so my whistle grew a bunch of gunk in its windway. i have a syn (:D) so the windway is curved. i tried a thorough soap and watering but it’s still in there. anyone have any ideas to help me unstuff my poor whistle’s throat?
thanks!
I had a syn once. It was acually unique among whistles in that the fipple had a brass pin holding it together. one end of the pin had no ‘button’ to keep it in place so I was able to gently push the pin out and take the fipple apart. Then I could wash the parts in soap and water and (gently) put the pin back in with the fipple re-assembled.
The whistle would then be, a, er… clean as a whistle 
you might be able to push the gunk out with a paper matchstick or some similar cardboard.
When I got my whitecap from Mack Hoover, he sent along a few of these brisly little dental hygiene objects to clean out the windway with. I have no idea what they’re called or where you’d get them, but they are indeed great for cleaning out windways.
Perhaps he’ll see this and tell us more about them… or you could PM him and ask…
Mack Hoover got me stuck on the teeth bristle brushes too. They’re available in the floss section of your favorite drug store. They work great on windways and on teeth!
Same here on the Mack Hoover solution to the problem. Good luck!
Reg
Hi Jaime,
if your gunk is on the top or bottom of the windway then a pipecleaner or spikey toothbrush should remove it alright. It sometimes happens though, that a players exhalation condensations cause the aluminium around the windway sides and down further where you can’t see it under the mouthpiece and around the fipple plug to oxidise. This is a real problem for some players but not for others. Here’s the advantage of having it all held together with a brass pin, pop out the pin and disassemble the parts. Clean as necessary. Reassemble. Be careful and gentle! Use a smear of vasoline on the aluminium for future protection. If you stuff it up, I’m here, put it in the mail.
At this point I would recommend that for syn whistles at least, a good rinse out with warm soapy water after playing does no harm at all, especially for ‘caustic blowers’.
Hope that helps!
you can slip some dental floss in the windway to scrub it. It will also reduce condensation buildup if you use waxed floss.
Angelo
thanks all! for some reason i hadn’t thought about actually sticking something down there to push it out. i just used some folded paper. it worked!