Recommend a couple of whistles for a newbie?

Whistle
21

Hello Jason, and welcome. I am interested in your comment about kites. I have been a committed stunt kiter for years. I have not purchased much lately, because I have what I want and need, but your investment of $1200 approaches what I have invested. I have a stunt (sport) kite club at my school, and work with a lot of individuals and groups, instructing the kite pilots and generally helping out…I also enjoy power kiting. I am not a large person, and an 8 foot Flexi in 20+ mile/hour winds can throw me around and lift me, pretty well. One of our sons and our daughter are also ardent stunt/power kiters. When it comes to power kiting, I watch my son in awe. I am almost 60 years old. His 22 years on this earth make him more flexible and a lot stronger…

Welcome to the world of whistles.

Best.
Byll

22

Hi Byll,

Feel free to join the Gone With The Wind forum if you haven’t already. It’s a great and pretty busy forum full of friendly helpful people - like this place. Here’s a link:

http://www.gwtw-kites.com/forum/

You’ll probably have to register to read and post, but it’s a great forum. You’ll find plenty of posts by me there. :smiley:

I’m into sportkites, both dual and quad (mostly quad - Revolution - these days). I’ve been flying a little over three years and have around 15 kites. Not a huge collection, but a pretty good one. The French are currently dominating the high-end dual line market, but there will always be a demand for the classic American builders like Blue Moon, Peter Betancourt and a few other one-man shows.

A bit of sad news. I don’t know if you know who Paul Shirey is (Aerostar Sportkites in your neck of the woods - PA), but after building top-notch kites for about 11 years, he’s had to close up shop. Luckily, I was able to get a Spica Pro a while back.

If you want to check out my kites (most of them), feel free to visit my Webshots page here:

http://community.webshots.com/user/jason_paul

And click on “Some of my kites”.

Anyway, I don’t want to cover the whistle forum with kite stuff, so feel free to PM or email me. Or better yet, join the Gone With the Wind forum and visit with all of us there!

Thanks,
Jason

23

Unless you’re really, really lucky, no cheap whistle right out of the box beats the playability of the Sweetone. Getting a Jerry-tweaked Sweetone is icing in the cake.

Ridseard

24

Sweetones are a good starter because they are quite forgiving of beginners. Many people outgrow them and decide that they no longer like the tone, but I still think they sound ok.

The Feadog, on the other hand, is one that I can’t imagine ever outgrowing. Feadogs are very good indeed. I heartily recommend the nickel model. The tubes are very nicely in tune, unlike many others. The only thing is that a Feadog will cruelly show up your mistakes in breath control and fingering, and many people find them squawky and harsh. Once you get the hang of them, that couldn’t be further from the truth.

There is a simple little tweak that can be done to a Feadog with a bit of putty or blu tac which makes it a lot easier to cope with. If you get one we’ll be able to tell you how to tweak it - it’s dead simple.

So my vote would be to get a Sweetone and a Feadog. The former for when you need your whistle to be gentle with you, and the latter for when you’re feeling like you really want to learn!

I agree with the advice not to start with a Dixon. Much as I love them, they won’t really prepare you for most of the other types you may meet.

Good luck.

Edited to say: Actually I seem to remember that Feadog should be pronounced Fah-dogue, or similar. I have no idea, I’m another who generally says Feadog and doesn’t worry about it until someone laughs.

25

Am I the only one who still loves Oaks? Of all the beginner whistles, the Oak is my favorite.

Oaks tend to be very unforgiving and makes one learn to control their breath from the start. That’s one of the best lessons to learn as a whistler imo.

26

Yes, I’d recommend a couple of whistles for a newbie. Get one in C and one in D and yer set. Brand doesn’t matter much.

27

It is not pronounced “fee-dog”, but rather:

Fah-doh-g

http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=27791&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=feadog+pronounce&start=15

I dislike sweetones a lot. I think you’d be much better off with the Feadog and with the clare. Oh well, they are cheap, and it really doesn’t matter. Any whistle will do. After all, it’s the player, not the whistle that makes tracks like these sound good.

28

As a beginner you should buy Feadog C & D, Clare D, Sweetone C & D, Oaks C & D, Clarks original C & D, Walton Mellow D, Walton nickle D, Walton brass C, Walton’s LBW D, and a Generation in every key. THEN you will know what people are talking about. You WILL get them all in the end anyway (as someone else said). Next month you can order your first Susato…

29

You’re right with ending up with all of them. However, I cannot stand Oaks…had bad experiences with all that I had.

And personally, I’d bypass the Susato and go ahead with a Dixon. :party:

30

I’ll make it simpler (if a bit more costly):

Contact Jerry Freeman and order:

  • One tweaked Sweetone. Try it out, and see if you like the Sweetone’s breathy quality. If so, great. If not, and it’s too breathy for you, keep it anyway – you’ll probably want it for certain pieces where you need that “windblown” quality.

  • One tweaked Generation set. It’s the only way to get a reliable set of whistles in all keys.

and last, but most definitely not least,

  • One Mellow Dog. Why bother with picking up several Waltons and Feadogs, when you can have the best of both makes in one instrument? Play it for a few hours or so, and see if, by the time you’re done, it hasn’t become the whistle you immediately reach for when a D is needed.

I’m not kidding. Not only did I become a Mellow Dog convert from the time I picked one up last Wednesday afternoon to the time I stopped playing early Thursday morning, but I brought it to the Tacoma Celtic Players session on Saturday, and now the leader of those sessions has become a convert, too, vowing to everyone in attendance to get his own Dog A.S.A.P. (He probably has one by now.)

I’m not saying that it’s the best whistle I’ve ever played…but the only one I can think of that clearly bested it costs almost ten times as much, and comes with “Copeland” engraved on the fipple. :wink:

31

Mistakes??? :astonished: Not me…but my Feadog was horrid. However, a Whitecap from Mack Hoover turned it into a wonderful whistle. (I’ve now passed it on to a grandnephew who was having trouble with the flute after getting braces, and I’m told that he loves it.)

I’ve had an Oak that was every bit as bad as the Feadog–maybe worse. Again, a Whitecap came to the rescue, and now it’s one of my most played whistles.

So, if you get a relatively cheap whistle with a metal tube and plastic head, and if it turns out to be squeeky and squawky beyond what you can handle, just send it off to Mack Hoover and have it fitted with a Whitecap (or, better yet, the new Blacktop–though it’s more expensive).

I agree with the advice not to start with a Dixon. Much as I love them, they won’t really prepare you for most of the other types you may meet.

Dixon is another I had a problem with, as mine was quite out of tune with itself. Apparently this is a rare thing. Other than that, I liked the sound of it and didn’t find it all that difficult to play.

A relatively inexpensive whistle that has great sound (for my taste) and is very playable is the Syn aluminum. (Take a look at http://www.gaeliccrossings.com/store/index.php/cat_14.) It’s also a very sturdy whistle, being made of fairly thick-walled tubing.

Of the medium-priced (over $50, under $100) soprano D whistles I have, my favorites are my various Hoovers and my narrow-bore Humphrey. In fact, they get more play than most of my more expensive whistles.

In the end, though, you’re going to have to buy at least one of every kind of whistle made and make your own decisions based on your own taste. :slight_smile:

32

The Mk III Feadogs are nice once you do the putty tweak, and so long as you don’t mind that trad edgy sound. There’s is some sweetness there. That said, I’ve always had the same trouble with Waltons :roll:

As for the getting at least one of everything, well yeh, there is that… :smiley: