Jerry Freeman Tweaked Mellow Dog D
(Review written February 2005)
Preface
Jerry Freeman is probably the world's only professional full-time pennywhistle tweaker. Tweaking means, simply, to change a whistle to try and improve it. This can be done by modifying the mouthpiece or tube in various ways. A classic simple tweak is to squeeze a Clarke mouthpiece a little more closed, so that it takes less breath. I say "simple" but I've always failed at even that small of a tweak. So it hardly suffices to say that I'm in awe of the level of tweaking Jerry does. With each whistle Jerry sent, he included a sheet detailing what tweaks are done on that brand of whistle. I assume he sends that to everyone.
I wrote Jerry and let him know I was going to do a mostly-negative review of a Generation tinwhistle. It's known that good Generations are prized instruments treasured by their owners. It's also known that finding a "good" generation is an undertaking of near epic proportions. So in the interests of fair play, I asked Jerry if he'd send me one of his tweaked Generations so that hopefully both sides of the Generation coin could be explored. He did one better, and sent me five different tweaked whistle brands to review!
Today, we'll be taking a look at the Jerry Freeman Tweaked Mellow Dog. This really is much more than a whistle tweak. This is more of a Franken-whistle! It's just amazing how much Jerry has done to this hybrid whistle.
At a Glance
Whistle Reviewed: Jerry Freeman Tweaked Mellow Dog
Models Available: Tweaked D
Construction: Walton's Mellow D body, modified. Feadog C mouthpiece, modified.
Price at time of review: $36.50 US
Available From:
Big Whistle Music
Elderly Instruments
MyTinwhistle.com
How Acquired: Product sample from Jerry Freeman
Bottom Line: Complex tone, easy-to-hit second octave. Lively sounding, but requires some attention.
Appearance/Construction
Jerry has taken two whistles, the Walton's Mellow D, and the Feadog C, and married them to create the Jerry Mellow Dog. It's obvious even at a glance that this is a tweaked whistle, and that a lot of work has gone into it.
Here's the full-sized whistle. From this view, you can see the extension Jerry's added to the end of the Walton's body, and can also see the major labium replacement work.
Here's a close-up of the labium ramp. Unlike Jerry's Generation tweak (which had a bit of labium shaping underneath) the labium ramp is completely covered and re-created by clear plastic. You can also see the BluTack Tweak here (see my reviews of Jerry's Generation and Sweetone tweaks for more complete explanation).
Here's a close-up of the extension Jerry has affixed to the body. Jerry adds this extension to help bring the D note into tune--it's known to be sharp on this model of body. You can't see it, but he also removes some of the top of the body, to allow the whistle to have a greater tuning range--this body style is generally in tune when pushed all the way in, leaving no room for sharpening if needed. I'm boggled at how much work has gone into tweaking this whistle.
Here's a view of Jerry's logo.
Playing Characteristics
Since this whistle is made from a Feadog and a Walton's Mellow D, Jerry had a regular Mellow D sent to me from The Whistle Shop, since I'd never played one before. What a gentleman! I already own some Feadogs. With the extensive modifications Jerry has done, the Mellow Dog really is it's own instrument with it's own characteristics, but it's parentage is definitely evident in the traditional slightly-reedy tone produced from this whistle, though Jerry's tweak does make it more a lot more pure than an untweaked Feadog mouthpiece would produce. In the end, Jerry has put together a whistle that's peppy-sounding and fun to play.
A sound clip of the whistle:
Like I said above, this whistle is really fun to play. So, I made more than one sound clip.
Star of the County Down-Here's a clip of a song on the whistle.
Twisting of the Hayrope-Here's a clip of a slow air.
The Banshee-And a clip of a reel on the whistle.
Maid Behind the Bar-Another reel on the whistle.
I think the whistle sounds good on them all!
Volume: A little quieter than average. A good blending instrument, and won't be obnoxious in even a quiet session. Not so good for boisterously loud pubs.
Responsiveness: Quick. I had a lot of fun playing tunes, and rolls, crans, double-cuts and the like all sound nice and crisp.
C-Natural: C Natural is a little sharp on this whistle with OXXOOO. I got the suggestion to try OXXXOX for C-Natural on my Generation, and it works like a charm on this whistle as well, bringing it nicely into tune.
Tuning: Walton's Mellow D bodies are known for having a sharp bell note (D). Jerry adds a little pipe to the end to try and fix this, and it works admirably. The D is spot on with the breath pressure I expected. The F# took a little more push than I was used to, but could be brought into line without too much thought. The G right after it was a little light on breath pressure, but again could be brought into line easily. These are merely quirks (and all whistles have them) that one would grow used to as they put time into practicing. Across the range, the whistle is in tune.
Hole Size and placement: This whistle has holes with average size and placement. There are no weird spacings. If you can play a soprano D, you can play this one. The seam from the extension at the bottom of the whistle has fooled my pinkie into thinking it was a hole once or twice when I picked up the whistle while looking elsewhere. But the disorientation of my body going "hey! Something's not right" was only momentary.
Air volume and pressure requirements:
Breath pressure: Very little. The whistle is easy to play, and easy to jump the octave on. Unfortunately, I tended to squeak this whistle a bit when I first started playing, because I'm used to whistles that require more attack on the 2nd octave. After only couple of days, I squeaked a lot less. I imagine that eventually, I'd be used to this feature. As a beginner, I'd have loved having a whistle that was crisp between octaves, and yet made the octave jump easily. These days, I consider it neat, but it's not as important a feature to me. Having the octaves close together like that does mean that cuts and crans on 2nd octave D played XXXXXX are a little crisper sounding.
Breath volume: on the light side of average. The whistle doesn't take a lot of breath, for sure.
Clogging: Quick clogger. After about 11 minutes of playing, I felt a little more backpressure in the instrument, and the volume dropped suddenly in the middle of a tune. A quick blow to force the moisture out and I was good for another 10 minutes of constant action. I'm not sure if Jerry's tweaks have any responsibility here, but the whistle was pretty easy to blow out and keep going, so this isn't a showstopper. Some whistles, once they start clogging, become a beast to play. My Laughing Whistles were like that--eventually becoming "waterlogged" to the point where I could only play for a minute or two before I had to blow it out again. Even though I had to clear the windway more often than usual, I didn't ever get completely waterlogged with this whistle.
Summary
Quite a fun whistle, bright and cheery sounding. Easy on the ears and easy to play, I simply had a lot of fun playing this whistle; I even made myself late to work one morning playing it in the parking lot!
