Time to update my wish list, after learning how much I like a pure sound. I love my Hoover – play it all the time. Whenever I switch to one of the others (Oak, Meg, Feadog, Generation, SweeTone), I end up switching back.
So, which whistles should be on the wish list of the chiffless among us?
My purest-toned whistles are my Susato VSB and my Dixon D.
–James
http://www.flutesite.com
Laughing whistle. But it’s apparently a bit of a gamble. Mine is purer than my hoovers but I have talked to one or two people who are dissatisfied with theirs.
My Hoover E by a ways, then the Burke Al D Pro, then all the vast masses below. – N
For chiffless, and just beauty of the sound, the brass Burkes are my favorites. I have a D, C, and just today I received a Bb. The tone is lovely and pure on all of them.
Carol Skinner
The Susato is pretty chiffless… Although it does have a tiny bit.
And the Doolin is also pretty chiffless…
Well, my Dixon high D is supposed to arrive next week. Maybe that will help tone down the WhOA for a while. Then maybe a Burke – I just checked prices and that looks like something I could conceivably do . . .
Oh, WhOA is me . . . (I bet I’m not the first one to say that).
Tery
[ This Message was edited by: tkelly on 2002-07-11 22:48 ]
Cilian O’Briain “Improved” Feadóg D - period.
Nothing else in my collection, or that I have ever played for that matter is as pure.
Hoovers are a hard second though for intonation, easy breath, and reliable sound.
After that, Oak.
Then probably Thin Weasels.
Brian, is the O’Briain the brass body or the nickel?
Tery
My Fred Rose whistle has the purest tone. More pure than my Susato or my O’Briain. The Doolin I have has quite a bit of Chiff. 
Jenny
The Rose high D. No contest.
The “improved” is available in either Brass or Nickel. You can also specify the color you’d like for the mouth piece as I understand it.
Steve’s got them at Shannaquay.
B~
My Dixon high D has a bit of nice chiff to it.
-brett
Hi Brian – I was wondering which Improved you had, brass or nickel. My brass whistles sound very different from the nickel one I have, so I was wnodering which Improved had the pure tone (if there is, as I suspect, a difference).
TIA,
Tery
Aside from the obvious chiffless-ness, “pure” is in the ear of the beholder. The first time I heard the purest of all tones, a sine wave produced on a synthesizer, I was very disappointed. Remember the tone that accompanied the old tv test pattern? That approaches a pure sign wave, but Casio synthesizers do it more pure-ly…
My Hoover and my Susato vsb are both chiffless, but they have completely different timbres, and both are far more interesting sounding than pure…I would say that I can make the Hoover sound more like a cell phone ringing than the Susato, but your ear may vary (the Hoover is my FAVORITE of all!)
Lisa
[ This Message was edited by: ysgwd on 2002-07-12 14:35 ]
Hey Ysgwd that’s a great point. The combination of fundamentals plus harmonics is what gives character and a pure fundamental is like distilled water.
Now what i wonder is if OBriain would alter the old Feadogs I own, rather than buy a new one… You guys are really making me feel like I am missing something here and SteveP is about to get some eurobusiness.
The Weekenders,
The O’Brian mod is basically the guitar pick blade transplant / filling the cavity with putty or ‘sticky-tack’ trick. If you’re a tweaker(?!) you could make one yourself. I did this to my Mk III Feadog and it’s now my primary tooter.
Using a PC oscilloscope reveales the tone secret. On mine, the bottom half of the wave is pure fundamental and the top half is pure second harmonic. Very sweet! I have a Generation C modded this way and it works well, too.
Just my 0.02 megs,
Gary
Thanks Gar. I wish somebody would take some digital photos of the step-by-step because Peter Laban also mentions narrowing the windway and I am confused if thats horizontal or vertical in nature. I get the filling in part from the main website.
I am ready to try with a little better description.
Also, I bet you could demystify CHIFF as other partials in a certain combo…
[ This Message was edited by: The Weekenders on 2002-07-12 15:10 ]
The Weekenders,
Thanks!
Gary and The Weekenders,
We take whistle obession to a new level. I used to have a nice simple oscilloscope on my mac and now I’m going surfing for one for my pc.
Lisa
Who you callin obsessed? MOI???
You bet!!!
“I hate ‘working’ it takes away from my valuable whistling time.”