I just took a look at the Clarke website (from where I bought my Clarke Original last year), and I noticed that the Meg is not among the listed products anymore.. only the Original and the Sweetone. As the Meg is a Sweetone with “budget raw materials and a modified production process” (as they used to describe it), maybe the Sweetone is now a renamed Meg? Whatever the reason, the Meg isn’t mentioned on the Clarke website anymore. http://www.clarketinwhistle.com/products/Default.aspx
-Tor
Oooh does that mean I own a collector’s item lol
EBay, here I come with my newly established “vintage” whistle…
Best wishes.
Steve
How different were they to begin with?
I found the old Clarke products page. I am newbie, but the main difference I see is price.
http://web.archive.org/web/20100725100635/http://www.clarketinwhistle.com/Products/
The Sweetone was a British product all the way. The Meg had more of an oriental flare, IYKWIM, ergo the price difference. And, if I am not mistaken, Whistlin’ Billy is impressed into the tin of the Sweetone and merely painted on the Meg. I could be wrong, wouldn’t be the first time.
that would surprise me because the golden meg was just new in the programm
maybe its just a temporary change on the website because of the xmas season?
it would be a pitty because i love the megs
about the difference
i have a meg and a sweettone and in my case the meg is, if different, even better
they are built in asia but that must not mean that they are of less quality
I have both a Meg and the Sweetone and at least on mine whistlin billy is painted on both. Both were early production models so I don’t know if that changed later on in Sweetone production.
As to the difference my sweetone is exactly that - sweet in tone. The meg is a little more breathy with a bit more chiff and I find it more finiky about breath control. But these are mass produced whistles so who knows (I don’t!) if thats just the variation in manufacture and if I had a different Sweetone and a different Meg if it would be the other way around or if these are genuine differences between the models. I’m sure I can’t be the only one with both though so we’ll no doubt hear soon!
That logo is stamped into the metal on my older C Sweetone, but the newer ones I’ve seen - including the Freeman tweaked D that I bought a few years ago - are painted on. To be honest, I can’t ever recall seeing “Whistlin’ Willie” on a Meg. But then I could also be wrong… 
I’ve had several Megs over the years, and I will say that of all of these whistles I’ve tried, I have found they too tend to be as inconsistent from one example to another, as any other cheap whistle - regardless of whether it says “Meg” or “Sweetone” on it.
Ah, wayback machine to the rescue! Thanks for that link. I see that the Victorian model is also missing now, but you can presumably make one just by taking sandpaper to the Original.
Looking at the prices on the archived page, and the descriptions on the current page, it doesn’t look like the Meg is now the Sweetone, the Meg has just disappeared (and some websites selling Megs have them all ‘on order’ or something, none in stock). Maybe it’s just a temporary production problem.
-Tor
It’s there.. zoom in on the page in the archive link. Anyway I’ve got two (a C and a D) and the whistler is there (painted on. I don’t have a Sweetone, but on that same page the two whistles seem to have the same appearance).
-Tor
That’s because he’s “Whistling Billy”. Totally different guy. 
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=fIoBAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA200&lpg=PA200#v=onepage&q&f=false
Thanks for that link MTGuru. Fascinating reading.
So it was a ‘tuppeny whistle’ retail, four-a-penny whistle wholesale.
Edit to add that maybe we should not place too much reliance on what a street trader says they pay, or get, for their products.
Another edit to say that the Clarke’s product page linked above says they originally sold at a ha’penny so maybe the thruppence for a dozen box was about right.
(I can’t remember how to spell ‘old money’)
You’re welcome! And we can thank Hoopy Mike for originally posting the link here.
Speaking of Hoopy Mike, he hasn’t posted since August. Where’s he gone? On sabbatical or do ya figure that he finally got Andrea Corr onto his motorbike?
Best wishes.
Steve
the meg and the sweettone are definatly 2 “different” whistles not 2 names for one, i know that because i have both
i hope so because i want more megs 
Yes, I know, what I meant was (as the Meg is based on the Sweetone design, but made elsewhere at lower cost etc.) that there could be a possibility that the original had been retired and the lower-cost model had taken over. Well, that was just a thought in that first posting, in the post quoted above I concluded otherwise after studying the prices in the current and archived product pages.
-Tor
I have two Megs that don’t have that character on them… but the more I think about it, the more I think I have had some that did… I think I’m just used to seeing the two examples I have here.
I’ve looked around, and it looks like the Meg exists with and without the whistler.
If you search for ‘clark meg whistle’ with google and select the Images link then there are lots of pictures, some with and some without the whistler (one image is from this forum and is without). In particular, there are a few pictures side-by-side where the ‘golden’ one doesn’t have the whistler while the red and blue ones do.
-Tor
Actually, there’s two Willys: the guy with the pizza joint in Colorado and that mousy little guy on the boat, although his real moniker was “Steamboat.”