I’m new here, so be gentle and apologies if this is so obvious that someone must have done it already, but…
Well, I’m puzzled why it’s possible to buy a Bb whistle for £4 whereas one in A costs upwards of £40. So, I decided to try and make a whistle using the online guide: http://guido.gonzato.googlepages.com/whistle.html
I also tried making an all metal one, but failed miserably. As you might expect, getting the mouthpiece right is the trickiest part. So, I decided to use the mouthpiece from a cheap Generation Bb whistle on some copper pipe, which sort of worked. But then the breakthrough - why not just take a Generation Bb whistle, loosen the mouthpiece (immerce in hot water to unglue it) and then slide the mouthpiece back a bit until it plays in A.
Admittedly the result isn’t as good as a real A whistle, but for anyone wanting to have a go at a low, I think this might be a good move.
(Oh yeah, and I know that an A whistle isn’t really a low whistle)
Well, aside from internal tuning issues (when the fipple goes too far out of place, the whistle stops being in tune with itself) there is the clear problem of which notes belong to which scale..
Bb Major
Bb C D Eb F G A Bb
A Major
A B C# D E F# G# A
No amount of sliding of the head will get you all the notes of an A Major scale from a Bb whistle.
Sure, why not? If the bottom notes are still a bit sharp, insert a blob of Blu-Tak putty into the end of the tube to act as a choke and lower the bell note pitch; and a bit of electrical tape on the bottom hand toneholes if necessary.
I lowered a D whistle to Db this way. I just tried lowering my Gen Bb to A, and that works fine, too. Both instruments are passably well in tune. No special tools needed, and completely reversible.
People have been tweaking their whistles forever; welcome to the club.
BTW, a tuneable Dixon A whistle sells for around £30 from Big Whistle or direct from Tony Dixon. The Susato goes for around £40. Those are the best bargains, and both are nice whistles.
Mike is talking about lowering the overall pitch of the entire whistle by a full 1/2 step. There’s enough length at the top of a Gen tube to make that possible.
If you are simply lowering the pitch of the whistle by 1/2 step, when you lower each note by 1/2 step, you do NOT get the A Major Scale..
Bb → A - Good
C → B# - Half Hole to B
D → C# - Good
Eb → E - Needs to be tweaked
F → E# - Half Hole to E
G → F# - Good
A → G# - Good
Bb → A - Good
You CAN half-hole it the rest of the way in tune, except for the missing D. Now, at this point, it’s more than tweakable to get it the rest of the way, but it’s nowhere near as simple as just moving the mouthpeice.
If one could lower each of the notes on a Bb whistle by 1/2 step, then an A whistle would result. In pulling out the mouthpiece far enough to get an in-tune A as the bell note (from Bb,) the 7th (originally A) would drop more than the 1/2 step needed to get G#. (The top hole would be quite a bit further down the tube from the fipple than would be the case for a made-A.)
An A whistle of sorts would result; I would personally have difficulty in playing this with good intonation with others. The notes would be increasingly ‘out’ (flat) as the scale ascended, assuming good intonation to start.
Right, that’s true. So you don’t pull out for an in-tune bell note. You pull out just enough to get, say, an in-tune concert D with xxx ooo fingering. Then compensate the bottom holes as described. The notes xxo ooo and above can then be blown slightly sharp for a passably in-tune A scale.
12 Tone Equal Temperament with enharmonic equivalents rocks, dude!
It’s OK, Scheky. Have a hug.
Really, the hastily modified Gen Bb sitting right here in my hand now makes a perfectly usable A whistle for hoopy mike’s original purpose of having a go at a low A.
Alternatively, I’ve an old Copeland in A I could probably be convinced to part with, if anybody cares. (the divil is in me today) Conceivably tradable too, although you’d have to have something really interesting to trade.
Yeah, I know that the intonation isn’t exact, but hey, this is a Generation whistle after all, and nothing that can’t be bent into tune or fixed with a little white tack.
I managed to play mine yesterday along with keyboard and guitar and it sounded fine, so for those of you who aren’t convinced, why not give it a go? Glad it worked for you too, MT.
Dixon whistles are very good, but, well, a bit plastic sounding. I have a low D, which I like, but it’s not quite the sound I’m after. Following on from the cold flat whistle posts, I’m not entirely clear what makes a metal whistle sound so different (i.e. which mechanical properties are important). However, I have some data from a student project this year on the frequency response of a range of commercial and home-made simple whistles that I might get around to posting in a few weeks, but that’s another story. I’m planning on gold plating a whistle too…
