Hi Guys,
Has anyone made a B whistle or altered a Generation Bb whistle to play in the key of B. I sometimes want the use of a B whistle to accompany other piper’s who play in B (even on CD recordings) but I only own a D set and a C# set of pipes. A B whistle would come in real handy for those occasional occasions.
I could try the whistle forum of course but speaking as a piper, I feel sure other piper’s have too felt the need of a B whistle.
I’m thinking that maybe a Generation Bb could be cut down to play in B and in relative tune too.
Anyone care to offer their experience of either making or adapting a whistle to play in B.
Regards,
Mike
Mike
Instead of bodging a Bb into something approaching a B whistle, why not get a B whistle. Erle Bartlett of Syn whistles makes a lovely sounding B body for his whistle sets, so I think he should be able to make a nice B whistle for you.
David
I took a Generation Bb and cut a bit off of the top and bottom, then enlarged the bottom two toneholes a bit in order to make the octaves in tune on those notes.
In the end, I had a very nice and very playable B natural whistle which played exactly the same as it did before I made it shorter.
For only $10-ish, it can’t be beat. It’s not going to make a subpar generation Bb any better though…so do it with one that you like.
Oops, wrong forum (was in Uilleann). Also, déjà vu all over again. 
Colin Goldies whistles are second to none.
I don’t think the object of the OP was to get a list of everybody’s favourite maker of B whistles. There’s horses for courses, I have gone with a B Sindt myself (after a few less satisfying attempts) and there’s the Jerry Freeman converted Generation B or any amount of other possibilities.
I have seen Ronan Browne do a Bflat to B conversion just before a gig and that worked perfectly fine, recently saw another piper playing an home converted B as well, possibly Liam O Flynn.
Many things will do the job. The Bflat to B conversion process has been described here in some detail by Bill Haneman, among others.
That’s true Mr Gumby but Torrin and MTGuru kind of covered the conversion, and haven’t you just suggested your own personal favourites?
Well, no I didn’t. I responded to your post with two alternatives that would also do the job.
But the point on my mind was really that this sort of thread are all too often overwhelmed by recommendations for just about every whistle under the sun, which at the end of the day defeats the purpose.
But never mind, just venting a bit (at the time of posting I was on a fast in preparation for a poking and probing session at the Endoscopy unit of Ennis General but that’s done now and I have had my coffee fix)
Although this is technically a fife, it is in B and will play as a whistle by adjusting the tuning head and obviously playing it as a flute.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sandner-B-Fife-flute-/271505718238?pt=UK_Woodwind_Instruments&hash=item3f37007bde
I’ll second the link to Burke Whistles. I own a Burke Bnat in brass and it’s my favorite of all for its tone and complexity(even if I only get to use it for solo work). Don’t hurt yourself or your ears trying to make a cheap Bb whistle play correctly in Bnat.
Oh, ye of little faith! While individual results will vary with the Bb to B hack on a Gen it is still a very viable route to take which can result in a darned nice whistle - especially when you consider availability and costs.
Sure, I own a brass Burke Bnat(and a couple dozen other Burkes). And I do like that whistle a lot- good tone, good performance, etc.. Still, a Gen Bb is a pretty nice sounding whistle, IMO and in the opinions of many other players as well. A person could hack quite a few Bb’s down for considerably less money than the cost of a Burke. You could buy, what, 20 or so Gens for the cost of the Burke.
Don’t knock it unless you’ve tried it.
Feadoggie
I’ve played quite a few burkes, and tried a couple in b at his booth once.
The generations I made to play in b are much better in my opinion (at least for my taste).
The instructions posted by Bill Haneman will work. I just chopped approx. 3/4" off the top and approx. 1cm off the bottom. Don’t use those measurements though… I don’t recall the exact amount and in any case my b set is flat of a440 (well, the b that would be at a440), so my whistles are a touch longer than needed possibly.
I didn’t need to carve any holes, everything ended up being in tune with just the two cuts.
Those measurements and procedures are quoted and linked to in the “Tweaks” sticky at the top of this forum. So they are now more easily available for anyone that is interested. No more searching the boards for the answer. Thanks again to Bill Haneman, Tommy, pancelticpiper and everyone else who have shared how they go about doing this modification so that others have a good starting point and a good chance of success with their first attempt. Fewer Bb whistle will go to the grave early as a result of their willingness to share.
Feadoggie
Yes.. brave and noble they were.
My X whistles are kept in separate box so they are not forgotten…and I remember that I already tried it that way. 
Hi Guys, first and foremost let me say thanks to all who replied to my original post although it did tend to enter “mission creep” insofar as it became a topic of ones favorite whistle maker instead of how to doctor a Bb whistle into a B whistle which is what I had originally asked for. However, all the replies made interesting reading and produced the names of a few whistle makers I had not heard of so thanks for that information.
In the end I followed the measurements of Bill Haneman and the result is a converted Bb whistle that now plays in B. I had only one problem and was the bottom note (B) playing flat but not really enough for me to chop some more of the bottom of the whistle in case I went just a tad too far and ended up with bottom B playing sharp. SO, - I used a wooden tapered plug (left over from whatever) and tapped this in small increments into the bottom of the whistle until it became “flared” (like a trumpet) enough to play “spot on” in B.
I now have a B whistle that plays well enough in tune and “good enough for jazz” as they say. One small caveat though but certainly not a complaint but a bonus; the whistle is now very much louder. Not by a tiny amount either but by a fair margin over my others. Certainly the loudest of my Generation whistles, F, Eb, D and C. As to why I have no idea unless it’s because I have now cleaned all the crap out of the mouthpiece and tube and polished the both the inside of the bore and the outside. Its a brass whistle by the way.
So once again,thanks to all contributors. I’m now off to accompany piper Ronan Brown with my B whistle. On the CD I have of him anyway 
Mike
“Mission creep”? How many times do you need to read how to convert a Bb into a B?
Oh dear - hope it went ok. (I’m assuming that you weren’t the one doing the poking.)
The bouzouki player in my new band, “Smoogh” is a medic. Our fiddler has just ordered some new rubber replacements for her chin rest. Dr Bouzouki (sadly not his real name) thought that she could have saved her money and that a 24" catheter would have done the job perfectly adequately, which made me wonder at what point do musicians look at everything they see with a view to turning it into something musical. I know I do.
Back to sleep - see you in another 100 years.