Well, not actually “the” blowhole, I just used that to hopefully get some attention
Anyway, there was a fairly recent post (~past 3 weeks?) in which a whistle maker spoke of beveling the end of the sound tube on the inside.
I am wanting to know what that does to the sound of the whistle. The answer was in the post, but I can’t remember what it is, and I can’t track it down. (I’ve tried with the search function)
Can anyone answer the question, or can you refresh me on which thread it was?
A good chamfer on the floor of the windway and small chamfer on the roof of the windway improves sound.
Cutting the top and underside of the labium affects tone.
Cutting some of the sharp edge off of toneholes inside the bore can improve stability but the way that you cut the sharp edge changes the fluid dynamics of the tonehole. A bevel or rounded inlet will make a tonehole perform as if you drilled it to a larger size, thus sharpening the pitch.
Trimming the edges of the tubing where the tuning coupler or head of the whistle goes on will prevent the flow of the air from being tripped.
For example, if someone makes a whistle from a piece of copper pipe and cuts the tubing with a pipe cutter. The sharp piece of copper protruding in the bore created by the pipe cutter will kill the sound of the whistle dramatically.
But, what I was most curious about is, a whistle maker recently announced a new model (can’t recall which maker it was, maybe Gary Humphries?) and stated that he had beveled the inside end of the sound tube, opposite the fipple. There was some mention of what acoustic advantage that imparted.
The reason I ask is, I am trying to tweak a home made copper into tune, and am very close to being statisfied, but I need to sharpen the tone just a very wee bit.
I was curious if this maneuver would be a help or hinderance to my design.
Ah, that would be me… but the idea isn’t anything new.
I was having problems with the 1st octave bell note being weak and flat in relation to all the other notes, and flaring the bell end of the tube corrected the problem.
Good luck with your copper whistle… I started out working with copper myself.
That sounds amost exactly like what my whistle is doing. Not so much a weak “D” but definitely a tad flat in comparison to the “E”.
Not many people would notice, but it’s off enough to bug me.
Interestingly: when using my electronic tuner, the note chimes in as a good “D”, and the other notes ring pretty much to tune, but when playing I can hear the bell note be not quite there.
Anyway, flairing may just be the answer to my problem, I think I’ll give it a try. And, if I screw it up: COPPER’S CHEAP!
One way that will cause the bell note to be different than rest of the notes is the measuring stick.
For instance, I have a metal stick the is marked off in millimeters and I have used it for making whistles.
I quickly discoverd that the bell note was flat and it turned out that the measuring stick had a little extra metal on the end and grinding until it was perfectly calibrated solved the problem.
Measure of 10 millimeters somewhere in the middle of the stick and mark it on paper. Then measure the first 10 mm of the stick against the piece of paper.
Or save a lot of pipe and frustration – break down and spend 15 bucks and buy a set of decent dial calipers… http://www.harborfreight.com and search on “calipers”. I have several sets, including their 12" digitals, which I don’t ever want to have to live without ever, ever again!
Or save a lot of pipe and frustration – break down and spend 15 bucks and buy a set of decent dial calipers…