Last night I was looking at a cheap bamboo flute made locally, and the embouchure arrangement was quite ingenious, and easy to do.
They simply drilled an embouchure hole near the blown end, then filed a flat area on the flute surface between that hole and the end of the flute. Then they tied a flat strip of thin bamboo around the end of the flute. Where the flat strip wraps over the flat area, it forms a windway. To play, you blow from the end, down the flute, placing your lips so the air goes down the windway.
Works well. I image it would be easy to do this on a PVC whistle, substituting a ring cut from a PVC coupling, slid over the end, in place of the bamboo strip.
I wouldn’t exactly call it easy, but it can work well. This is similar to the PVC plan someone posted about a while back. I tried to search for it but couldn’t find it. The plan includes gluing a quarter section of PVC pipe on as the top of the windway, and directs the air over a hole drilled at about a 45 degree angle. The difference is that the plans shown did not include flattening the area in front of the hole.
I’ve tinkered with similar ideas using CPVC (copper-size PVC) and copper sleeves used as the top of the windway, but wasn’t able to get anything that worked repeatably. There are a lot of things that can vary. Hole size, hole angle, windway height (based on how much you file away, and the width of the windway cover), and positioning of the fipple plug relative to the hole. Too many variables can mean you go through a LOT of materials when tinkering if you’re not careful.
One of my problems is that I can usually find something that works really well, but only for a body that is a lot shorter than I want to use. I have trouble getting those lower notes to work well on half inch PVC and copper when going for the key of D.
As I posted a week or so ago, I made a low D whistle, using that method of putting a cut section of PVC on top of the pipe. I guess I got lucky, because it works well. Maybe it’s because I used 20mm conduit (~3/4 inch). When I made it, I spent a few minutes sliding the section of PVC back and forth, while blowing (before I drilled any finger holes, so it was the lowest note), until I optimised the position for the sound hole I had drilled.
I just held the drill (a 1/4 inch bit) at about 45 degrees. It isn’t easy to be accurate with the angle anyway, so I just did the best I could. I cleaned up the hole a bit but it really isn’t that neat, in fact I think I had the speed too high as there is some evidence the plastic melted a bit.
When it worked, I left well enough alone. I don’t know how much neatness matters anyway after looking at what they do in a clarke original. They just bash the metal down in the middle to form a sloppy V shape ‘blade’, and it sounds very nice!
:roll: