I got my wide bore brass D about 6 months ago. It is dated 1/2000 and there’s no telling how many mouths had been on it before it got to me. It was incredibly dirty, both on the inside and the outside, but otherwise it was in excellent condition. I thought I did a good job cleaning it up. It had a fairly nice (but slightly muffled) tone, but response was sluggish and unpredictable.
In several posts I criticized the WBB for what I thought were faults in the whistle itself. As I found out, I was mistaken.
I finally got tired of having it laying around unplayed and decided to give it one more really thorough cleaning and shine it up before selling it. In the process of cleaning, I forced a flat toothpick through the (extremely narrow) windway, and the toothpick picked up some black gunk, about the consistency of dried chewing gum. I repeated this process until the windway was as clean as I could get it.
When I tried out the whistle, I was amazed. The tone had opened up and become very clear, and the response was just as I had come to expect from a Burke. I no longer intend to sell it.
As I received an email from Mike Burke, expressing concern about the condition of the whistle, I would like to add that it was not purchased from either Mike or Song of the Sea, but rather from an individual in North Carolina.
I’ve been having a little trouble with my WBB (one of my absolute favorite whistles, same batch as yours) jumping octaves on the D and E recently. I had suspected gunk, now you’ve motivated me to give it a thorough cleaning.
Not only are the pictures beautiful, they are taken in some of my favorite areas of the country. I find nothing in this country more relaxing for a vacation than the outer banks. The area just west of Mabrey mill is where my wife’s family settled very early in this country, early 1700s. Very nice picture of the mill. I may use it as basis for a painting.
Ron
Re: Whistle windways - This is a much neglected area that really needs to be cleaned thoroughly, at least a couple of times a year, more if the whistle is played daily. This is especially true for people who eat and then play without brushing or rinsing…
I can’t tell you how much disgusting crap I’ve cleaned out of the windways of some of the 70 or so used whistles I bought over the years - bleeech!! Usually these whistles sounded and played significantly better after the windway had a good cleaning. Hey, if the maker had intended the whistle to play better with all that gunk in there, he or she would have voiced the instrument with a mouth full of half chewed crackers :roll:
For the lazy guy like me, the sound by the whistle which has not been cleaned for a while is much more important. I reluctantly clean the windway only for sanitary reasons.
If I like the sound of the same whistle in both(dirty/clean) condition,the whistle meets my ideal.
This all relates to an old topic that thankfully hasn’t come up in quite a while: People used to say they unclog their whistle during performance by quickly sucking in the condensation. I gag when I think of it. I’ve used a strip of business card through the windway. Very scary. And, yes, it makes a huge difference in the sound when it’s clean.
Tony
On a backpacking forum there was a discussion of the many uses of baking soda in the wilderness, since it is environmentally friendly. One guy wrote about how to brush your teeth: “Dampen your toothbrush with water, dip it into the soda, scrub your teeth, take a mouthful of water, swish it around, and swallow.” The guy was serious. Obviously a nut case. Nobody even bothered to challenge him.
Sorry, I have no photos of Chapel Hill or pix (wink,wink,nudge,nudge) of Faith Hill.
I may shoot some in Chapel Hill this summer when it’s not so terribly crazy and congested. The town has changed a bit (understatement) since I was a student there in the mid-1950s.
