My observations of cheap whistles has lead me to the conclusion that the color of the plastic mouthpiece makes a difference… at least with Waltons.
The green mouthpieces on Waltons Irish Whistles sound very different than the black ones on Waltons Little Black Whistles… even when switching them between the brass and aluminum bodies.
To my eye, they are identical mouthpieces except for their color.
I suppose it makes sense that the coloring agents used could actually affect the properties of the plastic, but that’s just a wild guess.
I have even sat down and tweaked several of both varieties with putty and a miniature file, and they always maintain a very distinct difference in tone.
Anybody else ever notice this phenomenon?
I will test a green mouthpiece Generation against a red one in a couple of days… curiosity is killing me!
I recall this coming up once before. Seems that with certain plastics the only way you can sustain production and ensure purity of colour is to have one mold for each colour – thus the blue and red Generation mouthpieces, for example, would come from the same design but not necessarily the same mold.
I’ve no idea if there’s enough variation to have an effect, though.
- -Rich
I like my Blue Generation fipples MUCH better than the red ones. To my ear so far, they sound more solid, and less plasticy. The red ones, no matter how much I tweak them, I just can’t get sounding right. Then there’s the Green Walton’s, and the Black Oak, which required next to no tweaking at all!
B~
I have found that the Walton’s black mouth pieces to be the best and have put them on various bodies all resulting in a much improve whistle. But the best is when it is put on a Feadog body. I also like the look of the black fipple on the brass body.
Joe