one or two of those. Pss. The sweetone in d, not c. My c sweetone is a bit muddy and disapointing.
Why don’t you like your dixon? It took me a while to get used to my “quiet whistles”.
My Jerry-Tweaked Shaw is my current favorite whistle. I love the way it blends with other instruments – I was playing along with a banjo and fiddle the other night, and it sounded sweet. (Hey, some other people told me that too).
But, I think the Jerry-Tweaked Shaw is not the easiest instrument for a beginner – or at least mine was a bit tough for this beginner! I found it very difficult not to “squawk” going to higher notes, they took a lot of push. And the sound it made when I missed the note was a terrible “honk.” Also, it was very unforgiving of an unvented middle D, and the C-natural uses a fairly unconventional fingering, 0xx xx0. I kept trying it again because I loved the sound, but putting it down and not touching it for a week because of the occasional horrible sounds I’d make with it.
I was considering sending it back to Jerry for a re-tweak, but decided to try at least one minor modification first. I opened the windway slightly (mostly in the middle), and it made a huge difference. The middle D now works pretty well fingered xxx xxx, the “honking” rarely happens, and the big push needed to play higher notes is reduced. It’s a much more friendly whistle for me now. It’s a touch airier and quieter than it was at first, but personally, I like the new sound better. It still uses very little air and has a purer tone compared to an untweaked Shaw.
Also, Shaws aren’t the most durable whistles. The fipple can be easily bent, so it’s not a whistle you can throw in a pack and forget.
As a near-beginner myself, I think the the Sweetone is the best to learn on. I found the stock whistle is as easy to play as the Jerry-Tweaked version, but Jerry’s uses a tiny bit less air and has a slightly more focused tone, with a little less “plastic” sound and hollowness.
These little quirks come up sometimes with the tweaked Shaws.
The honking and odd fingerings would indicate that the top of the windway or the soundblade got pushed down a tiny bit accidentally, since I check those things on every whistle before sending it. They do require a fair amount of push/breath support in the highest notes when they’re playing correctly, but if something’s pushed out of position, it will be worse.
The metal in Shaws is fairly flexible, so I do occasionally hear about one that’s acting up. Anyone who has a tweaked Shaw from me is welcome to send it back at any time if it seems to be acting up, and I’ll get it back in shape for you. Of course, you can tinker with it a bit yourself to see if you can get it the way you want. As long as you don’t take it apart or file off any metal, I’ll still be glad to set it up again for you if your own adjustments don’t do the trick.
Thanks Jerry – It seemed to me an experienced player might not have had the problems I had with it, and if one prefers almost no air in the sound, they might prefer the whistle as I recieved it. And in any case, the Shaw (tweaked or not) isn’t as easy to play as a Sweetone.
My first whistle actually was a Sweetone, which I gave away to my girlfriend after a week or so because I had aquired a Clarke Original which I liked better at that time. But today I played her (ex-mine) Sweetone and was amazed by the actual playability and sound of the whistle. Never should have given it away… I prefer it over my Clarke Original now I think.
I tweaked some generations myself as well and one of them even turned out quite nicely But although I like the Gen better because it’s cylindric and the Sweetone is conial, the sound of the Sweetone surpasses the Gen.
I have a mellow Waltons C as well, which I think is the best C I could ever get … (especially under 10 euro). My Little Black Whistle is Terrible… it sqeeks, even the barrel with another head, or the head with another barrel.
My suggestion is to buy a regular Sweetone, because they’re great right out of the store. Very cheap and quite a mellow rather loud sound.
thanks to all your comments and the reviews I read on the forum I ordered a JF sweetone (or a Jerrytone as bloomfield says ).
this is going to be my last whistle for a while and I think I am going to like it better than the dixon.
also I do have a sweetone already but it is one of these clarke makes for kids, with no fipple plug and called enchanted whistle …
I DO like this one but it DOES have the well known problems the clarkes use to have.
Compared the sweetone I have, with the Dixon yesterday and now I know what I don’t like in this dixon.
The D note is a bit weak (someone else mentioned this before I believe) which is for me important, the low octave is softer in general than on my clarke, and the higher octave is very different…although I sure can hear the dixon is a much better whistle in quality and I do have nothing negative to say about tony dixon, it is just that I don’t like it.
I find the sweetone has much more the sound I am after so I now know what to look for in a whistle (as far as I can say that hehe as a newbie) and that polymer ones probably are not for me.
Sweetones and Generation type whistles, I only do new. The whistles themselves are inexpensive, and trying to do one at a time is too inefficient. Shaws, on the other hand, are more expensive to begin with, and they don’t lend themselves as much to doing in batches anyway, so I do tweak them for people.
But although I like the Gen better because it’s cylindric and the Sweetone is conial, the sound of the Sweetone surpasses the Gen.
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