I am a percussionist of nearly 20 years and I am taking up the whistle as a side thing/ hobby. I was inspired after hearing some fine whistling recently on an Eddi Reader record, and with the start up cost being so reasonable, I thought I’d give it a go. I’d read that having a couple whistles to begin with is a good idea, so I picked up a Clarke C, a Walton D and a couple tutorials. I have been doing great with the Clarke… it makes a great sound and I have no problems with fingerings and register jumps, but the Walton is just a bear! Is it me? If I’d only picked up the Walton, I’d probably have ditched the whistle by now, but things are going so well with the Clarke that I’ve been sticking with that one.
I’ve been reading here on Chiff and elsewhere about tweaking thinking that that may help matters on the Walton, but I imagine that I have as good a shot at hurting the thing as I do of helping it. Perhaps I’ll pick up a tweaked Mellow Dog and use my Walton as guinea pig. Bottom line is I would like a functional D (all the instructor books are in D I’m tired of transposing in my head).
Any suggestions on the Walton? Do they have typical or reoccurring problems that I should be aware of? My novice sense of the problem is that the register leaps are ragged. Progressively blowing hard doesn’t yield a leap up but rather the tone becomes super raspy and lingers between the two octaves before finally submitting. Also when holding lower notes, even with all the holes firmly covered the tone is difficult to control and there is a lot of leaking of one register into the other (similar to the sound when all the holes aren’t covered.) I do think picking up another D is a good way to move forward, but still, I’d like to have the Walton not be a total loss.
I’ve enjoyed reading through past postings on the forum and also the Chiff website… Thanks to those out there running things. I’m glad to be aboard.
I recently got my first tin whistle and it is a Waltons D. I really like it, but I have never played a different whistle, so I don’t have anything to compare it to. It sort of has the problems you described but can still be played well.
I would say that the sound of the Waltons would be raspier and harder to control than the Clarke, although I do prefer my Waltons over my Clarke. The windway might not be clear of adherent plastic which could create the problems you described which is why a tweaked one could be the difference between night and day.
My first whistle was a Walton as well, and as far as I’m concerned, they’re one of the worst whistles out there. They only get worse with time, too, in my experience.
my walton is pretty raspy and has been relegated to the toddler’s music crate. the posterputty tweak helped, but i still don’t like it as much as my Dixon Trad or the Feadog.
The first whistle I had that I thought really sounded like what I thought it should was a Dixon Trad. It’s more expensive than a Walton but not too bad. Having said that, however, I am finding now after a couple of years that when I pick up some of those earlier, cheaper whistles I can make them sound pretty good. So it’s not always the whistle. I think breath control has a lot to do with it and for me that’s only come with time and practice. So there may be some value in getting a more expensive whistle to learn on…
I’ve a tweaked Mellow Dog that’s just bloody brilliant, but as I understand it, it’s the Feadog head with the Walton Mellow body. My folks bought my entire family Waltons for Christmas, including one for my wee little daughter. She toots on it as best she can, being only 18 months old, but I’ve given it a real spin and I can honestly say that I really don’t care much for the regular Walton. So much so that I took the initiative to tweak it myself – first time I’ve given tweaking a shot.
First thing I noticed were HUGE plastic bits inside the fipple. I carved (yes, literally carved… they were huge) those off with a razor knife and the whole thing ended up sounding even more raspy than before. I gave the whole thing a good sanding to try to smooth it out even more with no effect. I finally remembered to pick up some poster putty and did the putty trick, which helped immensely. I also did a bit more sanding of the interior, trying to smooth it out as best I could. It’s decidedly more playable now, but I still prefer every single whistle I own over the Walton.
