I am often amazed (and a little puzzled) at the number of critical posts about the Sweetone whistle.
My experience with these have been that they are well in tune, have a very even response through a 2 octave range, and usually aren’t too shrill at the very top. The tone has low-to-moderate chiff. The reach is easy. The cross-fingered C-natural is pretty good on a D whistle. The whistle is responsive and forgiving and takes ornamentation well. With the exception of the backseam, it is a comfortable whistle to play and hold. And it is very inexpensive and widely available, so that if you break one, it’s a simple matter to replace it, and the quality control seems pretty good, so you’ve got a better than average chance of getting a whistle that plays without being tweaked.
My only real complaint about this whistle is that its tuning, especially on the bell note and the low end of the lower register, is very sensitive to breath pressure.
On 2002-10-01 08:33, peeplj wrote:
I am often amazed (and a little puzzled) at the number of critical posts about the Sweetone whistle.
I’m a bit amazed as well..the 4 or 5 I’ve owned have all be great. But then again, I bought them all years ago…I guessed that the increase in critical posts perhaps pointed to some developing quality control problems over at Clarke.
I don’t think all comments here about the Sweetone are negative. They’re still occasionally recommended as first whistles. The great thing about the Sweetone is that it’s sort of the mountain dulcimer of whistles, or even of wind instruments in general. It’s hard to get a bad note out of one. Unlike a lot of whistles, you can ‘doodle’ with a Sweetone and it’ll sound nice.
I think that the problem arises when people want to move on, so to speak. They want a whistle capable of more ornamentation or that sounds more like what they hear on the CDs. At that point, the gentle little Sweetone begins to show what some consider deficiencies.
I’d never have stayed with the whistle if all I’d been able to find were Gens and Feadogs, but fortunately I found the Sweetone (long before I found C&F) and I could make it sound nice and stayed with it. I never play it any more except occasionally for nostalgia’s sake. I like my Overtons and Silkstone and Parkhurst more. But I’m still fond of it.
At the risk of starting yet another tiff, I’m going to editorialize a bit here and say that it sometimes bothers me when a newcomer asks the “what whistle” question and members leap in with everything from Feadogs to Dixons to Hoovers to Burkes, for gods’ sake. They’re all Ok, or even quite nice, but they all require a little skill to play well. And they’re all more expensive than the humble and pretty little Sweetone (or Meg, from what I hear, I still don’t have one). Just because we, with months or years of these things behind us, like something, why recommend it to a newbie who just wants to sound nice without a grand expenditure of effort. Sure, if the person starts with :I’ve been playing (recorder/clarinet/oboe/whatever) for x years: we can assume they’re probably ready for a good whistle. But I sometimes wonder if we’d not serve truie newbies better with a simple, cheap, and pretty whistle.
On 2002-10-01 09:17, brownja wrote:
One word, Tone.
All the things you say are true, but it’s not a very nice sounding whistle.
Regards,
jb
I disagree, JB. I have four Sweetone Ds and a C and they all sound great. I also have many Gens, Feadogs, as well as Burkes and Sindts. The Sweetones still sound great. I’m always puzzled by the folks who say they sound terrible. Hey, send the bad ones to me then!
There are people who don’t like Sweetones? I thought they were just joking. Couldn’t agree more about their being the most suitable whistle to begin on. And they’re great knock-around whistles to continue with. My C is just so-so but my D is the first whistle I fell in love with. Even though I played saxes for many years before trying whistle, I was still a whistle newbie when I started. My playing improved faster after I bought the D than after any other whistle. Sure the tone is, well … fruity, I suppose. Great, why not have a fruity whistle about—it doesn’t stop you playing your Overtons etc. when that’s what you want. I moved to my fleet of Overtons very quickly—sax-playing helped a lot in learning fast—but I didn’t move on. My Sweetone D is never far away.
I also don’t understand the grief that Sweetones sometimes receive here. To my ear, they sound just fine, and they’re very easy to play. I don’t understand why none of the upper-end whistle makers don’t make conical bore whistles. The smaller toneholes as on the Sweetone make for a very forgiving whistle. (Maybe harder to half-hole, but that’s moot for me )
One real drawback of the Sweetone is that it is very quiet, which makes it difficult to use in a session. Heck, I have a hard time hearing my Silkstone, and that’s considerably louder. On the other hand, someone recently posted a story about hearing an awesome whistle and finding out it was an (amplified) Sweetone. So in a performance situation it might be fine.
