It was my first whistle - a Clarke original in D, unpainted. I’ve got a couple of high enders now which are wonderful and the damn thing is still one of my favorites for some odd reason…
I’ve almost given it away a few times to people who wanted to learn, but could never part with it (I just bought them new ones instead ). Sure, it takes more air than my Burke or my Hoover, but there are just some days when it’s the only thing that will do it for me…
Today was one of those days.
Poor thing’s fipple is close to falling out - guess I’ll have to get a replacement one of these days… sigh
Don’t give up on it just because of a loose fipple. A few gentle taps with a mallet, or perhaps a small finishing nail, along with a bit of glue, should fix you up nicely. I have a Clarke original C that’s been with me for 30 years and it still plays very nicely.
If you’re afraid to mess with it, send it off to Jerry Freeman. He has plenty of experience with Shaws and probably would have a nice touch with your Clarke.
I hated the only Clarke I ever had - one of the first whistles I bought. The wooden fipple irritated my lip, there was too much air blowing around it (thus a tune was mostly air and no sound). In trying to tweak it, I mashed it. No services were held and no grieving period was necessary. I’ve never bought another.
The Clarke Original is a classic indeed. It’s relatively easy to tweek a Clarke too. The endplug is just glued in there so if it gets loose just glue it back in. The oversized windway is easily made smaller which greatly improves the “breathy-ness” issue. I found the tin to be very workable and forgiving. (as opposed to tweeking a plastic fipple) I also took all the paint off mine and polished it to a pewter-like finish.
It now looks like a 19th century artifact. Long Live the Clarke!!!
I’m with Susan… my Clarke C is horrid. I feel like I’m going to pass out within a few notes and it’s the ‘whoosh-iest’ (for lack of a real term) sounding thing I’ve ever played. Susan saying “mostly air and no sound” pretty much sums up mine as well. Ugh.
clark was my second whistle after a feadog. it was a great whistle, until the dog took revenge. after she finished with it, it was a quiet whistle . . . like real quiet. she loved the wooden fipple.
My first whistle was a Clarke. Every Clarke I’ve heard “out of the box” was too breathy for my tastes and I’ve seen a lot of variation from too breathy to way, way too breathy. In that respect I guess you’d have to say there aren’t any good ones.
That said, it’s very easy to tweak a Clarke original to control the amount of breathiness – in that respect I guess you’d have to say there aren’t any bad ones.
(Yes, I’m planning on entering politics… )
On my Clarkes I’ve removed the fipple plug, sealed it with non-toxic paint, and then glued it back in place, sealing all the cracks around the edges with a flexible sealer. I’ve heard of other folks who have used that kitchen-oven clay stuff to make a new moisture-proof fipple plug.
Then, I bent / flattened the blade until I got a decent sound out of it. Unlike a plastic fipple you don’t have to worry too much about destroying the whistle, if you go too far one direction just push the tin back the other way.
One handy trick when you’re mashing down the blade is to gently grip the sides of the whistle, the flattened parts at the fipple plug, with vice grip pliers (put some heavy paper or thin cardboard between the pliers and the whistle). This keeps the sides from spreading away from the fipple plug while you’re mashing on the blade.
Do you mean Sculpey Clay? Or is there another kind? Sculpey is toxic, and they say to be sure to wash your hands thoroughly after use… I’d hate to put it in my mouth!!
Sculpey is what I was talking about. I’ve never done it myself, just heard that others have. I bought some once and was going to try it but I never got around to it - it’s a lot more work than just sealing the wooden fipple that is already the correct shape and I’m basically lazy.
However, I believe sculpey is non-toxic after it’s “fired” in the oven, anyway (not sure on this, read the label, yada yada). Just like a lot of spray paints are toxic while wet but dry to non-toxic. It’s very difficult to make anything that will remain moist and pliable without toxic plasticizers (sp?).
If you’re going to tweak a Clarke Original, here are some thoughts …
First, the natural finish ones will be easier to tweak without marring them. The finish on the black ones is fairly thick, and a bit brittle. It tends to chip at the blade edge. However, this is only a minor drawback, and I’ve also heard that the painted ones tend to sound better.
