Hello everyone! I’m new to the world of whistling; so new, in fact, that I don’t yet own a whistle. I’ve been looking on the internet for a very inexpensive whistle to start with, and I was thinking about either a Clarke Sweetone or Meg or a Clare 2-piece model. Any input on these models? I would welcome other suggestions as well.
Also, what are the pros/cons of a conical vs. cylindrical shape? Is it easy to switch between the two? And how important is it to have a tunable whistle?
I’m very glad to have discovered this message board. I hope to get some good whistling advice! By the way, I just recently became interested in whistling after attending a couple of Irish music/dance concerts. I have always liked Irish music, and when I found out how affordable whistles are, I decided to try one. I currently play piano, which isn’t very portable, but I can take a whistle with me anywhere I go!
Sweetone vs Meg. They’re really the same whistle, the Meg is made with marginally cheaper labour and materials, but some Megs are often as good as or better than Sweetones. Either is a great first whistle. I got a free Meg with an order of another whistle and prefer it to my Sweetone.
Clare Whistles are nice too, I have a 2-piece I carry almost everywhere, and love the tone and the look.
Conical vs Cylindrical. Cylindrical are more common, probably because they’re easier to make. Differences are really down to the ear of the player, some think cylindrical whistles are in better tune and balance across the two octaves. Sometimes (e.g. on a Meg C whistle) hole spacing & sizing on a cylindrical whistle can be slightly odd, but nothing you can’t usually adjust to quickly. You should have no difficulty switching between the two types.
A tuneable whistle is handy if you are playing with others or with a CD, but not vital. Most cheap cylindrical whistles are easily re-tuned by moving the head a bit up or down. I generally get tuneable whistles given the choice, just in case, but recently played a Susato Dublin (non-tuneable) whistle in a session with no trouble at all.
Why not get a Clare and Meg, then you can compare them and decide for yourelf which tone you prefer?
Hi Jen - welcome to C&F…IMHO I’d go for a Sweetone - bit of volume, no bad habits (mine anyway). I wouldn’t worry about tuneable for now, and will leave “the technical team” to discuss conical vs straight bore. I have both and interchange with no trouble.
I think it’s more important how you get on with a particular type of mouthpiece. For example, I don’t like Clarkes and Shaws particularly as the shape of the mouthpiece and the wood fipple don’t feel right to me (although I do play them as I like the sound).
And be very careful of all the hundreds of people on this board who will lure you into owning 50 whistles in all keys and materials in around two minutes flat.
Health warning - whistling is addictive…luckily it doesn’t HAVE to break the bank too..
Hi there! And welcome to this wonderful place. I’m not much of a poster myself, but I do visit the board regularly! Just to help you out here, I decided to go for my little piece of advise.
Although I don’t really like the looks of the Sweetone, it truely is an amazing instrument. After a week or so playing I decided to go for my “next” model, a Clarke Original and gave away my Sweetone to my girlfriend. I still love my Clarke Original, but everytime I play the Sweetone again I feel a bit sorry I gave it away. It’s far better than the Meg I once had (threw it away…), but I have only once seen and played a Meg (and a Sweetone that is).
So… my advise to you is: try a Sweetone, or actually buy both a Meg and a Sweetone. They are quite cheap, so it’s worth the money to compare the two. Good luck with your choice and buy one as soon as possible to get you started ( can’t whistle without a whistle now can you? )!
Hi Jen…the best whistle you can get is one that causes you to pick it up and play it. I don’t have any problem switching from conical to cylindrical, but I don’t like the feel of the seam that is present on all the inexpensive conical ones…so my tastes in the inexpensive instruments tend toward the straight, smooth shaft. I have a two-piece, but I’m not impressed with it other than the ability to stick it in a pocket more easily. Other people may have had better luck at getting one that seals well.
Martin, it was my understanding (and may very well be wrong) that by design a conical instrument can’t be in tune across two octaves (though it can be very close) but that the design makes the volume more even across the octaves. Do I have this backward? (is there a physicist in the house??)
You could well be right, Tyhgress (what an icky hobby you have by the way ) I think we need input from one of the board’s makers. Serpent? Chiffipple? McHaffie? Anyone able to enlighten us?
The Clarke Original whistle (and from that the Sweetone and Meg) was designed to reproduce in tin a whistle that Robert Clarke already had that was made in wood. From this, and the fact that many wooden flutes have a conical bore (at least on the inside, or so I understand), I took it that the conical bore produces a better tuning balance. The cheaper cylindrical tin whistles that followed (Generation, Clare etc) I therefore assumed had less good tuning.
I hadn’t really thought about tuning vs volume balance. I guess all the various whistle parameters (e.g. 6th hole placement) are tradeoffs, and maybe a maker could give us their views on what the tradeoffs are and why they choose to make their whistles in the way the do.
