Bloomfield is not Bloomfield. I am Bloomfield. And Jerry is me, because Martin Milner is avanutria. Dale doesn’t really exist, and TomB is actually me, Walden. emmline is amar, and izzarina is aderyn_du in hiding. So, in conclusion, Wanderer is Loren.
Everything now seems so much clearer 
Is Tube Dude Energy?
Of course not, silly. You are!
M
The only Jerry-Tweak I had so far (but I’m planning to get some more) was a Mellow Dog (from Bigwhistle.co.uk) which I have to say didn’t quite work for me as it arrived. The tube is great, with the correction to the sharp bell note, but the tweak to the ramp either didn’t suit my playing (I’m no breath control expert), or maybe had got dinged in transit and may have needed resetting. I put a Feadog C head on with the under-windway void filled but no ramp tweak and it sounds great now.
I guess tweaked whistles are like stock ones in so far as one size doesn’t fit all. Different people get on with different things.
I was planning to get a Jerry Gen, but I must say I’m totally tempted to go for a tweaked Shaw. Aargh… I was never good at making decisions.
it’s a matter of preference, one of the whistles Jerry sent me was a Shaw wihich self tweaked itself into unplayability after a week, I sent it back and Jerry returned it re-done it worked a bit better then but I didn’t like the tuning and the overall sound of it, but I actually don’t like tapered whistles at all and this was no exception so it went back again with the rest of the stuff he sent me.
I did keep one nickle Generation which is in itself a nice whistle though I maintain it’s a totally different whistle in tone and playing character than the old Generations I have, it is not been treated with Jerry’s final tweaking scheme though.
I would be curious to know what about the tweaked Mellow Dog you didn’t like.
You mention that “I’m no breath control expert,” so I’m wondering if you’re more comfortable with a whistle that accomodates more assertive blowing.
The bottom notes of a tweaked Mellow Dog require a gentle touch, though this whistle isn’t as delicate to play as an O’Briain Improved. The O’Briain Improved is even sweeter/purer still than the tweaked Mellow Dog. The further you voice a whistle towards the sweet/pure end of the spectrum, the more sensitive the lower notes become to breath pressure.
I’ve voiced the tweaked Mellow Dog as sweet/pure as possible with the bottom notes what I consider acceptably playable, but for someone who tends to play assertively, those notes may be too sensitive.
Best wishes,
Jerry
No, Tube Dude is Dazed in LA!
Tom
Hi Jerry,
I just dug out your tweaked head from the Mellow Dog and tried it again. Your description of the tone is spot on: pure and sweet. The issue I have isn’t so much with the low notes (I learned to go gently with those on the first Dixon I had), but more with the second octave. Mostly on tongued notes, the first attack is very fragile. It’s better with legato playing, but a careless cut can still break the note and squeak it. Also, just as the low notes need gentle blowing, the second octave seems to take a far more marked increase in pressure than I’m used to, and consequently seems disproportionately louder.
Don’t worry too much - I’m sure the ‘fault’, if there is one, is as much with my relative inexperience as with the whistle.
BTW, do you take some off the top of the Walton tube as well as adding to the bottom? It’s a great tube. I can’t understand why more cheapie manufacturers don’t do a D with the wider bore tube. Bearing in mind how accurate the tuning on Feadog tubes is I’d love it if they did a D in the same diameter as the C. Of course, that is pretty much what you achieve with the Mellow Dog 
.
The Mellow Dog sound is great, but I don’t seem able to handle it well enough to get that tone consistently across the range of the whistle.
Awhile back, I mailed a nickel Gen D I bought in 1976 to Jerry and asked if he could approximate the sound. He got a new tweaked one pretty close and I like the tweaked one better because it’s more stable and lost the bit of raspiness some of the notes in the old one had. It’s also slightly louder in the lower octave. People on several occasions have commented on how nice the whistle sounds. A friend of mine ordered one on my recommendation, but sent it back before I could check it out. Someone else I know tried mine and didn’t think it was anything special. That tells me at least part if it is a matter of taste. (I have good taste and they don’t.)
Tony
Hi, Buddhu.
Thanks for the clarification.
In the top half of the upper register, a tweaked Mellow Dog has a rather definite threshold between “enough” and “not quite enough” push.
It doesn’t require the strong push that a tweaked Shaw takes, but you have to give the upper register enough push to stay above the threshold or it will try to drop down into the lower register.
It sounds like you may be playing just “above the break,” meaning that you’re giving the upper register just enough push to go into the upper register, but not enough to make sure all the notes are staying there. You may find that you adjust to this rather effortlessly if you just play the whistle more. I don’t believe there’s anything about the whistle’s dynamics that are truly problematical, just that it has its own personality.
Yes, I do take a little off the top of the Mellow D tube. If I don’t do that, the whistle is only in tune when the whistlehead is pushed all the way on, and there’s no room for adjustment if it needs to play slightly sharper.
Best wishes,
Jerry
Yep, I’m sure you’re right. This isn’t the only case of me not getting on with something others swear by.
After pottering around with the tweaked head again last night I still do like that pure tone. I’m going to have another go and see if I can get the hang of it.
Thanks for taking an interest, and for the tips.
I thought I should clarify this.
I don’t actually take a little off the top and put a little on the bottom of the Mellow D tubes.
Rather, I move the toneholes slightly higher on the tube. This is more efficient than cutting some length off the top and adding some length on the bottom.
Basically, you remove the toneholes, so you have a solid tube again. Then you reposition the toneholes where you want them. You have to be careful to put the toneholes in the correct sequence, or you’ll get a whistle that doesn’t play properly. When I first started doing them this way, I made the mistake of removing the toneholes all at once from a whole batch of tubes. Then, when I went to reposition them on the tubes, I found that I’d gotten them all mixed up, and I couldn’t tell one tonehole from another.
Best wishes,
Jerry
You’ve got to be careful when you have removed the tone holes from several dozen whistles and they are sitting in a pile on your bench. They will sometimes meld into one big hole and ruin the bench. But we might get a good story out of it: “Jerry in Wonderland” (A giant white weasel invites him to a tweak party- take it from there.)
Jerry Freeman rocketh.
Hmm… when I say “pottering around with” I mean playing, NOT modifying. Just want to make that clear.
And so far I have to say there is improvement. Still an above-average increase in volume between 1st and 2nd octaves, but I can now play tunes across the two octaves without breaking many notes - even on tongued ones - and maintaining the clear tone.
Looks like my inexperience was the main factor. No big surprise there… :roll:
Apologies for dragging this away from the Shaw tweak that Wanderer specifically reviewed.
That’s really interesting and sounds like quite a neat way to do it. It would certainly avoid a lot of messing around with tube cutting and filing.
Does anyone have any experience of swapping tone holes between whistles? I wonder if, for instance, the holes from a Mellow D might improve a Gen D - any thoughts?