Clare Whistle (1 piece nickel)
I now have a Clare 1-piece. Like the other Clare, it came with some
plastic flashing around the fipple that was stopping it from playing well.
After removing that, it is a remarkable little whistle. It's relatively
quiet, with a very easy high octave, and yet has resonance and a strong bell
note in the low octave.
This is not a great session whistle because it's so soft, but for playing at
home, or when with a mic, it's fantastic.
Here's some sounds:
[Gus Breo]
and finally, to show what it sounds like when you really just cut loose with
it,
[Tom Billy's Jig]
Clare Whistles (Eagle 2-Piece)
The Clare I have started life as a squeaky little beast with a sharp bell note.
The squeakiness was easy to fix, once I had the sense to look up the bore. There was lots of plastic flashing up around the fipple, which was pretty easy to remove with a round wire brush. This improved the tone and removed the squeaks.
Fixing the sharp bell note was simply a matter of using some electrical tape to extend the bore a bit further down. Yeah, I know, there are more elegant ways to deal with this, but this has the advantage of being simple, easy to adjust, and quick.
The tone is good, like a somewhat free-blowing good Gen. The intonation is a bit flaky, especially in the 2nd octave.
Not a bad whistle, and I like the way it breaks down...makes it very handy to carry around in your shirt pocket so you're always ready for a tune.
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