One of my favorite whistles is my “Mellow Dog,” which is Jerry Freeman’s famed hybrid tweak–Feadog headpiece, Walton’s Mellow D tonebody.
Those of you who play laminated brass whistles, what do you do to keep them looking nice? Mine started out with that shiny brass look. Then it got dark around the holes and in the thumb spots on the back. I liked that look. Now the laminate is peeling around the tone holes, and in spots on the back, and it looks like it has a skin disorder.
Is there anything I can do to improve the look of it? It will be a favorite, no matter how motley it looks, but I’d like to know if I can do anything to take better care of it.
Is the peely-stuff lacquer?
Had a bad case of lacquer-leprosy on a Selmer sax (Yamahas seem never to lose laquer) so I took it to my local instrument wizard. He took it apart (not expensive, but reeely cheep for a whistle), acid-washed it to clean off all the lacquer, and reassembled it (very very expensive, but not a problem with whistle). He gave me several options of coatings for after the acid-bath, including a 2-part epoxy polymer, but I went for the no-coating, matte verdigris. I wanted to be Dexter, or Lester, or Brecker.
The sax has a boss, funky, serious, play-til-morning, bourbon-from-the-bottle look.
I eventually removed the coating with a very fine abrasive paper and then simply polished it (and a few others) with Brasso. It looks much much better and only takes the occasional wipe to keep it shiny. However, i also think that well used whistles develop a worn look that might be as fashionable as faded jeans.
My single el-cheapo brass whistle is a Generation high G (shriek!)
I hit the body with a green ScotchBright pad… that did the trick. The finger spots first showed up about 4 days later.
Looks really cool when you finish buffing it. If you are careful, you can get a nice “grain” to the buffing. I drew the tube through pinched fingers with the ScotchBright and got a nice linear parallel luster to it. I suppose you could also go circular by twisting or even spiral by twisting and drawing, but the ScotchBright, even though it is plastic, will still scratch/polish the metal.
Also did the guitar pick tweak and blue tack (wax actually) tweak. A fine little whistle up to the extreme high range when the volume spikes by like twice or three times.
I sanded it down with 320 fine sandpaper. It has a very fine grain now, which is nice. Then I cleaned and buffed it with wadding polish, and it looks great! Now all I have to do is wait for the well-played look to come back. Thanks for the advice.
Jerry, if you run across this, don’t worry–the mouse logo is intact.
Said sax was a 7 series II, and it was, and still is, great. I was the second owner, and the first had abused it. It’s now being played by a former student in northern British Columbia.
He’s better at age 19 than I’ll ever be, but I still have fun with all my “horns”, including whistles and a Yamaha silver YBS62. Nary a lacquer problem on the Yamaha - it’s silver.
Can you imagine what a Yamaha Pro whistle would be like?
On the topic… I haven’t really got anything much to say. Just that I have a Mellow D laying in my drawer with a serious skin disorder after just playing it a few hours. I didn’t like to tone of it much so I just let it lay there. I think I got it when I was in Dublin, 3 years ago or something.
Just realised. My WHOA has gotten significantly better since I started playing in this fairly serious band. I just play my Syn’s. I haven’t taken out my Mellow D for at least a year.
Just that I have a Mellow D laying in my drawer with a serious skin disorder after just playing it a few hours. I didn’t like to tone of it much so I just let it lay there. I think I got it when I was in Dublin, 3 years ago or something.
You should hear the Mellow Dog. He takes the Mellow D and puts on a Feadog C headpiece, fixes up the fipple, straightens out the tuning problem, and WOW! Sounds a lot more expensive than it is. Better than a Mellow D and a Feadog C put together. It’s greater than the sum of its parts.
Just realised. My WHOA has gotten significantly better since I started playing in this fairly serious band. I just play my Syn’s.
I really like my Syns too. They’re very responsive whistles.
