I just drove out to pick up my new Grinter from the purolator depot.
Wow! This is a beautiful, beautiful instrument. I’m at work right now, so I can’t exactly give a comment on the sound or playability, but I’m really looking forward to giving it a run through tonight.
A few questions from those with wooden whistles:
Where can I get almond oil? Should I try instrument stores, or is oil of the right quality available at the grocery store?
How do you swab out the whistle after playing? Is a piece of j-cloth on a stick fine?
Thank you, and thanks to everyone involved in the raffle as well.
Where can I get almond oil? Should I try instrument stores, or is oil of the right quality available at the grocery store?
Almond oil is sold in natural or gourmet food stores. It’s used for salads.
How do you swab out the whistle after playing? Is a piece of j-cloth on a stick fine?
Should be. You could buy a plastic piccolo cleaning rod from http://www.fluteworld.com (under accessories, cleaning). It’s less than $2. I like it because it’s soft plastic and won’t scratch the wood. It’s useful for oiling too. There’s also a “piccolo flag” which sells for about $20 which is useful for a quick swab. You can get it from fluteworld too.
Well, I’ve had a chance to play with this baby for a little bit.
First of all, the whistle itself is absolutely beautiful. I’ll get some pictures up here next week (the company I work for has a photographer on staff, so I’ll get some help with that), as I wasn’t able to find pictures of this whistle anywhere on the net.
The sound is absolutely beautiful – it’s a much more substantial sound than I’m used to. I’d describe it as a ‘thick’ sound compared to the other whistles I own. The second octave is amazingly easy to play in. Not that it’s sensitive, but that the breath requirements feel much more linear between the two octaves than my other whistles. The backpressure feels about the same as the Q1, (and the windway is about the same size as well). It requires a bit of push, but not as much air.
It’s certainly impressive what a good whistle can do to your playing. Even my wife noticed how much better I sound with it.
Anyway, I’ll have to hunt down some almond oil and a real swab from the music store tommorow. I’ve been using rolled-up j-cloth to swab it for now.
I used almond oil for years, never refrigerated it and it never went sour, but it’s a legitimate concern.
With mineral bore oils (clarinet bore oils), watch which kind you get. Some of them have horrible smells. Others are basically odorless; these are better for whistles and flutes. The odorless ones are basically mineral oil, and you can get that too, very cheaply, in the drugstore (enema section, ouch!).
In case you’re curious, here’s what i use: http://www.doctorsprod.com/BoreDr.html
It’s like mineral oil in that it dries overnight, but it’s plant-based and smells nice. I have exchanged many emails with this guy and i’m satisfied that he knows his oils. He has great cork grease too.
I found the almond oil no problem. I’ll stick with that for now, simply because that was in the care instructions that Micheal Grinter sent me, and I presume that’s what’s been used on it in the past (can you confirm this Phil?).
For swabbing it, I’m going to stick a bunch of j-cloth on the end of a one of those sticks that come with recorders (don’t know what they’re officially called). They didn’t have any piccolo-sized swabs at the music store, and the clarinet and flute-sized ones looked a bit too big for it.
I’ve also been looking at a small humidor to keep it in, but can’t find one that’s an appropriate size – either just too small, or way too big.
Do a search on humidor over on the flute forum. There have been some good discussions on the benefits or even the need for one. Lots of ideas on less expensive methods as well. Might even be some discussion here to or over on GC.
I don’t keep my wood in a humididor. I keep them in a rubbermaid type shoe box.
Almond oil is one of the historical choices. The others are canola (i’m not kidding you) which is also known as rapeseed, and linseed.
The plastic piccolo cleaning sticks can be had from fluteworld.com for about $1.50 plus shipping. The recorder thingies will work fine too. You just don’t want to use anything made of metal, to avoid scratching the wood.
Humidors: try http://www.cheaphumidors.com
You don’t need to buy a humidor, you can use a plastic or wood box and one of their “gel” or “DryMistat” hunidifiers.
Actually, Michael recommends soaking the head in almond oil or the like to stabilize the block. I think he recommends it be done for a few hours a few times in the first six months then not often after that. OTOH, Bleazey and Swayne, who both have all-wood heads and also use pencil cedar for their fipple blocks (very similar designs to Grinters), say what Loren said. I suspect it’s all black magic.
I’ve followed the instructions of all the makers. The Grinter has never clogged, nor the Bleazey boxwood, nor the Swayne D. The Bleazey blackwood and the Swayne C (a hard blower) have both clogged on me.
The Grinter I owned from several years ago (and purchased new) did not come with any such directions, and the construction seemed to include the “standard” undtreated recorder style block, which leads me to belive Michael may have changed his design.
So in this case, Glauber would be correct: If the block has already been soaked in oil, a little more won’t make a difference, which is definately not the case for any instrument with a “dry” block.
Might be worth contacting Grinter to make sure you particular model conforms to the current recommendations.
For reference, I emailed Micheal, and this was the contents of the Whistle Care document he returned:
Whistle care and maintenance
Playing in
The whistle will take up an hour a day at first (in two playing sessions, each of a half our duration), and then gradually increase the playing time by ten minutes per day(five minutes each session).
Oiling
The whistles should be oiled with almond oil - both inside and out. It is also good to soak the actual block and headpiece in oil. Tip the whistle upside down, and carefully immerse the head and block completely in almond oil. Leave it to soak for five minutes or so, and then after taking it out and draining off the excess oil, place the whistle upright on a stand and let the oil soak in overnight. In the morning just wipe off any excess from the outside and within the bore with a soft clean cloth. This treatment should be given once a month for the first few months, and should help the block from excessive swelling and help stabilise the whole top end of the instrument. You may notice the sound is a little unclear when you first begin to play it again, but this will soon disappear.
Storage
Make sure you protect the instrument from violent temperature changes. Try to store the whistle in a situation where the air is not too dry or humid (i.e. 40-60% humidity which is the average range for a normal household.) Don’t leave the instrument exposed in hot, humid conditions, and especially don’t leave it near a heater or air conditioner. And of course, don’t leave it in a vehicle in hot weather.
Anyway, I think I’m going to go for a small, sealed container. Most humidors try and keep things at 70% humidity, and that sounds too humid.
