Greetings all…
About a month ago, I bought one of Sweetheart Flute Co’s Mello D whistles. Strangely after the initial buzz about this whistle, there hasn’t been much said about it. So I figured that I should at least post my impressions about it even if it’s not a formal review.
Given how “sensitive” some people are around here about who does “reviews”, I’ll mention where I’m ‘at’ with whistle at the moment to allow people to put these comments in context.
I’ve been playing whistles for about three years now. I play almost daily, mostly airs and waltses but some jigs and reels as well. I also play recorder for the more classical music stuff.
I have just begun to introduce ornamentation into my playing and consider myself a novice player who nevertheless pays close “attention” to the sound I’m making, breath control etc in an effort to play better.
What is it: Sweetheart "Mello D high d whistle
Purchased from: directly from Sweetheart Flute Co. No mention was made of this post prior to purchase. The whistle is a typical “off the shelf” representative sample.
Apearance and Construction: This is one of the prettiest whistles that I have actually seen. It looks very much like the photo on the Sweetheart site. The color is a medium brown more like the Sweetheart Pro pictured on the site next to the Mello model. The Permali wood laminate is sanded and finished extremely smoothly and feels very ‘classy’ in the hands. The tone holes on my example are set in a very straight line on the tube with lightly sanded edges that feel “just right” I would not call the edges chamfered nor are they sharp. The Sweetheart logo sticker is an atractive addition without seeming too “flashy”.
The tuning slide has cork on the headpeice side of the whistle and while backwards from usual Recorder practice, nevertheless works just as well. The slide seems a little tight now, but a little cork grease and it feels very nice. The usual precaution about storing the two peices taken apart is important as it is on any instument with a cork tuning slide.
Tone, Playing Characteristics: I must apologise for the lack of a sound clip. I have no microphone or knowlege about how to go about recording or posting a sound clip. I do however know how to describe the sound pretty well. The whistle has a very full sound. In the first octave. The tone is mostly pure with a large degree of musically sounding overtones mixed in, that give the sound an awesome fullness. The tone is definitely whistle like and not the more nasely sound of a recorder either. The bell note is easy to hit with no need to be particularly ‘carefull’ about overblowing. the volume level of the first octave is nearly identical to a standard Generation, or about the low side of medium.
The second octave has a sound which is also quite pleasant but at least on my example does pick up a slight trace of harshness. I have a picky ear for tone however and little tolerance for harshness or raspiness in my tastes. One interesting observation; The direction sheet mentioned that the laminate wood does not require a break in like on a wooden recorder. However I have noticed that over time the tone in the secong octave has gotten a little clearer on it’s own. It’s possible that the wood part of the laminate has swelled just enough to alter the voicing a slight bit for the better.
The bore of this whistle is mildly conical but really does not have much of that Clarke-like hollowness in the tone, but just a trace of it is there. It is suprising to me how “bright” this whistle sounds for a wooden whistle. If one was not looking at it, one could easily think that the sound was that of a metal whistle. Overall, I am very happy with the sound of this whistle.
The volume on the second octave does tend to ramp up a bit, especially above the high F or so. By the top of the second octave, the volume is easily greater than a stock Feadog. (less than a Susato however). Someone contemplating the Mello D for a hotel room or apartment whistle might find this whistle a bit loud for this purpose. If I were going to play with other instruments, I would not hesitate to play this whistle as far as volume goes. I think you would blend in nicely. The back pressure requirements are on the low side of medium. It is not quite as free blowing as a Feadog or Generation, but lightyears away from a Syn or Chieftain. The octave break is also very predictable and completely normal.
Tuning: This whistle comes with two black o-ring spacers for the slide. Checking on a tuning meter indicated that only one of the spacers was needed on the slide in order to be perfectly in tune. (the other o-ring is good for a spare) The scale intonation is nearly perfect and has no notes that must be “blown into tune”. The pressure required for each note to sound right falls nearly in the center of what you would expect. Very Nice!
The c-natural comes out a bit sharp with my favored oxx-ooo fingering but can be brought into tune with breath pressure reduction. the other fingerings of oxx-xoo or oxx-xox both work well to make the c-natural in tune with no breath adjustment needed if you would prefer that method.
An interesting side note… I was playing a tune in A major and noticed that half - holing the G# was particularily easy on this whistle. The finger position on the half hole was not overly sensitive to how much hole is covered with the note still being close on pitch. The second octave also retains it’s good tuning all of the way up the scale. Also a nice suprise!
Summary: All in all, I like this whistle very much and if I had anything negative to say about it at all it would have to be about the item which has been talked about before. The laminate does have a fairly strong ‘chemical’ smell when new. The fresh lathe turnings expose a lot of the glue lines between the layers which aparently outgasses a bit. I left the whistle out in the open for about a week and the smell is much less noticeable now but still there slightly.
This slight negative aside, the combination of excellent tone, nice volume and tuning puts this whistle up near the top of my favorite whistle list.
Robert (DreamOgreen)
