Lately I’ve been experimenting some with applying tape to partially cover tone holes on cheaper whistles to correct tuning issues a bit.
I’ve gone the full spectrum in my days of whoa, starting with Clarke Originals many years ago and on to Burkes, Overtons, etc. and have found that I love the cheapie sound of the Generation/Feadog/Oak species best. Aside from my Sindt I’ve played these cheapies pretty much exclusively for the last year or so. Other than the occasional “you should look into some purty, shiny, expensive whistles” comments from newbie whistlers with whoa, nobody has even known the difference in a session when I switched between the likes of Burkes and Generations. The tunings are not bad, per se (folk tuning as many would say) but I’m enjoying the tinkering.
My question is this:
Have any of you messed with this much? Have you found that certain makes are consistently “unique” in their tuning (i.e. Gens usually have a flat G, etc.)? Anyone care to share thier findings or expertise?
I don’t have personal experience but the whistler at the session rubber-bands a piece of paper to the end of his whistle because he says once it warms up it goes sharp so the extra extension brings it back down again. I also have a DVD on how to play the whistle and the whistle the guy in there plays has tape over half of the first hole.
A few years ago there was a thread about this, and the consensus (from people using tuners) was that Generation tubes often had tuning issues, and that Feadog and Oak tubes were the most in tune: IF you’re looking for tuning that approximates equal intonation rather than just intonation. There was speculation the tuning issues with the Generation tubes may be due to Generation trying to fudge towards just intonation.
Jerry Freeman has probably played around with more cheapies than anybody, so he may be able to speak from lots of experience if he sees this.
You bring up a good point, Lyrick. I’m not looking for equal intonation; I’ll leave that to the recorders and classical musicians. I’m just curious if anyone’s tinkering has produced any spectacular results in the way of better intonation for cheapies (and I am quite aware that this depends largely on the player’s skill as well).
Even the best whistles are out of tune enough that temperament is irrelevant.
I’m not quite sure I’m understanding you correctly here.
Most of my whistles, both expensive and inexpensive, are well in tune.
Some, like my Overton and Burkes, are extremely well in tune by any standard.
Please elaborate.
–James
Indeed, I’m not sure I catch your drift either.
While you guys are working this out, I’ll just say that I’m no stranger to tape. My present D whistle - a Dixon Trad - has black electrical tape covering a bit of the upper edge of the E hole to flatten it just a hair. I wrap it all the way around the body so it’s less likely to slip after a year’s playing or so. Very funky and working-class looking. The bell note is sharp, too, so I employ a piper’s tweak and have a couple of V-bent bits of plastic weed whacker line stuck up there. It did the trick very nicely.
Oh, and I’m using MTGuru’s o-ring tweak on it too. Thrice-tweaked, my whistle is.
Well, there are two approaches to make a Generation, for example, play an in-tune scale.
One is to choose the flattest notes as your base, and put tape on the upper edges of the sharper notes so that they match. I’ve found that a number of my Generations require tape on one note only- the 4th, what would be the G on a D whistle.
The other approach is to choose the sharpest notes as your base, and carve out the flatter notes so that they match. I think that this is always preferable and most of my whistles have had this done. You may also end up having to cut a small amount off the end of the tubing.
I play a Feadog D and a number of Generations and Susatos which have been carved. Next in line for this treatment is my Susato low E, which currently has tape on half the holes.
About whistles coming in tune from the maker, a pro tuba player once told me “the perfect wind instrument has yet to be made!”
It’s impossible to make a whistle on which every note is exactly in tune at a steady breath, though I have some which come very close (my Burkes and a couple of my Susatos and Generations). One problem is of course that every person blows a whistle differently.
Yep. My particular tweaks are not a reflection on the whistle so much as they are a reflection on me-and-the-whistle. Another player using my whistle might have to do away with my tuning tweaks altogether, or do different ones.
Well, it’s true that every woodwind instrument, whether it be a $10 whistle or a $8000 professional orchestral flute has to be played in tune.
They don’t make 'em such that you drop in a quarter and they play themselves. 
The tuning of any woodwind is a matter of compromises, of course, mainly because the tone holes need to be where our fingers can close them hopefully with our hands in a comfortable, relaxed position.
That said, there really haven’t been many whistles I’ve hit with horrible tuning issues. A few Generations that were pretty far off in the second octave (but many more that were perfectly ok), and a couple of Waltons which had a sharp bell note.
Some of the finest whistles I’ve played are my Burkes, O’Briens, and of course my Overton. These are all very easy to play it tune. The Overton (once its warm) and the O’Brien Rover are both very well in tune at a pretty wide variety of blowing pressures, which gives you a bit more volume control than you have with many whistles.
Just my $.02, of course–I can’t speak to any whistles but the ones I actually have played.
–James
In my real life, I’m a tap and jiggle–duct tape’n’bailing twine, patch-it-up kinda guy. Love to jury-rig stuff together. Love the home-made look.
So, I’ve got a problem. My Copelands, Burkes, MK, and Overton are really well in tune! And, what isn’t, can be blown so. So, I’m unable to festoon my whistles with cool-looking rigging, or bring a hack-saw to bear…I feel so plain…and a bit envious. You lucky stiffs!
Jeez, I forgot the hacksaw. Well, Dremel cutter, in my case. The Dixon Trad was playing a bit flat overall even with the head all the way in, and I needed to give it more tuning leeway. Quadro-tweaked, then. 
My pride in my junkyard-dog whistle is merely out of defiance. I get a bit tired of the occasional “If you have to do all that to it, why are you using that whistle?” attitude. My answer? I ask if they’d like to buy a better one for me. Wouldn’t I just love a Copeland. I’ve threatened my band’s bodhrán/whistle player that some day my strength will fail me and I’ll kill him for his Copeland. 
Yep I’m also a committed tweaker. I have a bagful of whistles that have either been carved, or are currently taped and about to be carved! I was sort of at a loss, then, when my suite of Burkes arrived, and to my dismay I found that they are all perfect! Or as perfect as a whistle can be.
Now, you may say, “If you need to change the scale on nearly all of your whistles, then you are probably doing some strange blowing thing that’s throwing them off.” That would be true, if all of them had to be modified in a similar way, say, that every whistle I bought had a flat B (or B-equivalent). But, there is no such pattern. Some have had to have the E taped, others the E carved out. Most varying, it seems, is B, which I’ve had to either carve out or tape on nearly every whistle.
Every Susato seems to be a law unto itself tuning-wise. For example, two low D’s, bought within a few months of each other, had quite different scales built into them. One was perfect as it came, the other had to have three toneholes carved and the bottom end chopped a bit. NOW the two play the same.
I discovered an interesting thing yesterday. I have a Susato low G and low Ab which have seemingly identical heads. However, when I switched heads back and forth I discovered that the two heads rendered different scales on the same body. One head gave an in-tune scale on the G body, the other head had a rather sharp “E” built into it, when played on the same body. So, I suppose that each head has to have a body custom-tuned for it.