Input requested from players of Doolins and Feadogs

Whistle
1

My Shanna Quay order came in and I got my 2-piece Doolin, plus free 1-piece Doolin, and a mark-III nickel Feadog (which I could just stare at, but I did buy it to play).

I’ve tootled at them a good bit and have gone back to my Sweetone in despair… but I am not beaten. Doolin 2-piece is fine. Not great, not awful. Most suitable for a pocket whistle; I am content, but here’s what I’m wondering, beginner that I am…

Feadog. The odd thing is that when I first tried it, it was okay. Okay is good; I can adapt to an okay whistle and may find it to be great in time. But tonight I played it and was surprised to find a buzzing noise turning up in the upper octave, starting at least at high D. I can’t get the mouth piece to budge with my bare hands so I will be using warm water, only what gives? Did I just not notice until tonight? Well, I’ll check for loose plastic, but I’m wary.

Anyone else get a Doolin 1-piece that was just plain bad? I know there’s been some disputation about giving a whistle that sort of label, but I can promise you that any one of you would try this sucker and promptly head for the hot water, pliers, sticky-tack, sand-paper, you get the point. I intend to have fun tweaking it, but I was surprised and how unplayable it really is… there’s more squeaking than notes. Is it a fluke?


edited for something that was just plain odd

“There is only one thing worse than being witty, and that is not being witty.”

[ This Message was edited by: Dewhistle on 2002-09-09 00:59 ]

2

I’ve got 2 of these 3 whistles tweaked to where they’re really nice. My Feadog didn’t buzz, but the high A and B were pretty nasty. Some blue tack and the guitar pick treatment has turned that into a lovely whistle.

Tweaking didn’t do much for either Doolin. At one point, I swapped the fipples and both whistles seemed to sound better – but still not enough better that I really enjoyed playing them. I now have an Oak fipple back on the Doolin 2-piece and it sounds really nice. I’m trying to just ignore the numb lip syndrome. I haven’t figured out what else to try with the Doolin 1-piece yet. I ordered a couple of Little Black Whistle fipples from the Whistle Shop. Maybe one of those will help.

The buzzing might just be something in the fipple. My O’Briain, of all things, buzzed when I started playing it this afternoon. What fixed that was just popping the fipple off and washing the whistle and fipple. I guess there was a bit of dust or something in there.

My Feadog required some soaking before the fipple came off, too, so I guess that’s not unusual for those whistles.

Good luck!

Tery

3

On my last trip to Ireland I picked up a Feadog, my first. I had just begun getting into whistling, and I already had a Sweetone and a Dixon. The Feadog screeched badly and I was really disappointed with it in comparison to the other two. It wasn’t until I read on C&F about tweaking, and applied that to my Feadog, that it stopped screeching. At that point it became a very nice whistle. Recently I decided to do some experimentation with tweaking so I ordered three more Feadogs from the Whistle Shop. When they arrived, I wanted to get a before and after sampling, so I played them. I was blown away because all three were fantastic, as good as the best Generations you can buy. I wrote Thom Larson and asked him if they had suddenly improved the design and he said no, and that if I had gotten 3 good ones, to count my blessings. At that point a friend told me she had a Feadog that was unplayable. I told her I’d tweak it for her, but when I got it, the fipple was shaped different from mine, larger and more bulbous shaped (I guess it was a Mark 2). Nothing I did could make it even play recognizable notes, and I ended up throwing it away.

Then last weekend I attended the Scottish Games near here and there were many dealers selling Feadogs from their booths. I kept a running survey in my head, and fully half of them were the larger, bulbous design, and the other half were the good ones like I got from Thom. For some reason I’ll never understand, they seem to be making two kinds…good ones (Mark 3) and unplayable ones (Mark 2). The bad news is that when I decided to go ahead and experiment with the 3, there was no way in the world to get the fipples off. No amount of heat, boiling water, etc, would get them off. I totally destroyed one with pliers trying. I won’t ruin the others now that I know. One interesting thing, on the boxes of the new ones, Feadog lists now a website. It’s still under construction, but it does give you an email address where to reach them. I don’t have the boxes here with me, but I believe it was http://www.feadog.ie.

As to Doolins, I’ve only had one, and it was also so bad that after tweaking, there was nothing left to do but throw it away. I’ve heard others say they love theirs, so maybe I just got a bad one, but I won’t spend money on another one.

If you want a cheap whistle made in Ireland, try a Clare. I’ve had four, all good ones. They are very chiffy, but in tune as well as any Generation, but far chiffier.

Of course, the best Irish made whisltes are the O’Briain Feadogs. Nothing else from Ireland even comes close. They are very air sensitive, but that’s not a problem.



[ This Message was edited by: blackhawk on 2002-09-09 06:52 ]

4

The only Feadogs I have are the Mk. II’s, however, I have a Doolin 2 pc. It’s quite nice, and is one of my favs. next to my Clarkes…

5

On 2002-09-09 01:13, tkelly wrote:

I ordered a couple of Little Black Whistle fipples from the Whistle Shop. Maybe one of those will help.

