I only just now got back from work and have been noodling away with my brand spankin’ new Feadóg. The instruction book and CD seem alright.
It’s a tetchy whistle. I find that I have to place my fingers juuuust right to get it to play without sounding as if I’m pulling its teeth. Part of it too is that I’m getting used to how much pressure I need to start off with. I find that I get a fuzzier tone if there’s not enough air. Low D sounds a little ragged, although with the same pressure I get B, A, G, F# and E sounding alright.
Learning how to moderate breath and pressure might be the biggest challenge for this.
I do know the fingering somewhat already, and I can keep a beat in my head (it’s when I conciously think about it that I screw up). And remembering to play separate notes separate, not slur them like a Salvador Dali painting.
So I think breath control, fingering (so as not to trip all over my fingers on eighth notes or faster, and drop the whistle), and not driving my cat bats will be the goal here.
I will leave the mouthpiece as is for a few weeks, but if I find I am still having trouble getting low D to sound right, do y’all think I oughtta tweak the thing or sent off for the Whitecap? I’ve heard nothing but good about the Hoover Whitecaps.
Do both. Go ahead and order the whitecap headpiece, and after you get it, tweak the original head. You might tweak it well enough (use very, very, fine sandpaper) and make a better whistle, but if you accidentally destroy it, at least you’ll have a whitecap.
I think low D can be a little weird on lots of whistles. I have a pretty nice whistle and I had a hard time getting a low D, and it still sounds different than the other notes. Not saying you shouldn’t upgrade, just that the low D thing may always take some getting used to on a particular whistle.
If you figure out the cat thing let me know.
Practice really slowly. Just because you see eigth notes doesn’t mean you have to play fast.
My nice whistle is a Burke. It is nice, just that I have trouble getting the low D consistently. I like the higher notes, but I do have trouble with high D as well. I’m a beginner so I’m sure more practice will help.
Mellow Ds (I’ve been told that “Mellow D” stands for “melody”) have strong bottom notes too, but are sometimes a little bit sharp. Doesn’t Jerry Freeman sell tweaked Mellow Ds?
First, I agree completely on the whitecap. Get one!!! You’ll never regret it…they are wonderful.
But I wouldn’t try tweaking the Feadog head just yet.
Feadogs are touchy but once you develop a certain amount of skill they can be a very effective whistle. If you haven’t yet, read Wanderer’s Feadog review–he describes it better than I can.
After you’ve played a couple of years try the original Feadog head again. You might be surprised at how good a whistle it is.
That’s my $.02, probably worth about what you paid to read it.
What I sell is a tweaked “Mellow Dog.” It’s made from a tweaked Mellow D tube (with the sharp bell note corrected) and a tweaked Feadog C whistlehead. The voicing is sweeter/purer than either a stock Walton’s Mellow D or a stock Feadog.
I do make a tweaked D Feadog that retains the original Feadog voicing. The tweaking helps to clean up some of the roughness that some people experience with Feadogs, especially in the upper register.
I agree with everything James says about the Feadog. Once you develop some control, it’s a pretty good instrument, if you’re into that traditional sound. If you’re not, it’d take a lot of tweaking to ‘fix’..might as well go with the whitecap in that case.
You can backfill the cavity (although I find it makes no difference to me, a lot of people like it though) but other than that the feadog should be a perfectly fine playable whislte. Consider giving yourself time to learn how to play it instead of blaming the whistle for each and every flaw. The idea that a lot of whistles are unplayable is alive and kicking on this forum but, and I say that as a player of untweaked whistles, the idea that having to make alterations to your whislte’s head is the only way to resolve the problem is really a fairytale.
I agree with this. It took a while but I can manage the Feadog alright now, despite the fact that the head is cracked right down the middle of the blade. This is the nickel plated version with the black cap. I did just order a WhiteCap, and it will be interesting to hear the difference.
I have a cracked Feadog as well, right down the center of the blade. I repaired it with Super Glue. I had trouble playing this whistle when I first got it but it has become one of my favorite whistles. In fact at the moment it is my favorite cheap whistle. I agree with the others don’t tweak it until you can play it the way it is. If you do this you will probably find it doesn’t need to be tweaked.
I also had a cracked whistle for a long time. I can’t remember what brand it was, but I am pretty sure it was either a Feadóg or a Clare. I cracked it while trying to remove the headpiece, and thought it was broken, but it actually played really well for a long time. Then I tried to tweak it some more, and broke it beyond repair.
Although I’m a very big fan of Feadog, I have to confirm the crack thing. I’ve had a number of heads that have cracked along that line. The line itself is an artifact of the production process and is present on every mk III head I’ve seen. A bit of stress (such as trying to force the head onto a tube for which it is a bit tight, or trying to twist the head off its original tube without softening the glue with hot water) is sometimes enough to turn that ‘flaw’ into a real crack.
I’ve known heads from other brands crack almost as easily, it’s just that with the mk III Feadogs they always seem to go along that same line.
