What's this world coming to?!!

Whistle
1

As some of you know, I’ve been trying a lot of fancy whistles lately in search of my hi-D soulmate. Copelands, Burkes, Sindts, Thin Weasels, Grinters, Overtons.

Anyway I think I’ve found it (more on that later) but in the mean time several of my 13 kids have become interested in whistling so I ordered a bunch of cheap whistles from Thom at the whistle shop. I got a Clarke, an Acorn, a Clare…all fine. Cheap whistles…they were OK..you know.

I also got a bunch of Megs to hand out to potential whistle converts. I pulled one out and started tooting.

Horrors! I was filled with a wave of nausea! Could this $3 ultimate “El Cheapo” really be That good?!

I dashed to my room and grabbed my new $300 love of my life…Phew! it did sound better. That was close.

I’ve hidden all the blasphemous Megs in my closet!

I’d like to go on but I have to call my analyst.

Doc

2

Doc,
Are we to assume you finally got a Rose or O’Riordan? Stop teasing and fill us in!

3

Ha, he’s gonna post a clip and let us guess!!!

4

If this leads you to ditch a Grinter, please mail me offlist so that you won’t have to beat away the respondents. :slight_smile:

I’m also curious about your new soulmate. Mine is a TW C.

Charlie

5

aaaaahhh! The suspense!!!

6

I recently bought six Megs from Steve Power at Shannaquay, intending to give them away.

1 was really superb, 3 ok, 2 ugh!
Pop off the fipple, bung in some blue tack,
result = really good whistles. One of which now sits in my collection, blue tack-‘n’-all.

I showed them to the proprietor of the music shop in the town near where I live, as he hadn’t heard of the Meg, and told him the price, and played a couple of tunes for him.
His opinion is that ‘for the money’, they are unbeatable.

Still prefer the Dixon though.

7

So far I like my Meg the best too. Although I’ve finally gotten used to the upper octave on my Susato. The Meg is quieter though and I can play it in a wider range of circumstance. I have to order Meg’s from elsewhere as our local store only has Oaks.
Maybe I can change their minds!

8

How do you find that the Meg differs from the Sweetone? I really like the D Sweetone, but the C Sweetone seems lackluster comparatively.

9

I have done side by sides on the Meg and Sweetone, and cannot tell ANY difference. None. Zippo. I know my ear isn’t tremendous, but these two seem like two peas in a pod. As far as materials, they both weigh in at 28 grams.

I happen not to like either of them. I haven’t tried blue tack on them, so maybe that’s my next little experiment. Blue tack one, leave the other plain.

I’ve become highly affected by WhOA…this particular phase of the disease process has me measuring, weighing, changing locations and trying again. Conical vs cylindrical, brass vs nickel vs rosewood vs blackwood vs aluminum (still saving for sterling!!!)

The idea of buying 5 extremely cheap whistles to find one that equals the sound of a moderately priced whistle doesn’t really make sense to me, except that most people aren’t near a place where they can test out a few until they get the one that feels right. If I recall, you can’t try the megs ahead of time anyway because the fipple is shrink wrapped.

10

On 2002-08-24 09:19, tyghress wrote:
I have done side by sides on the Meg and Sweetone, and cannot tell ANY difference. None. Zippo. I know my ear isn’t tremendous, but these two seem like two peas in a pod. As far as materials, they both weigh in at 28 grams.

I’m very glad to know it. I recently had to re-submit an order for a few whistles and had changed my Meg order to a Feadog because I already have a Sweetone and they seemed very much alike. Now I get to try yet another whistle in search of the best (the best low-end, anyhow).

11

Well, just to show how experiences can vary, and how whistles can vary, I have two Sweetones D’s and a Meg D, and they are all three very different whistles. None have been tweaked.

The older Sweetone D (with the “Celtic” paint job) is a smooth, lovely whistle, very well tuned, gentle all the way up to the high B.

The newer Sweetone D (which is unpainted) is an OK whistle but not as good. Even though it has a little more volume, the upper end gets shrill, and the tone is just more “hollow” and not as consistent from note to note up and down the scale. It’s an OK whistle, but nothing to write home about.

The Meg I have is wonderful. The sound is “thicker” than either of the Sweetones. It has the volume of the newer Sweetone plus a little more, but doesn’t get so shrill as you go up. The tone is centered and bright and consistent from note to note, and the bell note is stronger than either of the Sweetones.

Physically they look identical. But they don’t play that way.

There are other whistles that this is true of too. Of course, everybody knows about Generations and how much they can vary. I have had some that were OK, some that were nasty, and my last ones were wonderful right out of the box.

But also, my first Walton D brass (narrow bore) is a really great whistle. I recently bought another because the finish is getting really nasty on the first. The new one barely plays and is going to need serious tweaking. A Walton “Mellow D” wide-bore, by comparison, was another whistle that was wonderful right out of the box, and takes more air than most whistles, which I like.

So my recommendation on the Sweetone and the Meg: they are cheap. If you don’t like the first ones you buy, buy a few more before you give up on them–if you like the “Clarke” sound in whistles, anyway. Although the quality control is better than Generations’, there are still wide variences from whistle to whistle.

Best wishes,

–James
http://www.flutesite.com