Do post whether they help once you get them. I have a couple of whistles I’d like to try them with but didn’t realize you could order just the mouthpiece.

6

I saw one of the Mark 3’s when Brian was here, nice sounding whistle, but I still prefer my old original feadog (mark 1?) No tweaking on it other than loosening the head to get it in tune a bit better. It is one of my 2 favorite whistles. The other being a gen D body with a Clare head on it

7

Hi,i have Doolin one and two piece whistles(from Shanna quay).I must seriously compare them side by side one day,though to be honest i think that there is little difference in their respective sounds.I must admit that i am starting to play the one piece quite regularly now,as a change from my trusty(i said’ trusty’not ‘rusty’!)old generation,that i’m learning to love again after it’s many years in a cupboard.Maybe one day ‘anti-whoa’ might set in-but not just yet!.Getting back to the Doolin,i think that it has a ‘traditional’ chiffy sound.I’ve done the standard 'blue tack’tweak-head comes of no problem.I find that c natural is best half holed’or fingered 0xxx0x.Nice whistle for the money, imho.

8

I’m on the side of those who like the Doolin. I have the one piece and it became my favorite even over the 20 year old Oak that was my first whistle. It does take remarkably little air so try easing up. It was a bit sharp, but sliding the head a little fixed that.

9

Hm… well, it hasn’t gone under the knife yet, so I’ll try blowing more gently… maybe it’ll turn out to be that elusive quiet whistle I can play while the family sleeps. During the day, when I do get to play the odd tune, I definitely give it a lot of air, what with chasing small people about and being rather worked up over their various invasions and conquests.

And for the Feadog, a bath. If I ever get the time for any of it.

10

Uh-oh..I just placed an order for a Feadog Nickel C at Shannaquays. But thank heavens, I made a check and found that it was a Mark 3 I was ordering in addition to Gen Nickel C. Their also thrwing in the free Doolin-hopefuly this one will play well too…

Brgds/Wayne

11

Hi,
Its a shame you people didn’t take all the money you spend on cheap whistles and instead just buy one GOOD one, that doesn’t need tweaking and will sound beautiful every time. After one $10 whistle that clogged
and then fell apart, thats what I did, and have never regretted it. All your frustrations would have disappeared and
you could have spend all the time playing
instead of tweaking whistles.
Lolly

12

For me a Feadog (and the Oak) are the Jekyll and Hyde whistles. Some days they are fantastic and others they are pure evil. As far as popping off a mark 3 fipple, I noticed it took a lot more work than my other Feadog. I just increased the temperature of the water and it popped right out.

13

On 2002-09-10 10:39, lollycross wrote:
Hi,
Its a shame you people didn’t take all the money you spend on cheap whistles and instead just buy one GOOD one, that doesn’t need tweaking and will sound beautiful every time. After one $10 whistle that clogged
and then fell apart, thats what I did, and have never regretted it. All your frustrations would have disappeared and
you could have spend all the time playing
instead of tweaking whistles.
Lolly

I’ll ignore the implied snideness in the phrase “you people” though it smacks of, well, I’ll leave it at that…

I have not yet spent enough on whistles to pay for a high end whistle.I think… well, anyway, I have been trying these different whistles to work out which sound is which and what sound I like, before I buy one pricey whistle and hope I like it. I do not know enough yet to pick a good one. I further can’t afford to lose or ruin my one good whistle… and I have kids.

Someday I’ll get a high-end whistle and hopefully reach your variety of utopia, but until then, I tweak. It isn’t as if I’ve had time to play it anyway, so it would be silly to invest much now.

Sorry if that post was too defensive, but there’s been a lot of “high end” condescension in the past and I am weary of it.

14

I have two Feadógs, an M2 and an M3. The M2 was my first and sounded ok to me until I got my M3 and it sounded better. I never thought my M2 sounded that bad and I still play it now and then when it’s handy. I have played along with CDs and it sounded completely in tune. The M3 just sounded more ummm…pristine? I really like the M3 and have worn spots on it.

The only other whistles I have are Susato D which is like a whole different kind of instrument, imo. I love it too, for all it’s loud clear self! It’s what I intend to use when I play Amazing Grace tomorrow. And I have a Meg D. It sounds very similar to my Feadóg M3, except it seems softer to me and seems like it lets more air sound go by…if that makes any sense.

I’ve never had my Feadóg clog up, but I routinely slosh the mouthpiece in a diluted Listerine solution after playing and maybe that helps?

Observations from a novice…take as such.

K

15

On 2002-09-09 12:56, Dewhistle wrote:

On 2002-09-09 01:13, tkelly wrote:

I ordered a couple of Little Black Whistle fipples from the Whistle Shop. Maybe one of those will help.

Do post whether they help once you get them. I have a couple of whistles I’d like to try them with but didn’t realize you could order just the mouthpiece.

I popped one of these on my Doolin 2-piece today and it definitely helped. Gave it a generation-y sound. It won’t be my favorite whistle, but I like it a lot better than I did before.

One thing – the LBW fipple is loose on the whistles I tried it on. You’ll want to have a little pipe tape handy.

Tery