Hi Frogwing—I think you are saying that even after blowing the condensation out of the windway, you could not play, right? If you could play, then the condensation in the body wouldn’t matter. I hope I am understanding this correctly and I’m sorry if I didn’t.
It’s hard to imagine the body being so full of liquid that no sound would come out—but then I wasn’t there. I haven’t seen anyone here have a problem with the whole body of the whistle containing so much water they couldn’t play. Certainly, saliva clogging the mouthpiece is a very common problem.
Based on the instructions from the maker of my whistle, this is what I do:
I mixed up a pretty concentrated solution of liquid dishwashing detergent in a little squeeze bottle with a dropper on top—concentrated enough so that you can see the color of the detergent, but not to the point of being viscous. When I finish practing, I drip quite a few drops of that solution through the mouthpiece and into the “window” where the fipple is—I’m not using very good terms here probably. I turn my whistle all around so the solution gets everywhere in that area. Then I blow out hard through the mouthpiece to get the excess solution out. It runs down the whistle and gets on the outside a bit. I get the soapy solution off the outside by wiping it with a damp cloth and then a dry one. I set the whistle upright in a safe place and let the soap solution dry inside.
The soap solution is supposed to act as a surfactant. It prevents water from beading up and allows it to run down and out the whistle. I’ve also found that my mouthpiece stays perfectly clean when I do this so I never have to try to clean gunk out of it. I must say I don’t know if my whistle would clog if I didn’t do this because I have always done it.
In any case, the soap solution might prevent the beads of condensation from forming in the body of your whistle as well if that is where the problem is—it would help the water drain out of the whistle.
Are you sure there is no little blockage in the mouthpiece that you are overlooking? Some little particle or something? I suppose you looked very carefully.
Is the time you are describing the first time this very sudden cut off has happened? It sort of sounds like this was a new event. That would seem to indicate a particle blocking something somewhere more than clogging which it seems like would have happened from the first day you played it.
Oh, if your fipple is a wooden block, then I don’t know if dripping soap solution in is a good idea. The block gets wet from saliva, so I suppose it wouldn’t make any difference, but I just wouldn’t want to give advice for that type of whistle because I don’t have that kind.
I am sure this problem will be solved. Don’t worry. I’m no expert and others will have advice too.
