I have a couple of questions I hope someone on this list can answer.
I have a Burke Brass D Narrow Bore whistle that I am having a problem with. When I play it the head slides into the body and makes the whistle go sharp. It didn’t do this when it was new, but it does it all the time now. I was thinking that replacing the O ring might be the answer, but I really don’t know.
The other question is what is the best way to clean the wind way in the mouthpiece? It is too narrow for a pipe cleaner and running warm soapy water doesn’t really work very well. The best I have come up with is a narrow strip of cardboard followed by warm soapy water.
For the loose slide, you should contact Mike Burke directly. He’s very helpful.
For the windway … Definitely not a pipe cleaner; the center wire can scratch the windway severely.
I like the feather idea, if you can find the right size.
A strip of soft cardboard or heavy paper is OK, I think. A cardboard match from a matchbook can do for short windways (hold the match head as a handle). But even cardboard can scratch if there’s grit. So be careful, and do it sparingly. Even tiny changes in fipple geometry can affect the tone.
Often, just covering the window with your finger and puffing sharply a few times can dislodge bits and pieces. Or you can fill your mouth with water and blow a water jet through the windway.
If you never play immediately after eating and/or drinking, there shouldn’t be much that ends up in the windway except condensation.
Hi,
MTGURU, has a very good avatar because he always seems to give wise advice.
Please email me and I can have you send me that whistle to be fixed at no charge except for postage and handling. mdburke@burkewhistles.com
Also, I will send you instructions for cleaning too by email. I get apoplexy sometimes reading how people clean their whistles, by the way, so please write me and I will be very happy to assist you.
Thanks fellows!
All the best
Mike
Mike, I am continually tempted to buy one of your whistles. This temptation is easily resisted, however, based on the fact that I only have about $50 in my bank account.
Well yer 1/4 of the way there. Small price to pay to cure your WhOA.
But then there are all the other funky keys* of Burkes…and all the other bore diameters…and the three different Burke materials…
On second thought, getting a Burke may be the worst thing in the world for WhOA. Sort of like when they thought heroin was a great solution for getting people off opium.
Doc
* I need a C# Burke for example but have no conceivable use for one…I’m hoping someday to meet a C# UP player so I can justify the whistle…in fact, I’ve considered buying a C# UP set just so I could buy a C# whistle…but I just can’t figure out how I’d play both at once…so then I consider buying some sort of multi-track recorder so I could play both at once…Burke whistles can be very expensive.
Why are you discriminate against poor old C#?
C# is a wonderful key to play in.
Once I was hooked on my Burke DBSBT (wow i can remember the code!), i made a number of brass bodies in different keys for it’s head, to satisfy my curiosity, save money and develop whistle maker skills.
The C# was the most pleasing of the lot. In fact I prefer it over playing the D. it’s just that little bit softer. I said to myself: this is how D should sound! And in olden days D sounded like that. Only in time the pitch was relentlessly raised till it reached today’s quasy standard of 440 Hz. Even that is ignored in favour of even higher pitches by many symphony orchestras.
So I say: try out C#, it is very much worth it. And we can start a new movement for ITM to follow in the steps of Baroque musicians: the traditional D equaling modern C#.
Well, in England at least, the pitch didn’t rise to 440, it fell to 440, from the Philharmonic Pitch of A=452, which was the 19th century standard.
It’s why you see old saxophones made in the 1920’s marked LP. It stands for “Low Pitch”, which is A=440, as opposed to standard pitch, A=452.
440 was a compromise, lower than England’s Philharmonic Pitch but higher than 435 which was common in Germany etc.
Yes if you go back to the Baroque there was no pitch standard and wind instruments were all over the map, some as low as 415.
Now where the pitch has been relentlessly rising is in the Scottish Highland bagpipe world. From a bit under 440 it had levelled off at around 440 by the 1960’s, only to begin rising fairly rapidly from the late 1970’s up to around 1990 when it reached… 452, where it has stabilised at.
Ironic that it finally got up to the 19th century British standard.
Right you are Hans! Why the heck should I pretend to have any self control? After all, I play my Burke B all the time just because I love it. And I have a Water weasel Ab that I’ll never play with anything else. Then there are the Two low E Burkes I can’t part with…
I think I’ve just been thinking If I didn’t get a C# it might mean I was master of myself.
Surely if it’s part of something as important as a movement my wife would understand!
Guess I’d better call Mike so I can do my part. Long live The Movement!
That’s nothing… my stupid GHB chanter is tuned somewhere between Bb and B and I hate it. I need to order a true “A” 440 McCallum or Gibson chanter at some point so I can actually play in tune with my rock band every now and again.
From my limited understanding of the “why” the chanter has been tuned higher and higher is that people were liking a more bright or brilliant high end. Personally, I could care less about that. Listen to some old Donald MacLeod albums and you will hear a much lower pitched chanter.
I guess it’s a good thing I have a set of UPs on order so I will have more notes to work with in future.
Yes a GHB chanter in the key of B-flat at the pitch A=452 is approximately halfway between concert B-flat and concert B natural. It’s where the GHB pitch has more or less stabilised over the last decade or so.
One thing to keep in mind: GHB players use different terms to discuss the pitch of their chanters than legit/classical/orchestral players use to discuss the pitch of their clarinets etc.
So you can buy a B-flat clarinet pitched either in A=440 or A=442. GHB players would call the first a “466 chanter” and the second a “469 chanter”.
And you can buy an A clarinet pitched either at A=440 or A=442. GHB players would call the first a “440” and the second a “442” chanter.
So when I say that the GHB pitch has risen to the 19th century standard English pitch of A=452, it’s the same pitch that GHB players call “480”.
When this gets really confusing is when GHB players and makers talk about “concert pitch” or “A=440” chanters. They might mean a chanter in the key of B-flat at the pitch of A=440 (legit/orchestral terminology), what GHB players call a “466 chanter”, or they might mean a chanter in the key of A at the pitch of A=440, what GHB players call a “440 chanter”.
