Hiya Folks,
I’ve finally managed to work my way through the backlog of whistle requests on my interest list. I currently have three sets available for sale.
I have one of each of the above available. All sets are D/C sets. From left to right they are sterling silver and african blackwood, brass and african blackwood, and brass and purple gidgee.
Feel free to drop me a PM or an email.
Thanks,
David
Very beautiful work.
I can’t help noticing how long your tuning slide is. Is that mainly for stability? It doesn’t seem possible to use all or even most of that length for tuning without losing intonation.
Gorgeous.
Best wishes,
Jerry
Hiya Paul,
Actually, the intonation loss is not that bad. As the fipple slides up, the volume of air inside the fipple increases…actually creating a slightly conical upper bore. And its partly for stability.
Over my years of playing I’ve found I’ve needed to adjust the fipple nearly a 1/2inch in either direction depending upon who / what instrument I was playing with. I’m sure you’ve found that different timbers respond to time and weather differently as well. The bores on Af. Blackwood, for example, will often narrow with time. Good care, proper seasoning, and care in the construction process will mitigate MOST of this, though not all. This expansion and contraction of the bore can often be seasonal as well.
SO! To answer your point, no..only about 1 inch of it is DIRECTLY useful for tuning. My whistles leave the shop so that they play in tune at A=440 with the fipple pulled out about 3/8 to 1/2inch. So the design of the slide is partly based on internal tuning mechanisms. Partyly based on structural stabilities and partly based on my philosophy of building an instrument to stand the tests of time, age, weather and hard use…and, well.. change!
All the best,
David
Thank you for noticing. 
yeah…I thought about the possible innuendo comments, then thought it’d be best to avoid those. 
Fnar fnar.
If we avoid them, they can linger for days. Best we put it out there right away so we can all move forward.
On a more serious note, those are some very beautiful whistles you’ve made. 