I’ve been a short time reader and this is my first post.
Has anyone experimented with changing the fipple heads of different whistles and trying them on different shafts? I have three D cylindrical whistles that I experimented on:
1 ten year old Feadog brass whistle (my very first whistle ever.
1 Generation nickel whistle
1 Oak Whistle brass nickel plated whistle.
I removed the plastic heads off each one and and started experimenting. What I came up with was three whistles that are better than the originals, one by far.
First, I took my old Feadog head and put it on the Oak shaft. WOW! This is a superior combination. It has all the sweetness the the Feadog had orignally but louder with a more breathy, fuller sounding quality almost as good as my Copeland D nickel dare I say.. I don’t know about the newer Feadog design but I suspect if you put one of the newer heads on an Oak shaft you will not be disappointed with the outcome.
Second, I put the oak head on the Generation nickel shaft. Oak’s are known to buzz and squeek if you don’t have perfect breath control. Well, the buzzing is less while still sounding basically like an Oak whistle. It is slightly louder than a Oak original but still has the same responsiveness and tone.
Last I put the Generation head on the Feadog shaft. I never liked the tone of the Generation, it sounded ‘cheap’. This combination brought out a nicer and louder quality than the Feadog originally had. A very nice whistle.
Has anyone else tried something like this? What kind of results did you get?
I’ve never done it, but I recall various others on the forum who have. Like you, some of them have gotten better whistles that way.
P.S. Welcome to the Board.
Reasonable Person W a l d e n
When a whistler plays, he stirs up the air and makes it hit any passing eardrums. But if he is good, he knows how to keep it from hurting.
[ This Message was edited by: Walden on 2002-09-16 23:55 ]
Actually Nick, this is a pretty common theme. In fact, it’s so common that the Whistle Shop carries fipples of all types, suitable for experimenting. If you do a search you can come up with many threads from the past discussing it. One to look for is Frankenwhistle.
My second favorite whistle (second only because I use a quieter one primarily) is a feadog brass D body witha mack hoover whitecap head (a white plastic thing he developed). Plays like a dream and sounds almost like my Laughing Whistle (my favorite one). The fea-ver is my best session whistle. The only problem is when I am tense and afraid of messing up I will squeak the second octave E.
Avanturia, you say the Laughing Whistle is your favorite - how do you keep it from clogging all the time? I love the sound of my LW in every way except for that one problem.
Heh…I make a habit of covering the blade and blowing through after every tune! And I think being in Boise helps. It clogs something awful in Salt Lake (I shudder to think about Seattle!!). The material he uses to cover the vertical surface of the fipple block has started to peel off, too, so I think more moisture is getting into the wood now. Might have to try to cover that with something. I think I will wait till my spare gets here though!
