Just a reminder, Pyrex is NOT glass. It is a transparent ceramic. Don’t be surprised/disappointed if it does not respond well to glassworking techniques.
Cheers,
jb
[ This Message was edited by: brownja on 2002-02-05 13:50 ]
In danger of getting hugely off topic, it depends how you define it. Corning (who makes Pyrex) treats it as a glass, but even as a glass it does have unusual properties… anyway, I have a source for the tubing now, will be here (God willing) 2/14.
Richard
Glass is made up of pure fused Silica,the most common element on the planet. This substance is just as much a ceramic as any type of clay. Potters clay is made up of Silica,Alumina and Ferrous Oxide(iron)with other impurities that make it opaque.
Clear alumina(aluminum)can be made with silica resulting in a more “plastic” glass. I suspect this is the origin of Pyrex-Glass.
All a Hall Crystal Flute needs is an attached windway,sometimes seen on fifes,to become a sideblown whistle.
(Tyghress): The tone of the acrylic flute is a great deal like a hardened copper or aluminum flute,in my opinion(modern marbles are made of this stuff). I use automotive anti-fog coating on the inside but human spit is a good anti-fog agent as well(eeeuuuwww).
Extruded glass tube can be found at Glass Blower supply sites and Lab Supplies sites too.
Thomas, thanks for the info, and for reminding me of saliva and its anti-fogging. As a scuba diver, I should have thought of that!
Anyone out there know about a fellow named Pete Fountain. He uses a crytal mouthpiece on his clarinet. Thats why I thought it might sound shrill. He gets a more trebly thin, almost transparent tone out of the ol licorice stick.
I just did a search on yahoo “Clarinet crystal mouthpiece” and got a bunch of pages to check out. The ones I did look at all raved about the characterists of a crystal mouthpiece. A common thread was it being very responsive and greatly improving the tone. So there you have it. You folks just might be onto something great.
One more thing, if a clarinet mouthpiece can be made out of glass, surley a whistle mouthpiece can as well. A clarinet mouthpiece has some very sharp edges.
Jack
PS what about a crystal mouthpiece with a metal tube, to cut down the chances of breaking.
Just to add my two cents in here…
Material on a whistle body is very evidently secondary as far as sound is concerned.
The part of the whistle that determines most of the sound is the mouthpiece area, and specifically the fipple (windway) and labium (the ramp thing…). This means that if you want the sound of a crystal clarinet or flute, you really need the mouthpiece to be made out of glass/pyrex/whatever.
Even more important is the design of themouthpiece, its smoothness and so forth.
Last comes the body… But on whistles this part doesn’t matter nearly as much as on instruments like the clarinet of trumpet.
Nico
Hey Thomas H - does that anti fog stuff work on the Hall’s flutes…do you think? I haven’t tried the Jet Dry on them. They seem to cloud up with condensation right away which seems more unsightly than anything. Gm