Hello There,
I’ve read this whistle has a significantly larger bore than a typical High D, can anyone tell me please; how much larger is the bore, are the holes any larger, does the larger bore improve the tone in comparison to a regular bore?
The larger metric bore is the same as an Oak C, Feadog C, Generation C and or Waltons C. Yes the heads from those whistles will fit the Mellow D tone tube. The tone is different with each and if it improves is up to the players taste. The Mellow D tone tube is a bit short with the bell note being a bit sharp. A peice K&S tubing can be added to bring it into pitch or an O ring can be inserted into the end of the bore. You might be able to reach down with your pinky finger to cover the end of the bore a bit too.
My favorite high D whistle is a Mellow D as tweaked a number of years ago by Vargas (whatever happened to him?) In addition to reworking the mouthpiece, he added about 1/4" of brass tubing on the end to fix the intonation. He also added a tuning slide. The tube is about 1.5mm greater in diameter than my Generation D and about the same as my standard-bore brass Burke. The holes are significantly larger than the Generation but not as large as the Burke, but I don’t know whether Vargas enlarged them or not. In any case it plays very easily in both octaves and the tone is purer than the Generation but not quite as much as the Burke. Whether that is an improvement is in the ear of the beholder. I’ve never played a standard issue Mellow D so can’t comment on it, but I notice there is a Jerry Freeman tweaked Mellow D available. The YouTube demo I saw sounds a lot like mine, so you might check it out.
Hello.
I’m still alive, but I haven’t tweaked whistles for a long time, nor have I been visiting the c&f forum until today.
I’ve still got one of those tweaked Waltons lying around and if I remember correctly at least the E-hole is enlarged.
The Waltons Mellow-D in its original state is one of the worst whistles I can think of, which is why the tweak involves altering the fipple, enlarging some of the holes plus adding a bit to the length of the shaft and also adding a tuning slide. After tweaking the Mellow D becomes an excellent whistle.
Glad to hear you’re still around. Your tweaked Mellow-D still gets played a lot!
Dick