Positioning the blade can make a big difference in reducing the breathiness and getting a more focused, richer sound. Usually the blade is too high up relative to the windway floor. The best blade position is usually where you can see a little daylight above the windway floor when you sight into the beak end of the whistle. Also, it helps if the blade matches the windway floor all the way across and isn’t wavy or curved. That way, the whole blade edge is in the ideal position. I would say on a Clarke Original, about 1/32 inch of visible space under the blade would be a good place to start. Then you can experiment with placing it a little higher or lower if it still seems to need improvement.
In addition to placing the blade edge, squashing the top of the windway some to reduce the air requirement is important, not only for making the whistle easier to play, but also for reducing the breathiness of the sound. This also is something to experiment with. If you squash it too much, the whistle will sound muffled. The best placement with most whistles, if the metal will conform to it, is as narrow from ceiling to floor of the windway as you can achieve without muffling the voice of the whistle. I’ve never found that this was so narrow that it created too much back pressure.
Susan, Susan, you poor soul, you’ve missed out on one of life’s happier experiences. Get a tweaked one from the Whistleshop and make yourself a new little friend!
Robin
P.S. Take a fine piece of sandpaper and smooth down any bits that irritate your lip, it helps.
I have one D which I really like and a C which is playable but which I would never choose to play ahead of other whistles.
I have no idea why you would want to get rid of the breathiness in a good Clarke D. Isn’t that the attraction? If you want a sweet pure whistle, get a sweet pure whistle.
Although two isn’t much to go on, I’ve never felt the need to tweak either my C or D. (I’d be curious to hear the result of a good tweak though.) That just isn’t the case with any off-the-rack Generation style whistle I’ve tried (only four in all.) Now a Jerry tweaked Generation is another thing altogether.
When you tweak a Clarke Original or Shaw, much of the breathiness does, indeed go away (assuming you’ve done a thorough tweak; you can do as much or as little tweaking as you like, to get whatever mix you want).
However, there’s something that’s still there, in fact, that’s accentuated, that’s pure magic to my ears. I believe it has something to do with a sort of echoiness inside a thin, rolled metal, conical tube. It just sings, “TINWHISTLE!” I haven’t heard that sound from any cylindrical whistle. I haven’t had the opportunity to play any Copelands, but based on what I’ve read, I suspect that even though Copelands are a conical, metal whistle, they have a different sort of sound.
Any way, the bottom line is, Clarke Originals don’t, by any means lose their magic when you tweak them. If anything, they become more magical, yet.
I’d have to agree with that statement!
I, too, have smoothed the wooden plug with very fine sandpaper ~ it’s fine now.
I just took mine out for a spin before I read this thread.
Mine is untweaked, and it sounds great.
The first one I had I tweaked into oblivion, though. But I remember, before I wrecked it, hearing one of my sons playing it and thinking that of all the cheapies I had at the time, that was the one that sounded best
Assuming the tweaking is well done, of course. Any whistle can be wrecked by an unsuccessful tweaking attempt.
Please understand, I do agree that many off the shelf Clarkes, Generations, Shaws etc. are great whistles just as they are. I’m not on a mission to convert every whistle in the world to the doctrine of tweakism. Tweaking just happens to be my particular area of whistle fascination, and I like to share what I’ve learned.
Reducing the amount of air that’s blown through the windway of a Clarke Original is important in getting the voicing focused. Even if the blade edge is in the ideal position, it won’t sound as good if there’s too much wasted air blowing out the top of the whistle.
One more detail that can make a difference is to sharpen the soundblade to something like a knife edge. You can do this by scraping the soundblade with the edge of an exacto knife. You hold the edge of the exacto knife at just a little steeper angle than the ramp angle and scrape back and forth across the soundblade so it scrapes off the top corner of the soundblade edge, which is stamped out and square with two corners, rather than sharp with one edge. When you’ve done this, you’ll have a long bevel and a single, sharp edge to the soundblade. The steel of an exacto knife is harder than the mild, cold rolled steel of the soundblade, so it can effectively be used to shape the soundblade.
). Sure, it takes more air than my Burke or my Hoover, but there are just some days when it’s the only thing that will do it for me…
)
