Whitecap vs. Whitecap

Whistle
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I now have a Whitecap on an Oak tube, and another on a Feadog tube. The tubes appear to be just about identical in diameter, fingerhole size, and fingerhole placement.

However, the Whitecaps are not identical. The one on the Oak has a window that’s about 4.5 mm deep (that is, measuring from the edge of the blade back), while the one on the Feadog is about 3.0 mm.

The difference in sound is very noticeable. The Oak is every bit as loud as the Jerry-tweaked Generation, and somewhere between the Gen and the Burke aluminum narrow-bore in purity/sweetness. It has moderate back pressure and can take a good bit of blowing in both octaves.

The Feadog, on the other hand, is the quietest of my 11 (!) high Ds. It is extremely sweet–but not the least bit bland. It has less back pressure than the Oak, but is still much easier to play than the Dixon tunable or the Clarke Original.

The Oak is particularly well-balanced across the first two octaves, while the Feadog is a tad louder in the second octave than in the first (but not actually loud in either). It does take a little adjusting to go to the Feadog after playing any of the other whistles, but once my brain is in that gear, it all goes very smoothly.

I now keep both of these in my bedroom. When I don’t have to worry about disturbing anyone, I play the Oak. When others are sleeping or watching TV, I can play the Feadog with no worries–it’s that quiet (and I am at the end of a long hallway). In spite of being so quiet, it is very playable, so that even using it to work on new tunes is not a problem. It doesn’t distract me with odd noises when I’m just trying to concentrate on the flow of notes.

I really love both of these, and am glad that they turned out to be so different. They make the perfect pair for my purposes. (Of course, I don’t plan to neglect my equally loved Gen, Burke, Busman, etc., and the indestructible Village Smithy will be my car whistle from now on.)

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I have played many Hoover whistles, all are different, each from the other, and all are excellent.

You can hear some of these at

http://www.flutesite.com/hoover.htm

–James

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WHITECAP vs. WHITECAP

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Hey Mike,
Nice review, thanks. I plan to order a Whitecap soon, but so far, none of the cheap whistles I’ve bought need a lot of help or tweaking. I guess I should buy a lottery ticket! No, I’m not that lucky, it’s only because I tried every one before I bought it.
But, I have a few high D’s on the way from Big Whistle, that I just couldn’t try, so I might have a candidate soon.
Village Smithy relegated to your car? Poor whistle! If you lived on the East coast, it would rust away, but it might be alright in your drier climate. Good thing, too, or I might have had to put a call in to the SPCW!
Let me know of your impressions of the Smithy when you have a chance.

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The first thing you notice is that all that metal mass can take a while to warm up, during which time there can be a lot of condensation, leading to a kind of raspy sound. While it’s warming up, I swab it out rather frequently. Without the condensation, the timbre is still a little buzzy, but pleasantly so. It is definitely not a “sweet” sound, though. It’s more in the direction of my various wooden whistles.

It’s well balanced across the octaves as far as loudness goes. Overall, I’d classify it as fairly quiet–nothing like the Whitcap-Feadog, but quieter than most of my others.

It doesn’t take a lot of air, but has enough back pressure to take pretty aggressive blowing, except for the low D and E. This means that it can be played with a fair amount of feeling. (Note that I play mostly slow airs, so I can’t judge how it would be with jigs and reels.) I find it stable–not jumping octaves too much in either direction, once I’ve gone through a tune or two. I played it for over an hour today, and found it smooth enough.

It looks to me as though the fingerholes are one or two degrees off to the left, compared to the mouthpiece and window. It’s not very noticeable, so I didn’t even realize it for the first month or so. In fact, I had to check carefully to make sure that it wasn’t just an optical delusion :laughing:. There are a few burrs–caused by the drill–on the insides of a couple of the fingerholes. This being steel, I imagine it could be a trick to clear them out without screwing up the shapes of the fingerhole openings. I have a vague hypothesis that some buzziness may be caused by roughness inside a whistle, so these may contribute to the characteristic sound.

When new, as you can see in the picture of the Village Viper at http://www.serpentmusic.com/villageviper.html the finish was a bit scratched up. I think the steel tubing probably comes that way. Anyhow, I ended up sanding it down and applying cold gun bluing to it, which produced a nice, smooth finish–and I have plenty left, just in case I ever need to refinish it again. I don’t think rust will be a problem, especially now that I’ve blued the previously exposed edges of the fingerholes and mouthpiece.

It’s not tunable, so the Village Viper might be a better choice if you’re concerned about that. Mine is a bit flat, even when thoroughly warmed up.

So, it’s easy to play–once it’s warmed up, the sound is pleasant enough for the kind of music I play, and it’s steel!!!

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Thanks Mike,
You are a gentelman and a scholar. And you write good reviews!
I too like the slow airs best. I can’t play jigs and reels, but right now, I don’t care! There are many beautiful airs to learn first!