Really ugly whistle cross - Waltons LBW with a Gen. head

Whistle
1

I was sitting around tonight getting really frustrated with my two cheap D whistles, a Generation and a Waltons LBW, dreaming of Christmas when hopefully a shiny new Oak will be in my stocking, when I thought what would happen if I switched the mouthpieces?

The LBW head on a brass Generation body was flat out unplayable, but the other way around…

For some unknown reason the Generation head on the LBW body sounded wonderful! I could play a high B without killing my wife or driving the dogs away, it had a nice amount of chiff, and it required less breath than it did with the original head. The only negative is now I have a nice black body with a fire engine red mouthpiece on it - perhaps a new level of whistle ugliness…

The big question is why did one cross work but not the other? Could there be mysterious forces at work? Will the ugly whistle drive away said forces???

I just thought I’d share my little experiment with everyone.

2

mysterious forces…, ever heard of the Crystal People…twilight-zone tune in the background

3

I have tried a LBW head on most of the D whistles I own. Right now I have it on an old Oak D body, which works pretty well. One thing I have noticed with the LBW head is that it seems to have greater back pressure than other heads. By that I mean that I have to blow a bit harder and I run out of breath sooner than with other heads. The LBW seems to have thinner walls and therefore a wider bore than a brass whistle of the same exterior dimensions which would give it lower resistance. Maybe the head was designed with that in mind. Who knows? Anyway, the only head swap I have stayed with for more than a day or two is the LBW on the Oak. My suggestion is to leave them switched for a bit and try changing how hard you blow. It might surprise you.

As always, your milage may vary.
Mike Burns

4

Jaybird, After reading your note I realized I had an LBW barrel and a tweaked Feadog fipple that were not in use. I dug them out and voila…a new whistle. It’s quiet and breathy. I had to shorten the barrel a bit, and reduce the sharpness of the bell note with some sticky tack, but I now have a decent whistle. Surprisingly, it’s very in tune, according to my Korg CA-30.