A tweaking experience

Whistle
1

I have recently been bitten by WOAD, and just received a shipment of cheap whistles in the mail yesterday. One of them was a two-piece Clare, which I wanted because I could break it down and fit it in my shirt pocket and play it to annoy people wherever I go.

The whistle was ok when I got it, but definitely the weakest of the cheapo Ds that I owned (Sweetone, Feadog, Oak, Acorn and Clare). Upon examination, I found it had a bit of metal flash left on the L1 hole, and some plastic flash around the window and blade area. I removed these and found that I had made the whistle much worse - it was now weak and breathy in the low octave, very weak in the high octave, and several notes in the high octave had gone noticably flat.

I noticed that the area around the blade where I had removed the flash was now rough. So I smoothed it with first a small file, then sandpaper up to 2000 grit. Even worse. So I got serious. I started shaving the surfaces with a very sharp chisel to get the blade completely straight. This helped a little, but it was still worse than before I started. Finally, I was ready to give up and get a Hoover Whitecap for the barrel and write off the mouthpiece to science, when I decided that I’d try one more thing. I started burnishing the blade area with the back of a 1/8" chisel until it was shiny smooth. Wow! This whistle now sounds much better than when I got it - rich without being breathy, strong second octave, extremely responsive (at least to my limited experience), and in much better tune in the high octave than when it arrived.

This is probably old hat to most of you, but it was a first for me and very exciting. (It doesn’t take much, I guess :slight_smile: ). But it got me thinking. Most of my cheap whistles sound just fine in the low octave, have some problems with the intonation for F# in the higher octave (which can be compensated by blowing it in tune), and start to seriously lose tonal quality from high G on up. This works ok for fast stuff where you don’t linger on those notes - in fact, it can contribute an earthiness to the sound which is kind of nice. But it’s not so nice on slow stuff where you hold those notes out (I’m thinking of stuff like Joanie Madden’s version of “Women of Ireland” on “Song of the Irish Whistle”, where you’re really going for sweet and expressive in the high octave.)

This extremely modest tweak of the Clare can now handle stuff like that in the high octave. I’m wondering if I shouldn’t burnish the edges of the blades on all my whistles to improve high octave performance. Any ideas from the more experienced tweakers?

Thanks,

  • Mike
2

Tweaking a whistle is very enjoyable. You may want to think of something to put material back if to much is removed. I think super glue might work but I have not tried it yet. What I do use is non hardening clay. Make sure the surface is clean and dry then put a little where it is needed.
I then use a wet square end xato blade to shape it. The wet keeps it from sticking to the xato blade. This lets me try many differant shapes and try it immediately. I use this on the fipple blade (top or bottom where ever needed) or the bottom end of the wind way. It will stay in place a long time if it is not dsturbed.

3

Thanks for the tip. I was going to spend the day experimenting with mouthpieces (CPVC from HD, based on the “low-tech whistle” design). But the kids want me to play HeroScape with them, and I can’t imagine not taking advantage of an opportunity to hang out with them when they actually want to spend time with me :slight_smile:. So maybe some evening this week.

I was just going to make several mouthpieces to see how they sounded, but making one and modifying it with clay sounds like a much better way to go until I have a design I’m completely happy with. Do you use ordinary modeling clay like plastoline?

Thanks,

  • Mike
4

I use the brand Plast-i-clay from Hobby Lobby. It is nothing special just childrens ordinary modeling clay comes in a four colors pac $2.49. Buy a pac for the kids too. I also made a pvc low d and filed down the corner of the end of the windway. Then put the clay there and shape and reshape for almost endless tones. From saxophone breathy to pure whistles in minnuets. Experiments with the ramp can also be done. But the biggest change occurs with the shape and distance of the end of the wind way to the blade. Let us know what you come up with.