Does anyone know if it is possible to buy a plastic (I guess it would have to be plastic?) whistle head that would fit the body of a concert flute? Thus making it into a large whistle with lots of keys, and perhaps an attitude problem. Has anyone tried this?
Cheers,
Hooch
The problem is that a fipple is not enough.
You need a sort of headjoint, because the blade should be almost at the same position of the embouchure hole with respect to the bottom of the pipe. Moreover I guess that it must be of the same diameter of the body of the flute, otherwise you will have an acustic impedence discontinuity at the joint. You can try to make one if you find a pvc pipe with the right diameter.
Or you can try a shakuhachi headjoint (see here) 
Stefano - Thank you so much for your reply. What a brilliant thing!
I seem to remember that many years ago I saw plastic tops for flutes so that children could learn the fingering without the difficult blowing. But what you suggest looks a much better idea. It even sounds very flute-like on their demo despite the wooden head joint. (I always was told that only the head joint gave the tonal properties, but perhaps that is not true then).
I just cant play the transverse flute anymore due to its squintiness and general awkwardness, and I only got back into music 'cos I got a low whistle last Christmas (it’s great - so symmetric). Now I am quite excited that the old flute wont have to languish under the bookcase for ever more.
Cheers,
H
You need the right length for the head and maintain good bore diameter.
I’ve made these before. Using Nickel-Silver tubing (which flutes are made of in some case), the windway notch is cut out and filed. A plug and a shroud to cover the windway.
It however will make the flute sound more like a narrow bore whistle and a mechanical fipple limits the range of a flute to a little over 2 octaves.
Your best bet, look for one of these used: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7417734522
Loren
Does anyone know if it is possible to buy a plastic (I guess it would have to be plastic?) whistle head that would fit the body of a concert flute?
Go for it . . . and tell us how it went . . . 
Thanks for your responses.
That EKLUTE thingy is more like what I was thinking of (I wonder why no one makes them any more?) Daniel_Bingamon, did you ever make any to sell…?
So it seems that that kind of fipple head joint gets you a two-and-a-bit octave ‘chromatic whistle’, but the shakuhachi end-blown head joint would retain more of the quality and range of the original flute? (Why is that?)
I am really interested in the shakuhachi idea. It really looks (and sounds from their website) the business. But it also looks a very delicate thing - expensive too - and I would be scared that I would damage the bamboo.
There seems to be at least one person making shakuhachi of pvc, but he says he does not make them to go into Boehm flutes. And it looks quite a difficult undertaking to make such a blowing edge:
http://www.navaching.com/shaku/mouth.html
But for anyone keen to experiment maybe there would be a market for such a thing. I didn’t realise until I started looking into this but it seems you can hardly find a flute player without carpal tunnel syndrome or something to complain about. There are a few other weird and wonderful things out there for anyone else contemplating the same problem:
http://www.flutelab.com/index.htm
http://www.drelinger.com/brochure/uprite_brochure4.htm#brochureTop
but neither look totally satisfactory.
Cheers,
H
So it seems that that kind of fipple head joint gets you a two-and-a-bit octave ‘chromatic whistle’, but the shakuhachi end-blown head joint would retain more of the quality and range of the original flute? (Why is that?)
'cause it really is a flute, not a whistle. No fipple and windway to focus air to the blade- you have the make the embouchre yourself. It does have a more focused, thin tone though, closer to the whistle. Personally I think it’s a lot harder to get a sound out of a shakuhachi or quena than a transverse flute.
There seems to be at least one person making shakuhachi of pvc, but he says he does not make them to go into Boehm flutes. And it looks quite a difficult undertaking to make such a blowing edge:
I make simple notch-flutes out of PVC; you can get a good notch pretty easily. Either just whittle away, or drill a hole, cut of a bit less than half the hole, and then whittle away. My results look pretty crude, even after sanding; but the point is, they work! (and sound pretty nice in my humble opinion)
But then again, that fella’s results are probably much better quality. I’ll definately have to try that sometime. But the point is, with a drill, saw, knife, some sandpaper, and a few hours you can make a fun little notch-flute for yerself, and assumedly a mouthpiece for your Boehm too (that’s another project I’ll have to try), given the right width of tubing. You can also use a hammer to sorta simulate the conical bore of the boehm headpiece, though I don’t think it does this perfectly.
Daniel_Bingamon, did you ever make any to sell…?
Check out his website, http://tinwhistles.us/ All kinds of cool stuff there.
This is what I’ve seen before. I wonder how well it plays…
-Casey
Daniel_Bingamon, did you ever make any to sell…?
Check out his website, > http://tinwhistles.us/ > All kinds of cool stuff there.
Aha! He has a website. Thanks for that. Sorry, understanding comes slowly sometimes…
Oh yes that looks like a good thing that he makes and much less than $500. I shall get one while I save up for the shakuhachi.
When I originally asked this question I just wanted the flute to be a whistle because sometimes it is annoying not to have a G# or whatever and know there is one sitting under the bookcase, but really it would be even better if the flute could still be a flute.
I like the idea of trying to make one. Thank you for the tips. (Not sure I see where the hammer comes in. You dont have a website, do you?) At least it would show me if I was going to find it a possibility to get a noise out of it.
I notice the one on the shakahachi website is much wider than the flute. Presumably if I started with a pvc pipe that fits inside the flute then the headjoint and blowing edge would be a bit narrower than it could be. Maybe that adds to the whistle like sound, and a wider one would sound more flutey, do you think?
Ask Jessie, she’s had a couple of them I believe. The one in the Ebay link I posted was her’s - I just googled “Eklute” and a link to that finished auction came up.
Loren
I think I do have another one. It plays fine in the first octave and takes a bit of air in the second. It’s a nice way to0 go chromatic if you don’t want to learn how to blow a flute properly.
If I can find it, I’d sell it for $200.
~Jessie
And the third octave?
Just out of curiosity, Jessie, why did you have so many? (Are you perhaps a flute teacher?)
H
It becomes a whistle, not a flute. There isn’t a third octave.
No, I’m not a flute teacher. I had two of them because I had been looking for one for years before finding it, and the store happened to have two, so I bought them both.
My feadog has a third octave every whistle I’ve played does.
Are all of your windows broken? 
Forgive my ignorance, but isn’t part of flute playing the mastering of the embouchure?
I’m guessing you don’t have many friends left…
Loren
Or hearing. . .
Say what???
Loren