Note also the labium ramp. It's much shorter than in the first chieftain I owned. So there's definitely incremental product improvments here. Subtle but important. Lets look at the mouthpiece from a different angle.


Here's a duplicate of the angle I did for the first one. Immediately, you can see that this model's a lot cleaner looking..and I don't just mean the scratches. It looks less "industrial". The lines are cleaner and more professional. The windway here is obviously a little bigger; the slight curve is an optical illusion caused by the rounded windway and photo angle. But the original design can still be recognized; it's still obivously a Chieftain.


And now, all of them are branded on the back side near the bell end. I imagine the numbers are actually the date of manufacture. which would make this one made in June 24, 2004 in this case. I also imagine KWL stands for "Kerry Whistles Ltd". No great feat of brainpower there!

Volume: This whistle is medium-loud. It's louder than the first one, and I didn't have any problem being heard in session.

Responsiveness: This whistle is much more responsive than the first one. It's not quite as lightning fast as some of my high whistles, but I can play reels at a decent clip.

Tuning: This whistle is in tune when warmed. And it takes a lot less warming up to get in tune. The old one actually had to feel warm to be in tune. Bad, because aluminum is a good heat radiator, and so it's hard to keep it holding all that heat. I would literally sit on the old one or tuck it in my shirt next to my chest to keep it warmed up. The new one is warmed up after pushing a couple of lungfulls of air through the mouthpiece..much better! And what I said about about C-natural seems to apply to the rest of the notes, too. At the expected breath control, the tuner needle nearly freezes on the in-tune mark, but then you can push it around quite a bit; around +- 15 cents!

C-natural: OXXOOO produces an absolutely perfect c-natural on this whistle. Seriously. With the expected breath pressure, The needle moves to 0 in the middle of the tuner, and just hovers within 1-2 cents. I don't think I've ever seen a cross fingered c-natural this stable. And then, by pushing harder or softer, you can push it +- 25 cents! Usually you get stability or dynamic range in a whistle..to get both is a treat!

Hole size and placement: There are improvements here, and some potential problems. The lower D hole is no longer so far away. Now it's about where you'd hope it to be. This makes it much easier for me to play, believe me. Unfortunately, now the E hole is a bit larger than it was before. I don't personally have any problems with it, but people with especially narrow fingers might.

Air volume and pressure requirements: This whistle takes a little more air than the first one, but not much. It has much less back-pressure, making it a lot easier to hit the upper section of the second octave. A pretty easy blower.

Clogging: This whistle gets just as wet as the first one did. But amazingly, it clears itself! I have felt the condensation blow out and hit my fingers a few times when playing, and haven't had any clogging issues. While this may be a little gross to some, it's actually great! It means the whistle won't give out unexpectedly, and will require a minimum of maintenance while playing.

Wind Resistance: The only real downside to this whistle is that it's really wind-susceptible. A medium breeze across the windway cuts it out. But that's only a downside if you play outside at festivals and the like. It just means you have to do the wind dance a bit more.