I’ve made several low tech whistles from ggwhistles site.Anyone made a whistle that really sounds good in both octaves? Cant really arrive at a good combo of fipple measurments to give me that clear sound I’m looking for.I’ve only made the soprano D. Thanks!
What window dimensions have you tried? I favour a window length (measured along the length of the tube) of around 5.5 to 6 mm. Move the fipple and windway cap back and forth to change this. Longer windows favour the lower octave, shorter windows favour the upper octave.
Many finer points of the fipple, windway, and soundblade also come into play. Aim for clean edges on everything. A slight bevel on the edge of the fipple block can help, but too much can really mess it up. The floor of the windway (when sighting down the tube) should be just a hair lower than the edge of the soundblade (step 5, page 19, in Guido’s instructions).
I have two high D GG Whistles here made by Guido Gonzato himself. They both play very well across two octaves. They are made exactly as GG describes in his web page. I would stay close to the dimensions he recommends, 4mm by 8mm. That’s similar to what I use for high D’s of my own designs as well.
As has been pointed out by Tunborough, there is a lot more to care about than just the window dimensions. If you get everything else right 4mm should be enough for a good, strong and stable tone. If you have to move the plug and cap back farther from the blade in order to aim the air stream then I would concentrate first on the edges of the windway exit - the plug edge and the cap edge. Ease the edges on both of those.
Feadoggie
I bought a used GG high d, it plays very nicely.
The ones I tried to build were not even close.
Attempting to build your own whistles give a person a whole new appreciation
of the difficulty instrument construction.
Simple maybe, easy never.