As you could presume, i’m trying to tweak my Gen C whistle. It sounds decent enough, but it’s a bit sharp and breathy in the upper register, so i wanted to improve it. I did my first successful tweak to a Gen D and it’s great now.
But, i cannot, for my life, take it’s head off. I tried hot water treatment, even the freezer - hot water treatment (three times) and it won’t budge for a micron. All i have managed to do is to expand and widen existing crack on the lower part of the mouthpiece and to inflame my palms.
Is there any alternative for beheading, or am i stuck with this???
I know that Gen C’s are tough, but this is ridiculous.
I could use more force, but i’m afraid i’ll crush the mouthpiece.
I’ve never been able to get them off without damaging them.
Here’s what I do:
Get some pure acetone from the hardware store or Walmart (beauty products section). Holding the whistle with the head pointing down, using a glass eyedropper, drip two drops of acetone onto the joint where the whistlehead socket joins the tube. The socket will crack almost instantly.
Then remove the whistlehead and if it’s a brass tube, use some acetone on a tissue to remove the lacquer from the part of the tube that goes in the whistlehead socket.
Replace the whistlehead on the tube. The whistlehead will now fit correctly, with the crack slightly opened up by the tube. Take some sewing thread and wrap the socket end of the tube to completely cover the socket and reinforce the area over the crack. Paint the thread wrapping with clear nail polish to cement it to the socket and create a nice finish.
Now the whistlehead will be strong enough, and it will fit just right to allow comfortable adjustment.
(And, yes. I do this with every key of C and also key of F Generation I tweak.)
Thanks so much for the reply.
I totally destroyed my palms twisting the bugger.
Now let me see if i understood you correctly: i should use acetone to make a crack in the socket, then twist the head off?
So acetone doesn’t serve as the glue solvent, but rather as the plastic breaker?
Will it just crack the socket in one spot or it will like melt and bend the plastic outwards?
I’m curious, because i already have one crack that goes longitudinal across the socket barrel and the mouthpiece is still put.
As for the additional repair, would epoxy fix-(sh)it resin would do the job? Or a super-glue if it’s small crack?
I apologize for additional questions, but i have but one Gen C and i’d like to do this as painless as possible.
The whistlehead will come loose almost instantly when you drip the acetone on the place where the plastic socket meets the tube. The plastic will not melt or distort, except it will crack or the existing crack will open further.
Superglue will not hold because it only works where there’s close contact between the connecting surfaces. In this case, you want the tube to hold the crack open during the thread wrapping and lacquering process so that the socket interior diameter will enlarge to fit the tube correctly, rather than remain too tight as they are from the factory. I do use epoxy to fill the cracks if they extend beyond the area covered by the thread, but I only do that to make it look better. It doesn’t contribute much to the strength.
Epoxy, or any other adhesive without reinforcement such as sewing thread, is likely to fail because the forces exerted by the tube inside the socket have too much leverage against the glue joint. Wrapping thread around the socket and bonding it with clear nail polish creates a completely different strength configuration for the socket, and if done nicely, will not fail.
im haveing a similar problem with a few fedogs, i have tried boiling them, freezing them and even ‘percussive maintnence’ however there still on tight. i have yet to resort to chemical warfarte such as this as it may jepordise the organic certification of my tweeks, however im starting to get despirate!
I’ve even noticed lately with a few of the Feadog’s I’ve come across that the glue was so weak it came off with a good twist and no water. I have never met a Feadog that didn’t lose it’s top after a small drink though.
Weeeheee, i made it.
Much thanks to the master tweaker, Mr. Freeman!!!
Dripping acetone and light tapping onto the socket did miracle. Head fell off, although i widened the crack and made another one on the opposite side, but it’s not open.
Then i extended the space under the blade and filed it to be smooth. Operation was a success, patient lived.
I took some pictures:
Entire whistle.
The look of the mouthpiece. I glued a piece of gray plastic underneath the blade, and then scraped it to shape with a modeling knife. I also beveled the lower part of the windway to improve air flow dynamics.
Finished head. You can see the crack. I was scared that it may spread all the way up to the blade and ruin it, but somehow it didn’t. I need to wrap something around it to fix it.
Look from the socket-side. You can see little plastic plate glued to the bottom of the blade. I had to use tweezers, as it’s pretty touchy because of the glue.
That would be my second tweak.
Here is one recording, no usual Gen squeaking anywhere. I’m not much of a player, though.
As the Queen of Hearts said, “Of with their heads!”
I don’t have Jerry’s volume of experience and I haven’t done one in quite a while, but I’ve never yet failed to get a Gen head off with hot water…
Dain, just a word in the ear of the wise… when posting pictures, if you shrink them in an image editor to not more than 700 pixels width before uploading them to your hosting service or, depending on that service, select a preset hosted image size that observes the 700 or less setting, they won’t “bump” the page width here on C&F. Makes things much easier for us all! Vertical pixel count doesn’t much matter.
