After some fairly regular use, my Walton mellow D whistle is losing it’s skin - a thin plastic coating. The plastic is turning green where my fingers touch it, i.e. around the holes, and peeling off. I assume this is not abnormal? It doesn’t seem to play any differently but as I’m just learning, one or more squeaks would probably not be noticable among the many others. Should I worry about this? Should I take it all off (the coating on the whistle)? Would it make it play any differently or sound differently if I were a good player? Time for a new one?
Mine’s been doing the same for over a year (when I made the mistake of playing it just after applying sunscreen - sunscreen does horrid things to the coating). Still plays just fine.
I did tack a nickel-finish Walton’s C onto my latest Whistle Shop order, so I’ll have two. In theory, the nickel should avoid the corrosion (though it will discolor over time on the finger holes).
The Walton’s C is one of the best cheap whistles, IMHO. To the point that between my Walton’s and my Oak C’s I’ve never been strongly tempted to add more expensive whistles in the key.
Welcome to the forum, Ten. As for the peeling Walton, don’t worry about it. My first whistle was also a Walton and I experienced the same thing by the end of the first week, including green marks around the finger holes. I just peeled off the excess skin and kept on trying to play it. It never played well from the day I got it, and I always thought it was me until I got a Feadog 2 weeks later and realized the difference in quality. It seems the Walton’s finger holes weren’t drilled properly, and no matter what I did I couldn’t get a good seal and it always played with a squawk. Now I own a couple of quality whistles and haven’t looked back at my Walton since. You may want to try another brand and discover what a difference it makes to the way you sound.
The peeling is a lacquer that’s put on to prevent the whistle from tarnishing before sale. Most mass produced whistles have it, and it’s normal for it to come off. You can take it off with acetone or nail polish remover. However, if the mouthpiece is the tightness you want, you need to leave the lacquer on where the mouthpiece fits over the tube, or it will get looser.
If he’d said he had a standard Walton’s, I’d agree with you, Will - I had exactly the same experience with my standard bore Walton’s.
But the Walton’s C whistles are actually pretty good, by board concensus (and my own experience). So are the Walton’s Mello Ds (same head as the C, D-length shaft), except the bell note is often a touch sharp (a bit of tape around the end can fix this, if needed).
After much tweaking, my Walton’s standard D went from “virtually unplayable” to “somewhat playable”, but I like the C and the Mello D quite a bit.
I also agree on the Feadog - if you like the slightly “rough” sound, the current production Feadogs are good whistles.
Thanks, DCrom. I guess it just goes to show that I shouldn’t judge the whole company by that bad whistle. Strangely enough, I almost purchased a Mellow D a while back but was so put off by my memories of the standard bore Walton that I quickly put the idea out of my head. After your positive review perhaps I’ll shell out the $7 and give the Mellow D a try after all.