alas, my Sweetone is disintegrating due to rust and several crushings and straightenings.has any one had any real luck replacing with brass hobby tube or ?.i wish Clark would roll one out of brass or nickel.it is such a nice fipple to discard.how about it Mike R. ? any advice will be appreciated.
thanks all,tansy
Hi Tansy,sorry about your Sweetone,they do tend to rust dont they…mine has also developed a few rust spots.I’ve been thinking lately to adapt a sweetone fipple onto a generation body as I also like this fipple.Its a shame they dont produce these(sweetones) in brass or alluminium…a Shaw could possibley be adapted as it is brass and conical in shape but its too risky and could sound dreadfull.I’ll let you know later on how the gen. turns out…cross your fingers! Mike 
I can think of no better fate for a deceased Sweetone than to be reincarnated as a Bb.
Pick yourself up a Generation Bb for around $6-$7 and transplant the Sweetone fipple onto it.
You’ll need to shorten the body approximately 1/2" on the fipple end… use a tuner, and take off a little at a time until you get it right.
A few turns of black vinyl tape will also be necessary to make the fipple fit the body, but the end product is a very nice Bb.
I’m very curious as to how a Sweetone fipple would work on keys even lower than Bb.
I have little doubt that they would be fine on an A and I’m optomistic about a low G, but I suspect they would begin to get very touchy below that because of their small window.
Tanzy,the ST fipple can be adapted to a Gen body by using a section of the gen fipple as a sleave for the oversized ST fipple but in my opinion its not really worth doing…it works but the volume is low and you need to blow pretty hard to get the 2nd octave to work.This fipple is designed specificaly for the Sweetone and with respect to Raindogs gen B flat suggestion ,I think it’s best left on the sweetone.I reckon you’ll just have to buy a new one and put the old fipple on it. Mike
thanks mike and raindog,i’m sitting here staring at my shaw D and my hobbysaw and pipe cutter.i love the sound of the shaw but it takes as much wind as my susato low d, so i rarely play it—no i’ll buy a new Sweetone for$4.50.thanks again.
happy tweekin,tansy
HI Tansy. Take a look at the bloody hand whistle plans on the C&F web site. They specify a C sweetone mouthpiece, but I suspect a D could be used instead.
Thanks for the suggestion,raindog! And people interested in trying this, cutting and sawing may not be necessary after all.
Immediately after reading raindog’s post, I grabbed my horrible Sweetone C (out of tune internally)and my Gen Bb (difficult to blow; high air requirements), found some scrap gift-box ribbon lying around on my PC table, wrapped the ribbon around the Gen barrel without any tape/glue nor any particular care to ensure an airtight seal, and slipped the Sweetone mouthpc over it.
Took me less than 5 mins, and most of that time was spent scrounging for the scrap ribbon. My mongrel Bb plays beautifully and easily. And it’s completely in tune; no need to cut any part off the barrel.
On 2001-09-23 13:32, tuaz wrote:
Thanks for the suggestion,raindog! And people interested in trying this, cutting and sawing may not be necessary after all.
No, thank you tuaz!
You’re absolutely correct, a Sweetone C fipple fits the Generation Bb body without the need for shortening it.
Not only that, but the slightly larger window of the C fipple is much better suited for a Bb than a D fipple is.
I don’t know why the thought never crossed my mind to try the C fipple before I started sawing… I’ll know better next time.
So, it looks like we’re the proud parents of a new breed of hybrid whistle… now what are we going to call it? 
Sorry Tuaz,but Raindog is telling the truth ..1/2 " minimum cause I tried this wihout altering the tube to get an idea of the tone which I thought was horrible.Cheers, Mike
Hey guys,seems like I’d better eat my words…you mean this actually works?Could add a new chapter to the rulebook if it does..well done! Mike
OK, I’ve checked the tuning of my hybrid Bb with an electronic tuner. It’s scary how bang on pitch it is. Most if not all notes on the whistle deviate by less than 10 cents from the actual tuning notes. Quite a few (esp. 1st and 2nd octave Bb) are 100% on target.
I honestly have never owned a more in tune whistle, including the mid-range stuff I have.
Tone is clear, with very little breathiness. In comparison, my Dixon Bb (which I still love) sounds like a woody, breathy flute.
Yeap! a Sweetone C fipple works great on a generation Bb. I done that a year ago hehe. I give a lot of whisles away to my students at school so I buy lots of different cheap whistles and I have tried every combo I can think of.
One of my all time favorites is a Feadog D fipple on a generation Eb. This is my most absolute favorite whistle for playing along with Joanie Madden CDs when she is playing an Eb.
Ken
Hi everybody,just like to say I am now the extremely happy owner of a Sweet-Shaw or should I say Shaw-tone soprano D whistle and the sound is even better than I expected.The Sweetone fipple is a near perfect fit although some imagination was needed to make the Shaw absolutely cylindrical after the head was severed and a fair amount of tuning the finger holes was neccesary but if you are satisfied with Sweetone intonation you may find the Shaw acceptable enough as it is.Tansy,thank you for the inspiration to proceed with this project and if you decide to try this yourself I wish you every success and if you need any advice feel free to ask.Cheers all ,happy tweaking! Mike
[ This Message was edited by: mike.r on 2001-09-26 10:05 ]
hey mike,glad to hear your bravery was well rewarded,some questions-how far down from the mouth end of the whistle did you cut her(m m’s please),which holes needed enlarging,anything you can tell me to watch out for,any negative effects,please tell me all.tansy
Tansy,the distance from the edge of the 1st hole to the end is 100mm. Mike
[ This Message was edited by: mike.r on 2001-09-26 18:41 ]
[ This Message was edited by: mike.r on 2001-09-26 19:13 ]
[ This Message was edited by: mike.r on 2001-09-30 03:00 ]
thanks mike,all of those hints are really helpful,i’ll let you know how mine turns out,i have mixed feelings about Shaw D,so i’m not sure when i’ll plunge.
fun,fun!tansy
Tansy,
Here’s a brief update on my Shaw-tone…because the air requirement is now comparable to a Sweetone I feel that it’s absolutely necessary to revoice the original Shaw tuning to compensate for this.The end result is a unique ,precisely voiced whistle far greater than the sum of its parts but much care and re-tuning was needed to achieve this, and it’s worth considering if and when you decide to try this yourself.One thing for certain is that a fipple of this quality and design deserves far better than the childs instrument it was originally designed for.All the best, Mike