My favourite whistle is my Clarke’s Trad in D. I carry it everywhere with me on the off chance I might get a moment alone to play.
It is a bit over a year old and is the unpainted version. I’ve been noticing something about it for a month or 2 that is beginning to trouble me. It has begun to screech on it’s higher notes.
At first it was only when I played the highest D, but it has slowly crept downward and is starting to affect the high A as well.
As far as I can tell I have not done anything to it that could have caused this. The whistle has always had a slight ding in it that doesn’t seem to affect the tone. I polished some finger staining off it a few months ago - but again that didn’t seem to cause any problems.
It doesn’t seem to do it so much when played cold, but as soon as it warms up the screech returns.
It is possible that for whatever reason I’m drooling more, or my technique has slipped for some reason. But I can still get crisp high notes on my much newer Clarke’s Trad C.
Is there something in the whistle itself that could have brought this on? Perhaps the fipple block has changed shape somehow and is no longer providing a good seal?
The wooden block is the most likely candidate, since the metal parts are not likely to have changed.
Take a look through the windway… any extraneous material in there? Sight along the top of the block. Can you see a sliver of daylight beneath the sound producing edge? If your block has swelled upwards too much, you may not see that bit of light. In that case you could try to use a hook or “L” shaped implement of some sort to pull that edge up a TINY bit.
If you don’t play this particular whistle for a while, the swollen block might shrink back. If that works, you might want to get another of the same and alternate them, giving each block some time to dry between playing.
I can believe that letting the fipple block dry out between playings could help - so I like the idea of having an alternate.
I’d been toying with the idea or ordering a tweaked Clarke Trad in D from the whistle shop anyway - so I just went ahead and ordered one today.
Any excuse, eh?
I’ve had something similar happen to me. I often keep my whistle in my back pack and play it on the roof during my lunch break. Probably from being bumped and jostled in my bag, mine was also suffering from a progressive screeching problem. It turns out that the windway had been pressed down too far. I pried it up using a piece of plastic, the tail end of a medium sized zip tie worked wonderfully. Now it’s my best playing whistle by far… or at least the one I enjoy playing the most here lately.
I gave that a bash Joshua. It seems like a fine art. A micron either way and the whistle sounds awful.
I think I just about got it where the high A and B no longer screech, but the high D is still extremely shrill. Truthfully I’m not even sure the high D was ever not shrill, so I guess that’s not a big deal.
Thanks for the input.