Bent Whistle

Whistle
1

Hello All,

First, I am obviously a new poster, so “Hi, nice to meet everybody!”

I did a quick search on this topic, but I didn’t see anything related, so I’m sorry if this has been posted before! My Clarke whistle is now bent right about here :sniffle: :

It’s indented a bit in the middle and now the sound barely comes out. Has anyone successfully fixed this? I don’t want to make it worse by trying to fix it.

Thanks!

2

It’s hard to tell from the photo, but the Clarke Originals are supposed to be indented there, in the middle, like a V-shape. If it somehow got smashed down too much, you can carefully use a screwdriver or something to pry it back up.

Careful doing that though, and you might explain in more detail what happened and what it looks like. Did it play OK before? Did you bend it?

If it’s brand new, you may just need to get used to it. The Originals take more breath than many other whistles, and have a breathy sound. Do a search for Clarke Original tweak for some more information. Most players have purposely mashed down the windway to make the breath requirements more manageable.

Jason

3

well, nobody has answered you.
HI! Nice to have you here.

Given the low price of the whistle, if you have
the ability to unbend what’s bent, you might
as well try. The whistle is finished as is,
so you can’t make things worse, really.

Nothing to lose, IMO. I doubt that there
is much of a literature on bent whistles. If you do something
awful to a high end whistle, you can send it
back to the maker.

4

Thanks for the responses and the welcome! I’ve actually had the whistle for a few months and played it earlier in the day. When I grabbed it later, part of the metal right by the air hole was bent in. I tried pushing it out with a screwdriver, but it’s still not up to par. At least I’ve got some other whistles to play. Pity; 'twas my favorite.

5

Keep tinkering with it. For most whistles, you want that blade level with the top of the fipple plug (although a Clarke may be slightly different). If you use a tool to raise the blade, be sure not to bend the top of the windway down in the process. Something L shaped that you could use to pull the blade up would be safer. Move the blade up and down in tiny increments, testing in between until you hit that sweet spot.
You might also contact Tweamkeister Jerry Freeman about having him work his magic on it. For a tweaking fee, you’ll end up with a better whistle than you started out with.

6

‘You might also contact Tweamkeister Jerry Freeman about having him work his magic on it. For a tweaking fee, you’ll end up with a better whistle than you started out with.’

Darn good idea!

7

Thanks. I’ve actually been using a paperclip on it. Maybe if I can bend it just right I can get an L shape. :slight_smile: I just checked out the tweaking thread and saw Jerry Freeman’s name, so maybe I’ll see about that.

ETA: Success! I managed to tweak it back to playability. Thanks for all the suggestions. It would help if I had remembered what it was supposed to look like before I started messing with it, but that’s another issue.