Sometime back, I started a thread (and a bit of a row) about keyed whistles. And so now, (drum roll please) in my never ending quest to confuse (at least myself) and stir things up, I offer the following;
Anyone know who Sam Wesley, Sr. is? Anyone ever seen one of these in the “flesh”? Anyone (beside me) want to try playing such a thing ? Anyone want to build one? Is this long awaited marriage between whisteldom and flutedom?
I know Daniel at Jubilee has been working on a keyed whistle but this claims to be a true endblown flute. For those of us who can’t do the posture or have the right lips …
Hehe! there are a bunch of these. Sandy Drellinger (famous headjoint maker) makes a vertical headjoint. Other people make vertical flutes for persons with disabilities.
Patents are stupid. They deny the existence of parallelism in design. Maybe the gods should’ve patented humans. Then there’d still be only one, and he’d be wanking instead of procreating.
That said, what’s wrong with just slapping a Serpent Python head on any old Boehm flute. I hereby place the design of the Serpent Python head in the public domain. Also the Anaconda head, the Viper head, and the Village Smithy head. Build away, gang!
sheesh!
serpent
Serpent, you are man after my own heart! Now if I can just lay my hands on a Boehn flute… Serpent , if I can get my hands on a flute, will you fashion a head for it? Anyone got one they would like to donate for a little experimentation. I promise we won’t hurt it (much).
Yes!! I will, indeed, fashion a whistle head for your Boehm flute! And it will play as well as or better than, the original, or my name’s not Andre Zybixko! Oh… you mean … it’s not?? Damn… Ah well, I’ll give it a shot anyhow!
serpent
OK then! Hot Damn - I’m going on ebay and shopping for a flute (unless someone feels like stepping up and donating one for this worthy experiment). If I can find a flute that doesn’t break the bank, I will ship it to Serpent (or Andre Zybixko or whatever the hell this name is )and commission him to build a head for it. Stay tuned - this could become the mother of all frankenwhistles!
Just got back from dinner. Had an additional idea. If I can come up with a flute and Serpent fashions a head for it, perhaps we could circulate this frankenwhistle among some of the “switchhitter” whistlers/flutists (come on - you know who you are ) in our little community to get their reaction. Maybe Dale the Wise has some suggestions…
I have a Boehm flute here that is in need of pads. It has no taper. Once you’ve set the position of the cork, it never moves. Same thing can be done with a plug in the fipple. I do all that stuff with my whistles before they ever go into production. If you’re using reasonably symmetrical and identical materials, it’s not rocket science to get everything working, lock it down, and have lurvly repeatability! Surely you don’t think us whistlesmiths measure each whistle individually!?
Cheers,
serpent
Well, on a Boehm-system, there is a bit of taper to the head, narrower towards the cork end. This is there to bring the third octave better into tune, and even though there is supposed to be “one correct” taper, the taper actually used by flute builders varies somewhat from maker to maker. It is typically described as parabolic, but that’s not entirely correct.
That said, there is more than one way to get a taper. The tube itself can be cylindrical, for instance, and you could have a pointed cork facing that would extend into the bore of the headjoint to produce a taper. Or you could even shape a piece of plastic and glue it to one side of the headjoint. As long as the bore narrows towards the cork, I don’t think you’ll find it matters much whether it is symmetrical to the human eye.
This reminds me of a beast I’ve read about but never seen one of: there were apparently a few Boehm-system recorders made. Would this not be a wooden version of what you are trying to produce in metal?
This sounds fascinating…if you come up with a working flute head, I’d love to try one!!!
Interesting that you can go and patent the Boehm system…
For the mouthpiece, there’s also prior art to be found in the musical instrument section of the Germanic National Museum in Nuremberg. I have to go and look for maker and period, though, the small booklet I have from the museum doesn’t list it.
Having experimented with revesed boehm and boehm tapers of diffent % bore reduction and length, on the whistle the reverse works better and the important thing seems to be the length of the taper.
If anyone wants to have ago I’d point them at Zoobie as he led me astray down this dark and unending quest for a minimum of 3 full octaves.
Richard.
marriage between whisteldom and flutedom? 
Now if I can just lay my hands on a Boehn flute… Serpent , if I can get my hands on a flute, will you fashion a head for it? Anyone got one they would like to donate for a little experimentation. I promise we won’t hurt it (much). 
Play my flute like a whistle . Oh yes but what a price for the head joint. Back to the drawing board. 
)and commission him to build a head for it. Stay tuned - this could become the mother of all frankenwhistles! 