It was just a matter of time really. I’m home on summer break with a garage full of tools. There are ten foot sections of PVC pipe left over from irrigation projects sitting in the yard. I couldn’t help myself.
I’ve wanted a Bb whistle for a while now but it’s so hard to convince myself to buy one when I have almost no income. Well, now I have one. I started simple. It isn’t tunable. Yet.
It went far better than I expected for the first time. I basically followed the steps in Guido Gonzato’s guide and used a really helpful spreadsheet from Daniel Bingamon’s website to pick good hole sizes and distances that worked for the pipe size I found lying around. Many thanks to both of those gentlemen for their efforts in getting folks like me to move from just playing whistles to making them.
I initially made my windway too narrow and I got a bit carried away with the file when I was enlarging it. I thought I had ruined it, but it plays nicely into the upper half of the second octave. It takes a lot of air and has a very breathy sound as a result of the rather large window. The tuning isn’t perfect, but it sounds good enough on its own.
The one thing that really surprised me most was how much of a difference a tiny change in the window size can make. Since my whistle head is essentially infinitely adjustable in positioning I suspect I’ll be playing with it quite a bit to try and get it just right.
It isn’t the prettiest looking instrument I’ve seen. In fact, it probably falls around the bottom of the spectrum as far as aesthetics go, but it’s mine in every way.
It isn’t even noon yet. I could make two more before dinner. I’ve started down that slippery path.
Update: Yes, I’m updating this already. After finishing the first whistle and going through all kinds of trouble trying to get the head just right I had an idea. Flutes don’t have all that complicated stuff up there. You just drill a big hole and plug the end right? I’m sure there’s more to it than that, but that simple idea led me into another first for me. I never played a flute before but now I have a somewhat functional high C flute(fife?). It doesn’t seem to work well in the second octave but I have no idea if that’s due to my poor craftsmanship or my poor embouchure. In all honesty, I’m amazed I can get any sound out of it at all considering that I have absolutely zero experience with flutes. I have some wider pipe. I wonder if a lower flute would be easier to play. I definitely won’t be putting all the holes in line the second time around. It’s a bit uncomfortable for the right hand.
You’re so right about tiny changes in the tone producing region making huge tone differences. This is part of the fun and frustration of whistle making. You’d think that making them all sound the same would be easy, but it sure isn’t.
Those Tipple instructions are just about what I did. I even came up with the idea of using a wine cork for the lower flute I made. I Used the whole cork though. The only part I didn’t seem to do is the bit about undercutting the embouchure. I’m not sure what he means about that since I haven’t had a good look at a real flute.
I couldn’t imagine making another whistle with exactly the same dimensions. It’s so easy to file just a bit too much or too little and that tiny change can really affect it. I need to do more work on my windway to get the upper notes to sound right. When I look down it I can’t see any gap beneath the blade so I think I need to file down the block a bit and try to lower the roof while I’m at it. I really need to find a connector piece so I can cut off the head and try different head designs without having to make a new body each time. Then, once I get one I really like, I can make other bodies in different keys.
