I was playing my new Oak today, and darn if it didn’t crack on me! I swear, I didn’t do a darn thing other than play it, but the fipple cracked big time, starting on the bottom left (if you’re facing the whistle), going up toward the windway, and then spreading into several smaller cracks.
I’m seriously bummed! It’s brand new, and I like it, doggone it! I might be able to stabilize it by wrapping it with duct tape or something, but it won’t be the same. I’ve never had a plastic head crack on me like this (and some of my brass or nickel and plastic whistles have gotten banged around quite a bit). Has this happened to anyone else?
I was really shocked, as I’ve had plastic headed whistles for more than 20 years (Generations and Feadogs, mostly), and I’ve never had anything like this happen. The fipple doesn’t FEEL particularly fragile (especially compared to my Walton’s Guinness), but to crack just from being played…aiyiyi! The only unusual thing I noticed when I got it home was that the head joint felt fairly loose (like it might slip off if I held the whistle upside down). I didn’t even pull it out to tune it, as the whistle was pretty nicely in tune as is (or rather, as was).
I just dropped an email to Lark to find out if I can get a replacement via mail order, as it’s really not a minor thing for me to go up to San Francisco for an exchange (a 70 mile drive, plus parking fees, and the hassle of driving in the City…it would cost more than the whistle is worth).
Wow Red & Duck- I’ve never seen the like! I’ve only ever suffered cracks, in Generations & Doolins, through trying to twist them loose, and even then not teminal cases like Duck’s.
Guys - how recently did you buy these Oaks, and did they do the “Poison Oak” numbing thing to your lips in the brief time you played them?
It seems the makers of Oaks may possibly have an even worse problem now than before, if these cracks are a result of changing the formula to avoid “poison oak”.
My favourite plastic heads have to be Feadog Mk3, they seem to be of a less brittle (more malleable?) plastic than Oak, Gen, Doolin, Walton or Clare, so they’re less likely to suffer stess cracks. My favourite Oak sports a Feadog3 head.
If the Oak mouthpiece is made from the kind of plastic, like lexan, which must be baked to cure it may not have been baked for the right amount of time or temperature. It is a very exact science. That would cause it to be extermely brittle.
Interesing to read this tonight. At lunch time today I pulled out my Oak C and it sounded funny. Sure enough…a big crack, with multiple small ones branching from it. I had hoped crazy glue would save the day.
I bought mine on Saturday (so I’ve had a grand total of two days to play it…sigh!). I didn’t have any trouble with the “poison Oak” effect. When I noticed this, I too wondered if it’s a side result of Oak’s tinkering with the plastic formula to get rid of the lip numbing issue.
What’s weird it is just seemed to happen spontaneously. I mean, I hadn’t done anything but sit on the couch and play it, and when I wasn’t playing it it was just sitting on top of the piano with my other whistles.
TelegramSam…I have a Hoover Whitecap already, and it’s a gem
Yikes! This thing is disintegrating as we speak! Since I made my first post on this subject, two new cracks have appeared, running from the top of the windway toward the top of the mouthpiece (one starting at each top corner of the windway). I haven’t even been playing it…it’s just been sitting next to the computer!
I had one break exactly the same as duck’s. My daughter dropped it. Since she was a scant 2.5 feet tall, it probably didn’t drop more than a foot. It was one that numbs the lips, so I didn’t sweat it. The shaft sits on a Feadog mouthpiece now.
I have a post-poison Oak and when I tried to take off the mouthpiece to tweak it, it wouldn’t come off. I used the boiling water I tried everything. Finally (thanks to a smart wife) I put rubber bands around the shaft and the head, which gave me both grip and leverage, and I finally got it off. It is a really tight fit. I still hae to work really hard to chan ge the tuning of it.
Anyway, my point is, I gave it one heck of a lot of abuse, including five boiling water baths, and it is in perfect shape. No cracking.
I’m not bragging, but just adding information to the thread for investigative purposes.
With my whistle, the case was the exact opposite. The head was extremely loose…so loose that I worried it might fall off if I happened to hold the whistle upside down.
It’s a real shame that Oak seems to be having these quality control problems, as it was a really nice whistle before it started falling apart…quite possibly the very best of my “cheapos.” There’s no saving the head now…once the cracking started in one place, cracks started breaking out all over. Right now it looks as though it had been slammed in a car door
Both the cracks and the “poison Oak” incidents seem to concur to an unstable plastic. Something like too much catalyst on unsufficient baking–help! any petrochemist around?
One question about those which cracked: were they stored in a closed space (like a drawer) or in the open?
Mine was stored in the open, on top of my piano, in the brief time I had it…right next to my Guinness (the whistle, not the stout! )and my Generations. In the store, it was in a lightweight plastic box (not airtight by any stretch of the imagination) with cardboard backing…no knowing how long it was there. It started cracking when I was playing it on my living room sofa.
)and my Generations. In the store, it was in a lightweight plastic box (not airtight by any stretch of the imagination) with cardboard backing…no knowing how long it was there. It started cracking when I was playing it on my living room sofa.