I’m an 17 year old whistle maker/inovator, and have been at the craft for the past 3 years. I am entirely self taught, and make and resotre violins as well. The whistles I make bear the name ‘Firefly’. Over the last summer, I’ve been developing a keyed, CHROMATIC tin whistle (well, I make em out of copper, aluminum, and faux ivory). This was the response to a bet, and a sickness from listening to people half hole bloody out of tune notes! The instrument have finished at this point is in d, and has F nat and B flat keys. These are operated by the free ‘pinky’ fingers of each hand, giving them something to do, and a comfortable position to rest in.
I have taken pictures of this instrument, but as I am new to the site, I cannot figure out how to put them on here. Please throw me a line, and I will have them up as soon as I learn how. I will also post pictures of other far out musical machines I’ve made, such as a ‘uilleann style’ whistle, which is driven by a bellows and bag.
If you google on the phrase: “free image hosting” (I didn’t use quotes), you’ll find lots of websites that’ll host your images for free. Some people like imageshack.us.
I use tinypic.com, which hosts the pic
(at a limited size) and gives you a small
url to link to it, but you can’t go back to
edit it or remove it, if that’s important to
you.
With Fnat and Bb keys one could easily play tunes in the keys of F or A minor. I can cross-finger Bb’s easily enough but Fnats are a pain to half-hole.
that’s one cool name you got there lordofthestrings. now get yourself an avatar to go with it. if you’re 17 years old, you should consider sleeping in and watching lots of tv and being a burden to the grownups in your life. i wanna see pics too.
Here it are!! The long (not really) and anxiously (matter of opinion) awaited image!!! There are more, but this should wet your appetite…
The key pads (that you press with your finger) are tear drop shaped, but I can make other shapes on request. Also, I can make wooden rings, instead of faux ivory. In short, I am quite flexable, and open to stylistic tweaks and criticizms. (Note that my solder joints are a little sloppy; this is simply because I have not taken the time to clean them up, as this was meant to be a prototype.)
A discerning eye will notice that the keys are “on the wrong side”. I play lefty, and have made this whistle so I can use it.
In response to the question of a G# key, I could sure make one, thus allowing key of E playing. I’ve meant to do one of those for a while now, also adding an E flat key for FULL CHROMATIC DOMINATION!!! BAW HA HA HA… ok that was weird. I could place the levers to go wherever one would want them to (I would put the F nat and B flat on the side usually, and E flat and G# on the back, but I can position them based on personal preferance, adding between 1 and all 4).
17 is fun. 18 soon. 'Nuff said. (was that juvinial enough?)
Let me know what you think of her. She’s been heavily used for about 3 months now, and shows it!
She sounds sweet, with an earthy, airy quality reminiscant of the old wood fipplers (mainly because she is one, that’s my preferance). She plays easily in both octaves, takes a bit more air for the high octave b-d, but they are there, and even a third e is achievable. Copper has a neat timbre, duller than brass, but cleaner than tin. My plastic fipple design makes her less airy, and a touch brighter. She is very well in tune, with +/- a cent or two of A 440. Does have a tuning slide for correction.
The players whom have used my designs tend to describe them as an olde “ancient” sound, not a bright recorder sound.
we want to hear some clips. maybe you could skip school a couple of days til you make some good sound clips. you really have a lot to learn about being a teenager.
It reminds me of my first Chromatic Whistle prototype. I made the brass pads from flat stock cut out by hand. Now I use a punch tool that can be obtain from Jewerly suppliers and I think Harbor Freight carries them from time to time.
