Clarke ‘Celtic’ whistle.

I haven’t bought a Clarke in what… 15 years? I have a basket full of whistles, but thought I’d buy this one for a lark at $10, new. After all, it had a nice little knot painted on top, and I tend to enjoy green things. Probably should have just kept the ten bucks. Quite honestly, I’ve never had a whistle this bad. My charm of Oaks, Feadogs, Generations, never had such issues, at least not collected all in the same place.

My complaints for such a tiny investment are probably as numerous and annoying as the whistle itself, so I’ve summed them up for you here.

1. Annoying ridge on bottom of barrel;
2. Breathy tone in lower octave, practically as much air as tone;
3. Close to a semitone out of tune, right out of the box;
4. Lack of volume, see number 2, above.

I’m idling away my lunch hour reading ‘whistle improvement’ guides on the web. I can live with the ridge, I suppose. And I can tune it with some hot water, maybe. But the breathy bit and the volume problem…. is there any way to get a clear blast from the fipple in that lower register?

Your experiences and suggestions with this little guy are much appreciated.

You need to flatten the sheet metal above the wooden block and make the airway more narrow at the same time.

I’ve done that with my Clarke traditional whistles… the black and gold ones. But this has a molded plastic fipple.

I’m planning to cram a wad of sticky tack down the end of it tonight.

Starting to remember why I resigned these things to a basket! :-D

OK, sorry, I only have the black and gold ones myself. When you described them with the rolled tin tube with the seam on the bottom, I assumed (incorrectly) that they were the same as the old originals.

Good luck with your tweaking in any event.

It is a little odd, as if they combined the rolled tin of the original with a modern plastic fipple. I quite like the originals, actually, they sound nice and big.

I padded the back of the fipple last night, and also tried to tried to tune it up a few cents. It wasn’t very helpful so i think I’m writing this one off as a loss, and sending it to my daughter. :-D

Idea!