It’s easier to keep a conical whistle (Clark, Shaw, Sweetone, Copeland) in tune through both octaves. The cylindrical ones (Generation, Feadog, Overton, Sindt etc) are always struggling with tuning between the octaves (say hi g, a and b going noticeably flat). One of the attempts to improve tuning on cylindrical whistles is to do what Burke calls the “perturbed bore” which mean putting rings on the inside of the tube, like bumps in the sound. I know all about rings, bumps, and sound, and about being a perturbed bore, of course, but don’t ask me about the physics of it.
Welcome welcome!
The Sweetune rocks. One of my personal favurites for solo play. It does’nt fit very well into my group, but thats another story. I haven’t tried the Meg out yet. Another goodie that I would consider for my first whistle purchase is one of the newer Feadogs. That’s a classic if you want a good cylindrical brass whistle. It’s good for beginers (in my oppinion) and covers most situations in the everyday of a whistler. Best get one and start playing it right now. Or you can allways get a Generation. By the time you are decent in playing it you should have taken the edge of it (if you remain faithful). I would rcomend against the Clare and try to find a Doolin instead. The Doolins have worked best for me in the world of 2-piecers. Well. Take care and best luck on the whistles…
//Henke
Feadogs - my nickel high D is a nice bit of kit…easy second octave, not shrill and a good “pure” whistle to compare to the Sweetone and it looks good too. I don’t play Gens at all now - even gave up my Bb in favour of a Burke AlPro and that was my favourite of those “in the drawer”.
But Generation are actualy quite good. It’s cheap, classic and ehh, average. The good thing is that a beginner can start out on it and learn to play it. And when you have developed a WHOA level 4 or so you’ll start to tweak it. If you have played it for a good while and then add some tweaking to it you might well end up with a great sounding and durable whistle that everybody wants. Besides, you don’t need a very good sounding whistle from the begining and you can’t really compare it to a Burke, right.
No you can’t, but playing something that has the potential to sound pretty smart (AKA a good sounding whistle) after a couple of tries and without tweaking and fiddling about with the mouthpiece would be preferable…otherwise a beginner might just give up thinking that some of the odd noises caused by poor quality control are them and not the instrument. Some of the other whistles mentioned are much more consistent than Gens for the same money.
I’m with Martin on this one. My first 2 whistles were a Sweetone and a Clare (one-piece whistle, however). I love both of them still the best of the 8 whistles I own. The Sweetone has a nice earthy tone I love and the Clare has a clear, clean, round tone that I like oh so much as well.
Don’t, however, order your whistles without getting the ever-popular Bill Och’s Teach Yourself the Tinwhistle book/CD combo. I’ve only had mine for 2 months out of the 6-7 months I’ve been playing and I have no idea how I lived without it for those 4 months. I think Chiff&Fipple and Brother Steve’s site (another must, by the way) must have been what held me together.
I have 3 Megs (1 is mine and the other 2 are for my kids to monkey with) and I wasn’t as lucky as Martin was in getting ones with a sound sweeter than my first Sweetone.
Welcome to the forum, read it everyday, and we’ll keep the light on for ya.
I have a terrific brass D Feadog (totally untweaked, except for loosening the head so it can be tuned) which has a beautiful, clear, open tone (unlike the cloudy, veiled sound of a Sweetone). However, the odds of finding a Feadog like this are pretty slim, so a Sweetone would be the safer choice.
But one don’t always need to tweak a Gen. in order to have it sound good. One might want to look for lose bits of plastic tough, but that is not hard for anyone. I feel the Generations are whistles with great potential. And I’ll stick with Paddy (Chieftains) theory, that a Generation normaly needs to be played a lot before it gets that sweet Sindt sound. And a beginner might get some odd noises from the beginning but later on that will go away when the whistle smooths out.
But hell, why am I arguing about this. Maby a Sweetone would be the best choise after all. But I can’t help thinking that a good Generation is worth it’s weight in gold and is possible to get with a bit of luck, patience and a bit of good tweaking.
I’d like to thank everyone for their help. I’ve been reading some of the other posts too and found them helpful as well.
There are so many whistle choices out there! It sounds as if each one has its place, and that if I’m serious about whistling, I will end up with several whistles anyway. That being the case, I think I’ll start with a Meg just to learn the basics, and I’ll expand my collection later.
Moo. I have a cheet book/cd combo from Waltons called Irelands best (101) tin whistle tunes. I enjoy that one a lot too. It’s a great selection of trad. tunes, listed after difficulty level and with notes on ornamentation and stuff too. I recomend that one as well.
I have a two-piece, but I’m not impressed with it other than the ability to stick it in a pocket more easily. Other people may have had better luck at getting one that seals well.
Sorry to bring this thread back up, I was reading back some. I thought I should say that my 2pc got loose like you describe (I take it apart and put it back together a lot), and all you have to do to make it tight again is take the receiving end and softly bite on it, and the fit is much much tighter. Doesn’t wobble at all. It worked perfectly for mine.
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) I think we need input from one of the board’s makers. Serpent? Chiffipple? McHaffie? Anyone able to enlighten us?