I just wanted to let you know about the new developments in the Elves work shop as we have made quite a few changes in the past year.
We are now offering all of our whistles in Brass. The Brass whistles are available in all the same colors as the Copper as well as polished Brass, coated or natural.
We are now offering a choice of Delrin or Oak fipple plugs for our regular sized whistles (C & D etc). The lower whistles come exclusively with Delrin plugs as will the tiny whistles.
We are now taking orders for the Elf Song Low D whistles! These are available in Brass or Copper with Delrin fipple plugs.
Quite a few new keys are now being made, the whistles now come in Tiny: G, F, F#, E, High: C, D, Eb & E, Medium: Bb & A (custom orders) & Low D.
If you would like more information, please feel free to contact me off board or check out our web site.
Thanks to everyone for your support and great company,
Sandy, why do you offer the choice of oak or delrin for fipple plug? I mean, isn’t the oak ultimately less stable over the years? Is it just for customer preference or do you think they offer positive differences for various tastes?
Just a guess on my part, but probably for the same reason I kept building the Village Smithy with ebony long after I hated the stuff with a purple passion - you got a lot of fipple plug stock, you use it up. Sandy?
BTW, Your whistles are utterly awesome!
Bill Whedon
Serpent Music
My current Elfsong has a wooden fipple plug that is lacquered or glazed or finished like that. I’ve had it for some time. It’s comfortable, tasteless (Not in appearance), and doesn’t clog and is holding up perfectly. I generally prefer delrin plugs and hope to have future Elfsongs with Delrin, but this one works really well. The sound speaks for itself…so no ill effects there as well.
I am still offering Oak on the High, E,Eb,D&C whistles because in those keys I think it sounds as good as if not better than the Delrin. I started making the whistles using wood and am still in love with the look and feel of it. I like the soul that comes with wood and would like to be able to offer it for as long as people are interested. I also like that wood offers a quieter alternative to the Delrin which in turn offers more volume.
On the lower whistles, I am finding the Delrin to be more stable so I am not using the wood anymore for those keys.
The wooden fipples are coated inside and out with a non-toxic, tough, clear coating that dries to a glass like finish. This helps to keep the moisture from getting to the wood.
I am also really impressed with Delrin, the sound, look, feel and ease with working it. So there you go, I offer both because I like both!
Sleep? Elves don’t need sleep, they live on chocolate!
Well, now I am fascinated by delrin. I never thought I would hear of a synthetic that resonated more than wood? Unless the loudness is actually a function of hardness? In other words, by imparting character, the wood might be preventing full resonance…hmmmm. So the tradeoff of perhaps, a warmth, is less volume.
An exception is graphite. A few guitar builders have experimented with graphite and found that its very resonant but less likely to crack than wood (no grain).
Just a shameless plug… Have had my Elfsongs over a year and love them. Still play them on a regular basis as one of my fav 3. Other favs are my Susato and my Sindts.
Delrin is denser than wood, and when firmly attached to a tube, whatever its composition, will resonate more than wood. If you want a quieter Delrin fipple plug, you simply roughen the surface of the “downwind” end a bit. 320 grit Tri-M-Ite paper will work fine for “roughening”. I found that leaving my Delrin plugs polished by the lathe cutting, made for a more “echo-ey” voice - not unpleasant, but if you’re trying for the purity of an ElfSong, you don’t want that. Sandy?
Hi Sandy,
I am glad to hear that you are continuing to use the oak. I do reenactments and Delrin won’t get past a juried event. Please keep that thought in the back of your mind in case you ever decide you might want to change it. Give your elves an extra piece of chocolate from me… They deserve it!
Raven
Raven, do they let the paint job past or do you use natural?
Another shameless plug: I’ve had my elfsongs for close to a year now and they have almost singlehandedly staved off other whistle purchases. They are definately my main preformance whistle and are well loved by both audience and band for their delightful tone
Switchfoot,
I use a natural. Most of the time I have to go with my old faithful Clarke. It gets me thru, but sure is depressing having to play a lesser quality whistle. (Not that I am saying Clarke’s aren’t good).
Raven
(Not that I am saying Clarke’s aren’t good).