Sorry, mate, but I recommend you pick up another D. The Walton just doesn’t rank in my book. I still play my Clarke Sweetone more than any other whistle I own (though I prefer my Mellow Dog, but 'tis a bit on the loud side for home practice… the wife gets annoyed!). I want to see about getting a Feadog and a Clarke Original to try those out. And I hear nothing but amazing things about the Dixon Trad. My Susato’s all right, I guess. I loved it when I was first starting, but now it’s one of my least played whistles.
i also have a Walton’s D… as well as a Sweetone, a Clarke Meg, a Dixon Trad, a Dixon Polymer and a Feadog. all in D. over the course of a week, i play all of them except for one. in order of preference (for me):
Feadog
Dixon Trad
Walton
Clarke Meg
Dixon Poly
…
…
Sweetone (all by itself at the absolute bottom of the pile.)
as i said, i am not an expert, so my opinion likely is not worth much. but, i play one to two hours a day, every day. most days it is split between the feadog and the walton. all of my whistles have been tweaked (all but the sweetone were tweaked by me, the sweetone by Jerry Freeman.) all have good intonation (except for the sweetone.) and all have a different sound. up until very recently, the dixon trad was the whistle i played all day long… but, there’s just something about the sound of the feadog once you get your breathing under control. and the walton is not far behind. the more i play, the more i like the chiff that the dixon’s just don’t have compared to the feadog or the walton. the dixon’s are just very “clean” sounding whistles. the Meg is just a fun whistle all around with a wonderful sound. the only whistle i have that i do not like is the sweetone. i even “undid” the tweak on the sweetone… it helped somewhat, but it is still my least favorite. i just don’t like it. but to get back to the post…
nobody else seems to like the walton, (and they like their sweetone’s), but i have to say in all honesty, i really like my waltons (i have one in C, as well.) so… maybe a tweak, maybe a little more time to get used to the “breathing quirks” of the Walton… and you may come to like it. i did… but then, like i said…
Lots of variety in the cheapies, often. You may just have a bad one.
Given the low prices it’s OK to buy another whistle, perhaps
a non-Walton. Jerry Freeman’s tweaked whistles are well worth
the money and will pretty well set you up indefinitly.
If you want to experiment on the Walton, why not?
Rather than struggle with a weirdy, I personally would rather spend
my time learning tunes, etc.
I had the same experience as Protean with my Walton D - huge bits of plastic flashing inside the whistle head that had to be cut away with an Xacto knife. Once removed, the result was perfectly playable, though very ordinary.
The problems you describe are consistent with a beginner’s lack of fine breath control which the chiffy Gen style whistles require (and which the Clarke doesn’t as much). So without seeing both you and the whistle, it’s impossible to say where the problem lies. But by all means, get yourself a Gen or Feadóg, or Dixon or Freeman, and you’ll know soon enough.
My Walton’s is my favorite of the cheapies. I prefer it to my Clarkes, Clares, Feadogs & Generations. Only through experimentation will you find your true favorite. No two cheapies are exactly the same.
I totally destroyed the first whistle I tweaked. It was a junk whistle so no harm was done. If you just don’t like the sound of a whistle, put it down for a while. Once you learn some more, you may be able to get a much better sound out of a whistle.
I got a cheapie bamboo low D whistle when I was new to whistling. The D was flat. With experience, it isn’t so flat anymore.
The main problem with my Waltons D is that after playing on it for a while, it gets a sort of muffled, clogged sound and I have to clear it out. Other than that, it’s fine.
Just checking - you’re blowing it, not hitting things with it, right?
I like Clarke whistles too. I found the Sweetone a great way to start, since it’s very forgiving and easy to play. (Others might disagree that being forgiving and easy to play are good qualities for a beginner’s instrument though.)
I have a Walton too. I was buying a whistle as a present for a friend and the guy in the shop persuaded me to try a Walton since he prefered them to Clarke’s. I’ve not played it much, but I’d share MT’s opinion that it’s “perfectly playable, though very ordinary”.
I guess it depends what you want to do whistle-wise. If it’s just a hobby, then stick to the Clarke. If you want to take it further, then maybe go for a Dixon Trad as a step-up or at least a step-sideways for a different sounding whistle.
