Magic tweak ...

Whistle
1

Well.

Following up on information I received from Bloomfield and in the recent string on what causes breathiness in a whistle, I tried a tweak I’ve been thinking about.

Instead of heating the mouthpiece and then squeezing it to reduce the height of the windway, as Bloomfield had described to me, I thought it would be more precise to laminate a thin piece of plastic to the bottom of the windway.

First try, a cut piece of credit card. Too thick, strangles the whistle.

Second try, a piece of .006 inch mylar (acetate), laminated using double faced carpet tape from Home Depot.

Cut a length of mylar to just a little wider than the windway and enough longer to leave room for trimming later.

Leaving the protective paper on the double faced tape after sticking the other side of the tape to the mylar, trim the mylar/tape assembly to the exact width of the windway so it slides in without binding on the sides, but with no play side to side. Trim the end that will go into the whistle exactly square.

Remove the protective paper from the assembly and again slide it in until it exactly lines up with the end of the fipple (if the fipple’s beveled, don’t cover the bevel).

Take something pointed and press the window end of the mylar down so it sticks, making sure that it’s still exactly aligned with the end of the fipple.

Take something rigid and flat that will fit into the windway (I used a small pocket knife) and press the whole mylar strip down so it fastens firmly all along the windway bottom.

Trim off the end of the mylar that sticks out of the mouthpiece. Play whistle. Be amazed.

Dramatically reduced breathiness. Slightly increased resistance or “push,” which allows for much more expressive playing with slightly reduced air requirement. Also seems to allow somewhat more ability for crescendo and decrescendo.

I’ve done this with a SweeTone D that Jessie Kislin was kind enough to give me and a greentop Gen D hand-me-down from another kind C&Fer.

I’m not sure, but the SweeTone may be slightly louder now, the Gen may be slightly softer, but it’s not a big difference either way. The Gen D was very temperamental when I got it, responded well to various other tweaks, but still needed this to get it to where I would be really happy with it.

The only concern now is, will the lamination hold up against the moisture, or will it fall apart after awhile. I’ll keep you posted.

Best wishes,
Jerry

P.S. Bloo, if you’re reading this, what I did accomplished exactly the results you explained, but it seems to be a more precise result with a less breathy sound than on the tweaked redtop Gen D you sent me. When I got your tweaked redtop, it was definitely better than my greentop. Now the greentop is better. I’ll continue to publish results of further experiments.

“This (manifest world) is full, and that (unmanifest source from whence it springs) is also full. Fullness comes out of fullness. Taking fullness from fullness, all that remains is fullness.”

[ This Message was edited by: Jerry Freeman on 2003-02-07 14:19 ]

[ This Message was edited by: Jerry Freeman on 2003-02-07 20:42 ]

2

Thanks, Jerry! Between this advice and the medical advice (that I am following now), you are quite helpful!

You realize, of course, that I will blame you for my lack of chocolate. Watch out!

:slight_smile: Jessie

3

They just shut down the oldest chocolate factory in the United States 25 miles from here. That’s probably my fault, too.

Sorry.

4

I gotta tell ya, I can’t put this tweaked SweeTone down. Help me, someone. I have to get back to work!

5

Jerry,

very interesting to hear! I was experimenting with the same idea (great minds, and all that rot) using a very thin guitar pick, that I was going to glue in with super glue or epoxy. Do keep us posted about the laminate.

I actually like the breathiness and one of the desired results of Gen tweaks is to increase or maintain breathiness. Dulling the blade on Gen is likely to increase breathiness.

Thanks for sharing

6

That’s cool! I’ll have to keep that in mind… I wonder if that would work with Clarke origs…

7

On 2003-02-07 15:26, Bloomfield wrote:
one of the desired results of Gen tweaks is to increase or maintain breathiness.

For YOU, maybe.

8

On 2003-02-07 15:37, JessieK wrote:

On 2003-02-07 15:26, Bloomfield wrote:
one of the desired results of Gen tweaks is to increase or maintain breathiness.

For YOU, maybe.

Sorry if that wasn’t clear.

9

Bloo,

If you want to increase the back pressure and focus the tone somewhat but still keep some breathiness, why not try the “magic tweak,” but with a piece of mylar that doesn’t go all the way to the window. In other words, only reduce the height of the mouth end of the windway and don’t reduce the blade end. Maybe it will work.

Based on my experiment with credit card plastic, I doubt there’s a guitar pick that’s thin enough.

I think one of the reasons the mylar is helping, in addition to changing the height of the windway, is that it has a shiny, very precise surface.

Best wishes,
Jerry

10

Jerry,
I’ve been experimenting with .5 mm red Tortex picks. That has been going pretty well, but I have experimented with different sizes and shapes, and haven’t glued the pick into the windway. That, I think, is the reason that I haven’t been totally happy with it.

One thing I tried is to cut out a V shaped section facing the mouth side, so that the result is a windway that tapers toward the blade. But, as I said, I am not quite there yet.

11

Maybe this will help my Chieftain Songbird. The only bird it sounds like is a tonedeaf crow. What a rip!

12

E=Fb: you should send your songbird back to Phil Hardy if you’re not happy with it. Have him fix it or replace it.

Jerry,
I just posted some tweaking stuff in your What Causes Breathiness? thread, that I won’t repeat here. But it made me look up the original thread where I got the heat-tweak idea. And there was this post by mike.r that I didn’t remember:

On 2002-04-03 02:37, mike.r wrote:
Stevie,
the thinnest Dunlop Tortex guitar(delrin) plectrums,the red or orange ones are ideal for creating a small insert to glue onto the bottom edge of the airway entrance using super glue plastix.The orange plectrum narrows the entrance by about 1/3,the red one a little less and is easily trimmed,sanded and polished once installed.Only a small insert of 1/8" is needed and takes the guess work out of the heating method.This is the easiest method with a predictable result I have found to reduce the airway entrance .I would avoid standard super glue.The plastix version has a slower drying time and is easier to work with and has the consistancy of hard plastic when dry.Just about any Gen fipple will sound better,with an Overton backpressure vibe. Any blue tack is best removed for optimum Gen tone and voicing.> :slight_smile: > Peace, Mike

Wow. It seems like Mike’s done it all before us: he also gave me the Susato flate-blade tweak idea.

Anyway, check out that thread here:

http://chiffboard.mati.ca/reply.php?topic=3434&forum=1&post=29189&quote=1

13

I was just tweaking my 2piece clair the other day. When I looked into the windway. The bottom was much lower than the blade so I thought…“What if I use something to raise up the bottom!” I have some 3mil?(somthing really thin) plastic that I use for clear pickguards on guitars. Got it from Stewart-Mac Donalds. It has an adhesive already on one side. I put two pieces together, then about a 1/4 of an in on the front to raise it up even more. Then I cut it the right width and put it in the windway, pressed it down with a stiff piece of maple veneer and It worked! The whistle has the same tonal charactor, but the secend octave doesn’t require as much air and is a little more balenced with the lower octave.