I have an odd desire to try making my own low D. I also have an odd idea about how to simplify the process and I was wondring if there is an inherent flaw in it or not. I am sure someone here can tell me.
I imagine (figure, guess) that the fipple design is one of the most important issues in making a whistle. What I thought might work easily is to find a pipe/tube thing with the right diameter such that I could just steal a mouth piece from, say, a gerneration Bb and just tune the lenght and drill the holes to get a low D. Is this likely to work? Is the fipple design tied strongly to the key or not?
And finally, regardless of this ideas success, what plans are out there for making your own whistle? I have found:
I don’t think a Generation Bb would do it. Too small. You’d need some sort of coupling. Low D’s tend to be 1 inch diameter tubing, although 3/4" might still work.
The size of the “fipple” window is tied directly to keynote pitch. There is some leeway though, say +/- 1 major tone. I might suggest a radical bore shape based on the modern flute bore, ergo, expanding conical headpiece married to a cylindrical body(?). Use mathematic average formulae to calculate the proper “overall average” bore diameter.
A few years back I used the info at the second link you have listed to make a surprisingly good low d. It was however at times frustrating and took more than a few hours ( took almost 2 days ) I also had to purchase 2 sets of drill bits ( I lost the first set before I even made it home from the hardware store). The end result looked good and played well, and had a very pleasant tone. I got frustrated one day and threw it away as I at times could not get the whistle to sound with all the holes covered. It was my first low whistle and I wish I had kept it.
I also made a high d whistle with info from the last link you listed. It also looks good and so far plays very well in 3 octaves. I say so far as after almost 2 years I still havent gotten around to drilling the finger holes
Tip: when I made my first, I had to do it in the garrage! in winter!
DO NOT DO THIS! go indoors and let the whistle warm up before you tune it. the temperature can make it sharp of flat by so mutch that you cant tell what it was ment to be.
the whistle I mentioned above does play in key though… when its 15 degrees. I did however impress the cousins with it. in the garrrage
If you want to try adding a homemade body to an existing fipple, the whistle shop sells fipples only, including both Dixon & Howard Low (D) fipples: http://www.thewhistleshop.com/catalog/whistles/heads/mouthpieces.html … My old Howard fipple fits a 1" aluminum shower rod quite nicely, by the way…
