Over the last six months, I’ve had a student playing around with making flutes out of different materials to try and get a feel for how the material affects the tone. The student comes from a classical flute background and I think I’ve converted him to keyless, so whatever the outcome, it’s been worth it.
Anyway, he’s made flutes out of copper, brass, aluminium, chrome plated copper, PVC and so on. Our final test was to gold plate some tubes to see what the effect might be (I think surface finish may be as big a factor as material properties like stiffness and density). He’s also gold plated some whistle barrels for me.
I’ll digest his report and post more later and maybe even a picture of my bling.
I dont know a GREAT deal about electroplating but I believe that it’s difficult to plate the INSIDES of a tube …
Some engines have a ‘chrome plated’ bore…so there must some way of doing it…I wonder though,about a small diameter bore,as found in our Whistles..
Good luck with your experiments..a solid gold Whistle next ? …
Lots of opinions already expressed inthe forum regarding the effects of the material on tone etc., but if you suspect surface finish is a major factor, wouldn’t polishing be quicker and cheaper than gold plating as a means to investigate? After all, the (assumed!) small quantity of gold will add little to the overall density of the whistle shaft.
You might take a shine to the idea of a gold whistle, but others will probably write it off as a gilt complex!
Yeah, I agree that there are easier ways to look at surface finish. The main thrust of the project was on changing the material rather than coating, but we have access to some clever technology that can give a very thin coating (nanoscale) so this was a bit of fun at the end.
Exactly where you were before. Assuming you were referring to me (**J**emtheflute - nothing sparkly here, no G-whizz!) I don’t do physical or existential translocation (except when I’m working…). (Not even if you deserve it, to somewhere suitably uncomfortable…)
Just as well I don’t seem to come here much these days!
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I didn’t think ya’d be back 'til next week 