There are people who don’t like Sweetones? I thought they were just joking. Couldn’t agree more about their being the most suitable whistle to begin on. And they’re great knock-around whistles to continue with. My C is just so-so but my D is the first whistle I fell in love with. Even though I played saxes for many years before trying whistle, I was still a whistle newbie when I started. My playing improved faster after I bought the D than after any other whistle. Sure the tone is, well … fruity, I suppose. Great, why not have a fruity whistle about—it doesn’t stop you playing your Overtons etc. when that’s what you want. I moved to my fleet of Overtons very quickly—sax-playing helped a lot in learning fast—but I didn’t move on. My Sweetone D is never far away.
I have a red Sweetone “D”. It and my other 3, a wooden Sweet C, a wooden “G” and a wonderful brass cheapie (my very first one) with a green mouthpiece (brand unknown) were mothballed for years. A few months ago I “rediscovered” most of them, and a couple week or so ago I found the red Sweetone.
As a relative beginner, I have not yet bought or played any high-end whistles, but of the forementioned lot I have to say that the sweetone plays the best. It really has a “sweet” tone.
Once I get started playing it I don’t want to stop. I play the same phrases over and over because I love the sound of this note and that note on that whistle etc. I know my wife probably wishes I would cut my practices short, God bless her. She never says anything about it.
I have 3 of the dark green “Celtic” sweetones. I’m not sure if they sound any different than the original ones. When I bought them they sounded amazing and I would play them all the time. But over time they slowly became very breathy and the second octave would just sound terrible. I haven’t played them for about 4 months.
The Sweetones are cheap, readily available, have a very pleasant tone (IMHO) and play easily. They and the Meg (I’m undecided on which one I like more) offer very good sound, especially for the money.
I have to agree with and add to Chuck_Clark’s post by saying that some of us (myself included) sometimes tend to indoctrinate newbies and steer them to our preferred whistles that may not be the best choice for a beginner.
The Sweetones and Megs are great little whistles, perfect beginner’s instruments, a great addition to anyone’s whistle arsenal and shouldn’t be overlooked because there are ‘better’ ones.
Maybe if Andrea Corr played a blue Sweetone we’d all feel differently. Hmmmmm.
On the topic of the seam at the back, I have found that the seams on the painted whistles feel MUCH better than the natural ones.
They and the Meg (I’m undecided on which one I like more) offer very good sound, especially for the money.
I haven’t seen a Meg yet (other than catalogue and online promotional pictures). The local music store hasn’t stocked them, though they may, they carry the other Clarke whistles. Do the Megs differ from the Sweetone? In what way, if they do? Is there any difference in the mouthpiece design?
They and the Meg (I’m undecided on which one I like more) offer very good sound, especially for the money.
I haven’t seen a Meg yet (other than catalogue and online promotional pictures). The local music store hasn’t stocked them, though they may, they carry the other Clarke whistles. Do the Megs differ from the Sweetone? In what way, if they do? Is there any difference in the mouthpiece design?
Waldon,
I have both, a Sweetone and Meg D. They are the same size and weight. The mouthpiece is identical in design. On my Meg the color of the mouthpiece is a bit grayish rather than the jet black of the Sweetone. The two whistles don’t sound the same, but very close. My Sweetone is a bit more “full” sounding but that may be because it seems to have a heavier coat of paint than the Meg.
Mike
On 2002-10-01 10:42, srt19170 wrote:
I don’t understand why none of the upper-end whistle makers don’t make conical bore whistles.
Well, Copeland does. Unfortunatlely, the Copeland is to the Clarke as a custom built Ferrari is to a basic Hyundai, pricewise. Even without the waiting period, most of us can’t or won’t spend the money to obtain one.
I suspect that without special dies and machinery the conical tube is just too difficult for a small company to make, but the whistlesmiths among us would be far better qualified to comment on that one. Truth be told, I wouldn’t mind seeing one in the middle to low-upper price range.
Truth be told, I wouldn’t mind seeing one in the middle to low-upper price range.
There’s always Shaws.
It seems like I recall that Bill the Serpent has expressed interest in developing a conical bore whistle. Hopefully he’ll follow through and produce one.
)
