I was at an Irish Fest recently and visited Hobgoblin’s stand. I had a tuner with me, intending to buy something…you know the feeling. They had 4 or 5 of these Sweet whistles. The sound was just what I wanted, round and loud, and the tuning was good. But the d, both first and second octave, was very flat. Seems like the things were just a bit too long between the first hole and the end of the whistle. Otherwise they were great. I almost bought one, but couldn’t find one that didn’t have this oddity.
How long did you warm these whistles up,
before you flipped out the magic gadget?
This has been reported before on these. Someone on the board (I forget who it was) sent it back to the Sweets to have the bottom shortened. Apparently, Walt Sweet argued that it was in tune, but he shortened it anyway, at the owner’s request, and when it was returned to the owner, it was perfectly in tune.
Walt also posted that, like most tuneable whistles, the Professional is intended to play in tune with the tuning slide pulled out a little. I think it may be the conical bore that makes the difference in how it plays pushed in and pulled out.
I think I’d warm the whistle up thoroughly, and then pull the tuning slide out about a eighth of an inch before testing it against a tuner.
Redwolf
The first one that I picked up I warmed, maybe for half a minute. Then played around with it another minute. Then put the tuner on. To be perfectly honest I knew about this issue, but thought there might be sufficient variability (like in Generations) that I could find a good one. Of the half dozen in stock, every one of them had the same issue and to the same degree, although I didn’t warm them all.
I had high motivation to buy one. My wife had bought me one for Christmas and it was lost/stolen at a pub session. So as a gesture to her I wanted to get another. This is (potentially) a great session whistle, ranking with Copelands. But not until he acknowledges this problem and fixes it.
Did you adjust the tuning slide?
Redwolf
Calling this a warm-up for a pretty thick piece of wood, with a cork tuning assembly? You’re a fast draw, man…
Now, of course, I can understand the process if you attend a session where everyone draws his lectronic ear-crutch just as fast… :roll:
Or maybe I’m the slow thinker when it takes me several days before I start and have an opinion on a whistle. Let alone venturing the maker has a problem…
What temperature was the room you were in? How damp? Air-conditioning?
PS: please forgive the sarcasm. I actually do use an electronic tuner from time to time. Usually, when something sounded wrong (like a half-assed cross-fingering) and I want to make sure for lack of a better expert around. But I don’t trust it the least bit before a good twenty minutes to half-hour of playing. Granted, I live in a pretty damp and cool climate, but still…
Even then, it’s a tedious process to check the whisle tuning. Play a scale. Adjust the tuning slide. Adjust my breath to see if the bell tone is meant to be held back or pushed to the breaking limit. Replay the scale to hear if it sounds balanced (volume, not pitch-wise). Then play the second octave, slide back to firts, etc. When something seems really strange with the instrument, then I’ll leave it aside, and redo the same tedious procedure the next day.
One thing: I’ve had two Sweet high-end whistles (and a third one on its way 
). They were extremely sensitive to minute adjustments of the tuning slide. A very competent friend pointed it out (with no tuner…) before I noticed.
Finally, you do say that it’s the bell tone which is flat, don’t you? Does it break up to second octave if you try to blow it in tune? Otherwise, it’s just made to have a strong bell end, and this may take some boldness.
Yeah, that’s not much of a warmup. With my Busman, I warm it in my hands for several minutes, then blow into it for a minute or so, before I consider it properly warmed up. It will play fine without all that, but it is infinitely better if I really warm it well. Same with the Elf Songs…a half minute isn’t even close to a proper warm up. The idea is to get the whistle fully at body temperature, and there’s no way you can do that in that short a time.
Redwolf
Hi Zub/Red,
I agree with lots of what you say. It does take a long time to get to “know” a whistle, but I did have my wife’s gift for a couple of months and it definitely was flat on D.
I’ll admit that the 5 or 6 units that I tried at Hobgoblin didn’t get an a true warm up, but they were all under the same conditions…same room temp and humidity, same person blowing, same everything.
What struck me was the consistency of the problem from one whistle to the next. Needless to say I adjusted them all to A440. The flatness on D amounted to 10 or 15 cents.
The Sweets have suggested that the Pro is a whistle that should be blown gently, not “on the edge” like a Susato. So I tried that (when I still had one in my full time posession). I adjusted the slide so that D was exactly in tune. To make a long story short, the rest of the whistle was impossible to play with the slide in this position. I could not blow gently enough to keep notes from going very sharp, especially in the second octave.
I play alongside a classically trained violinist-turned-fiddler. Two degrees, the whole shebang. She gets upset when instruments are out of tune. (Unreasonably so at times, but she’s the star of the show, so what can you do?). The whistles she has not frowned at are a Copeland, some tweaked Susato’s, and a non-tunable plastic Silkstone. After I got the Sweet I tried it in a couple of sessions. I got the “eye of death” treatment. No way would it fly. So, the testament of both man and machine (sorry, woman and machine) is that it’s out of tune.
If you don’t believe me, try one.
M of R.
Well, I’ve got one on order, so I’ll be happy to report. I have to ask, though…what do you expect of a classically trained violinist? They’re as bad as operatic sopranos! (and how many sopranos does it take to change a lightbulb? Only one…she holds the bulb and the world revolves around her!).
Redwolf
Ditto. Bookmarking this thread.
Proverbial!
The Muses bringing a violonist in tune (A. Dürer)
Here’s the thread that mentions the flat Ds:
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=17407&highlight=
BTW, the tuning slide does not fix the problem. Nor does using lighter breath. The Ds are (in my case were 
) flat compared to the rest of the instrument. There’s just no getting around it.
Ralph did a great job fixing it, though. (Walt thought it was fine as it was and didn’t want to do anything to the whistle.) It’s a fantastic whistle now!
For the record, I consider it a service to both maker and buyer to mention that the bell tone is flat. It helps the maker refine their product (if they’re open to accept there’s something wrong in the first place), and it gives buyers an honest indication of what they’re purchasing.
Aldon
These things do happen. I’ve been quite tempted to shave the end of one brass Low D, disregarding its outstanding reputation… But I sent it back instead.
Uh-oh… I see. This makes it more clear.
You know you’re buying from a major company, when it isn’t enough to know their address, but you also have to know who your tuner is.
Reminds me of some women headdress talk: “So you go at Heirdo’s too? But is it Alexaaandre or Carola who cuts your hair?”