I’ve been through plenty of clogging episodes and either this is some “super-clog effect” I’ve never heard of before or it’s something else entirely that’s gone wrong. Anyway, I’m talking about my beloved Sindt C whistle. All of a sudden I noticed that the E note was very faint and hard to play clearly. Then a few minutes later, bam… nothing … when I tried to play all the lower notes.
The usual sucking in, blowing out and even resorting to wiping out the mouthpiece and tube didn’t help. I very gently probed the fipple with a straight pin and dug out some minor goo from the corners. That seemed to help enough so it could make a sound again, but the whistle’s still sounding real weak… and I’ve got a little ol’ concert coming up next week. If this situation sounds at all familiar to you, would you please tell me what you’ve done to correct it?
I’m not familiar with the type of whistle you have. First, don’t stick anything in there that could do the slightest damage if there is plastic involved. Don’t ever use a metal thing like a pin even with metal. The fact that removing some minor goo improved things makes it sound as though the head cap needs to be cleaned. Can you take it off without risking damage? Use detergent, Q-tips, a coffee stirrer, anything sort of softish but stiff. Make your cleaning things—cut up a plastic straw, I don’t know. You have to get all the gunk out of everywhere. Run strong streams of water through to rinse it out. Something must be in there unless there is actual damage to the head cap which I would think you could see.
In the future, always rinse your mouth out with water a few times before you play even if you are just drinking a beverage. After you play, generously drip a strongish detergent solution from a dropper bottle through the windway and sort of rotate the whistle so it gets into the hidey hole area. Blow into the mouthpiece to get excess solution out. Then just wipe the whistle off on the outside with a damp rag until no soapiness remains and let it dry. I had gunking up problems before I started following this routine. My whistle has stayed clean as a whistle since.
Sindts are aluminum and delrin, right? Try Hydrogen Peroxide (the stuff that foams when it gets on nasties) and follow up with rubbing alcohol and a nice warm rinse.
Yep, we did–and thanks so much! I’ve been of the minimalist school of whistle cleaning. So I not only cleaned the one that wasn’t working… I cleaned them all.
What worked was this: I used a toothpick to gently probe the corners of the fipple, then I washed the head in warm water with dish washing detergent in it. That’s all it took.
Now, I did this with a Sindt mouthpiece. When I went to clean my Burkes I did not dunk them completely in the water with the same oomph. Burke’s have those 0-rings, and I’ve heard that something can happen to them if you wash them too vigorously … or something like that.
Acutally, I know just enough to be cautious. I really need to ask Mike (Burke) how the 0-ring thing goes.
Also, someone once reported to this esteemed site that they had washed their whistle and it never sounded good again. So, I didn’t want to overdo it.
The other caution about washing that I heeded was with my Burke composites. Mike did tell me that, since they have wood in them, if you get them really wet they can swell up.
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