My first (successful) tweek!...

Whistle
1

My neighbor, a closet whistler, had been wanting a little lower whistle, and ended up ordering a Generation Bb online. The price was great, and the whistle not too bad, though with a lot of windy interference in the upper octave. A quick peek identified the culprits - a bit of roughness on the windway, and a long string of the fipple material suspended inside the tube end of the fipple.

The roughness was easy to take care of - She had a packet of disposable emery boards - just the right thickness, very narrow width, and long enough to reach past the blade if needed - perfect for the job. A few moments of friction and pstience, and smooth windway.

The string was another matter. I tried to reach it with several things, finding it too far in for all attempts. I decided that removing the fipple was the only alternative. I had tried on several other Generation whistles, with poor results (found out later that older ones, particularly the Bb and C, just don’t let go without breaking), but since she spent so little on it, and it was definitely not going to be a good whistle without getting that string of plastic out, we decided to go for it. Ten minutes later, water just about to boil in the pot, two clothespins and two jar grippers at hand, I had the fipple off with no trouble whatsoever, and the string actually just fell out! Apparently it had been produced when the fipple was pressed on, and was anchored by the joint. Now it is tunable, and plays ever so nicely. A great whistle for little money. The cosmetic damage done to the coating on the brass by the near-boiling water is of little consequence.

Thanks Jerry and all who share their techniques for tweeking here with us!!!

2

Good old “whistle tea”.

My Bb fipple broke when I removed it. I just put it back on, used some unwaxed dental floss, drawn through the lump of beeswax that came out of a jar of honey that I had bought.

The “beeswax” I had found and bought at various places like hobby shops and Wal Mart didn’t feel/act like beeswax. I suspect it was yellow colored paraffin.

I waxed the floss well enough so that it would stick to the fipple, then wound 2 layers of that on the area just beyond the blade down to the end of the fipple and back up to where it starts widening out.

Then I took beeswax and scrubbed it thouroughly with that until the wax was above the thread, then took a scrap piece of cane (a round pencil or similar will work) and worked it in until the wax looked shiny.

My barrel now has a Blackcap fipple, but sometimes I slip the old “Redcap” back on when I have trouble controlling the low pressure requirement that the Blackcap has.