I’ve got quite a collection of cheap whistles now; some good, some not so good. The main problem is intonation (particularly with my Generations) so I wondered if anyone has produced a definitive guide for fixing errant whistles.
Before I start surgery, here’s my plan - comments welcome.
Cover all the holes and get the bell note in tune by adjusting the head position. (Or should I get the G in tune instead and adjust tube length?)
tape all except the B3 hole
3a) if B3 is flat, enlarge the hole slightly by filing the upper edge of the hole until it’s fixed
3b) if B3 is sharp, tape over the upper edge of the hole
when B3 is in tune, remove tape from B2 and tape or file until B2 is in tune
repeat with B1, T3, T2, T1, until all holes are fixed
I’m concerned about the effects on the second octave, and would also like tips / comments on fixing flipping. I know that Guido has some useful comments on adjusting home made whistles.
Do they need surgery? I have had an interesting little discussion with Jerry F. about this after you posted an RTTA reading to the ‘cheapie’ thread. Maybe Jerry can give us some thoughts here.
The whistle is not a push-button instrument that sound a particular pitch. You have a job there too, within reason. You listen while you play and adjust your playing a bit. Very rarely, in my experience, a Generation will need surgery for re-tuning.
That’s a good question, and we’ve talked a lot about the influence that a player has on the tuning/intonation of a whistle. Perhaps to keep the topics seperate I should have said something like “in order for me to play a specific Generation in tune, it will need adjusting”. It’s very probable that you might be able to play the same instrument “better” than I can (here “better” meaning more in tune, but you’re a “better” player than me in many other ways too) (Possibly vice versa with Sweetones though.)
Agreed. But there comes a point when it’s a losing battle if you have to adjust your playing drastically to pull the same note into tune each time. I think it’s a given that there are whistles out there that could do with a little surgery.
Well, Jerry suggested a return match with my Generation…
I’m not quite comfortable with the idea that this is a competition.
I am, however, interested in discovering as much as possible about the various factors that affect whistle performance.
I don’t believe it’s necessary to test the exact same Generation. My experience with Generations is that the tonebodies are identical. They’re mass produced on tooling that’s made for the purpose, and there’s nothing to get out of adjustment from one batch to the next.
Out of hundreds of Generations I’ve handled, the tubes have all been exactly alike except two. Those tubes had the toneholes spaced identically to every other Generation except they were offset towards the bottom, indicating that the machine operator had not placed them all the way on the tooling before making the holes.
I have already agreed with Jerry to get myself a new Nickel Generation (I sold my last one to a board member who was afraid of picking one himself) and give it a test drive. At the moment I have only a few of the older models and a tube left headless after I tried StevieJ’s recommended hot air tweak and melted the head when going for it with a paintstripping gun some years ago.
Ah, the joys of message boards. No, it’s not a competition - apologies if that’s how I sounded. I think we’re all after discovering as much as possible about the various factors that affect whistle performance. But allow me a little puckish exuberance and the occasional sly dig in the ribs.
That makes good sense. Hole spacing should be easy to control in a mass-production environment (excepting changes in design, like the B3 hole placement on C Sweetones for instance - I’ll add a photo when I’m back in the office to show what I mean).
But what about the good Generation / bad Generation folklore? or swap the word “Generation” with virtually any other make of cheapie. Is that due to the plastic mouthpieces? I guess it’s easier to miss defects there, since the injection moulding process has more tolerance than drilling the holes.
And what do I do with my whistles with apparent poor intonation?
Here’s a snip from pancelticpiper’s post, which is interesting in that his take is that all Generations need fixing (is this because he plays in a style that means they need fixing, or…?). This is consistant with Jerry’s experience that the hole spacing is the same on every Generation, but Jerry, I get the impression that you think the hole spacing doesn’t need fixing, but I may be jumping to conclusions.
I’ve included the Susato comment to show that this isn’t just a Generation thing.
I’ll be very interested to hear what Peter makes of a new Generation.
I’ve included the Susato comment to show that this isn’t just a Generation thing.
I’ve got 4 Susato’s of various calibers and they are all dead on according to my tuner. All are recent versions and it was the intonation that impressed me about 'em. Older Susato’s maybe? Plastic whistles are much easier to fix. The holes can be filed with melted plastic of matching color/type and re-drilled. Parafin, epoxy, hot glue, and bondo work too.
I’ve filled and re-drilled PVC homemade jobs lots of times. You back up the hole with brass tubing and puddle in melted pvc with a soldering iron.
You can do the same with brass bodied whistles by first cleaning the hole, back it with aluminum tubing, flux, and puddle some non-lead solder. File smooth, redrill. What’s your time worth?
