Hole Placement

Whistle
1

I want to make a full set of PVC whistles and was wondering about the hole placement. The ones I’ve made in the past have been OK but tend to be a little flat in the upper second octave. Does anyone have any idea how to fix this.

Thanks

2

There is a correlation to the bore size. If it is too big in relation to the length (the reason SopD’s are small and LowD’s are big) you will struggle to get the octaves in balance.

I am sure therer is a physicist out there who will be ablr to expand on this. You can also play around with the undercutting of the hole upstream and downstream. However, with PVC you might have little to play with.

3

Yep, that’s pretty much normal. Jetboy’s right, undercutting, which increases the size of the hole, can help solve the problem - even on PVC/CPVC. Large holes help. Watch your cut-off frequencies. I would to tune the upper octave as a start too. Other strategies can work as well - bore shape, etc.

You might find this site interesting. It concerns the shakuhachi but the physics phenomena are similar.
http://www.navaching.com/shaku/tuning.html

Feadoggie

4

Nice link!

5

Thanks for the info. That’s an awesome link and gives me some ideas worth trying. :thumbsup: