Yeah, thanks, Zub, that’s the URL i never can find when i want it. Now if i were smart i’d store it somewhere, but no, i’m not smart so i won’t. 
My gut feeling is that Le Bol Ton is a little overpriced.
g
Just because the US dollar is down the drain 
Seriously, on patents:
nothing would forbid someone, individual or company, to:
buy whistles
drill the body (or better, plug)
fit an electret mike…
Having a patent doesn’t automatically make you any money.
The best kept secret is best kept secret.
Any individual can build anything they want to, patents don’t stop do-it-yourselfers make making things. They only give the patent holder the right to sue someone who is offering the work to another person.
That’s what i meant. He might make more money if there were more people making these electro-acoustic intruments, which would help create a demand for his instruments. I thought that was ironic. For the uninitiated like me, many patents (like this one!) seem outright silly. Yeah, he drilled a hole in the recorder and stuck a microphone there. Big deal! It’s a brute force approach, not exactly subtle or difficult in any way. But i understand that someone who makes his living out of these things will probably have a different opinion.
In any case, whistles are not hard to mike on stage, and since a lot of people will use several whistles in a performance, it’s probably easier to use one microphone than having all your whistles wired and keeping those wires from crossing and tangling in creative ways.
g
Maybe it could be picked up by a pressure transducer instead of microphone.
BTW: On topic with this thread, Dylan Menzies made a Cyber Whistle a few years ago:
http://www.angelfire.com/apes/dylanmenzies/work/cyberwhistle/cyberwhistle.html
That’s the one I meant!
“Patent pending” may mean patent applied for, but is no guarantee a patent will actually be awarded.
Kevin Krelll
It would be nice to practice with earphones, and not disturb anyone!
One could also play Low-D sounds, with high-D fingerings, as well.
The air pressure switch, would only be used to flip to different octives, and possibly control volume.
But I believe that whistle cross-fingering techniques, among other things,
may present a challenge, when represented as an electrical schematic.
But they do make electronic bagpipe chanters.
Whatever the case, if you find a circuit diagram for an electronic pennywhistle, send it to me, and I’ll try to layout the circuit board,
as a fun project!
Roy
Just for information, the very busy Research and Development division at Jubilee Music Instrument Co as been in communications with another who does embeded circuit design work. The desire to build a MIDI Tinwhistle that will deliver the signal from the whistle to the MIDI output device via RF link.
This is not an announcement of new product, right now we’re just planning, plotting, etc. It could take awhile before anything is made.
I’m thinking of making this purely a six-hole whistle. It would have an octave and program change button but the fingering would all be cross-fingered for accidentals and maybe a switch or something to change keys.
Main point, it has to be simple.
Hi guys,
I never really take part in any discussion (full time lurker !?), but since you are talking about Philippe Bolton, I thought I would.
The man is well known among recorder players. I’ve met him for the first time 6 years ago, he had only made a soprano D body and nothing else. the rest of the instrument was a Susato soprano D fipple. The following year, at a music exhibition in Paris, he had finished the instrument, so I played it. Unplugged, it’s a good whistle, it looks exactly like a wooden Susato (that’s the model he used). Plugged, it’s quite impressive. It’s very pure (a bit too much, too close to a recorder…). I asked him if he would consider making a low D.
He asked to see a few low whistles first, so I brought many samples (Overton, Kerry Pro, Alba, Silkstone…), and tried to explain what I was expecting from a low whistle. A year later, when he showed me the whistle, I was really disappointed Unplugged, the instrument was very very quiet, not really responsive, and the sound again was very pure (I know some people like that, but I don’t), it looked like a magnified version of his soprano D. Plugged, It was OK (no more volume problems), but not as good as the little one. Too much money for what it was. I really don’t think electro accoustic instruments (and whistles) are his main source of income. Carlos Nunez owns a Bolton electro accoustic recorder, but I’ve never seen him playing it live.
Zub, if you want to meet the man, he goes to St Chartier (bleazey, J. Swaine and many others go there with beautiful instruments) and Musicora (paris) but if you come to this latter just for him, you might be disapointed.
Glen