Hi fellow whistlers, I just want to share with you a funny(?) thing that happened to me yesterday.
I have been making my whistles starting from Guido Gonzato’s tutorial but departing from it in that I now make the mouthpiece without the use of a supplementary cap. I was quite satisfied with this whistle especially since it was just my fourth and the first with no cap.
I sanded the mouthpiece so smooth and in a shape so comfortable for my mouth that it was really a joy to play it.
Too bad the wooden fipple block tended to be a little lose when dry and this caused it to move back and forth in the whistle itself, I was planning to reshape another fipple block to fit more snugly but I have been lazy.
So, because of this I usually warmed it up a bit before use, often just by blowing heavily into it for a while. Yesterday I was a little bit careless in doing this and the fipple block was way too lose and in the act of breathing in after the first blow, I sucked it in and swallowed it whole in a split second!
After a first brief moment when I worried if I was going to suffocate and die off a fipple, I realized it wasn’t that big and anyway it went down the “right” pipe.
Now all that remains is a hollow whistle barrel, a sense of hilarious humiliation for having been so dumb and the sadness of having lost my favorite whistle (so far).
I hope that I did at least put a smile on your faces for the day.
Having watched Weasel whistles being made, I’m exceedingly happy to report that they were NOT made in this way. I’m particularly happy because Glenn taught me his techniques and I’d hate to do this…
Unfortunately I haven’t been able to spot the lone bowel-naut (yet). The first couple of occasions for analysis turned out to be, from what I could superficially observe, disappointing. All in all I might have missed it, too bad in case for I wanted to give a last salute for having served me so well.
This should also answer mutepointe’s interesting inquisition in that I have no interest and intention of restoring the service of said fipple-block, but not for the reason many might think of, rather because a substitution was scheduled and a substitute is, by now, already in place, and seems better than before.
Should I ever doubt that Fipple has not left the building, I will consider the pill solution as a finding tool!
P.S. to the mods
I though this topic could be more poststructural than strictly whistle related, so I’m sorry if I posted there.
I’m bringing this up just to know better and not post in a wrong section again.
Thanks
I was watching Tosh.O on Comedy Central last week and he played a clip of a skateboarder doing a #2 while skateboarding down a neighborhood road. Of course we want the whole video. Katherine, do you have teenage boy tendancies to even think such a thing?
I work almost exclusively with men… and I live with a guy who thinks farts are hilarious. (Not to mention the fact that I have an exceedingly dirty mind and mouth.) I know no other way of thinking.
(I’m totally not gonna lie: that was the FIRST and ONLY thing I thought when I read that. Upon further contemplation, I realized that perhaps the video being requested was of a re-do of the swallowing, not the, uh, end results.)
Fasten your plugs in the tube!
