I put a series of pictures of how I made an alto G whistle, using PVC pipe, and an “exo-fipple” design on my rudimentary web site:
Thanks to Guido and Jon for their inspiration and assistance.
Interesting design, and nice work.
Most importantly, how does it sound? Do you get a full two octaves?
Nice photo-essay. Well done!
Thanks for the kind words, Paul and Squid! I am not a very skilled player, and this is only the 2nd or 3rd instrument I have tried to make, but I think it sounds nice. I really enjoy playing it, which is probably the most important thing. I think there is less “white noise” with the main flow of air exterior to the fipple hole (instead of the fipple bisecting the flow of air). The lower octave and the first 2-3 notes of the second sound fine to me, above that you have to blow increasingly hard to get the second octave to sound right. I don’t think that is an intrinsic fault of the exo-fipple design per se, just a lack of optimization of the windway and fipple hole diameter/sharpening.
I’ll try to get a video up in the next week or two.
Over the years, organ builders have tried nearly every configuration of pipe construction to imitate the sound of musical instruments. With little exception, all organ ‘flue’ pipes are of nearly identical construction to whistles. Years ago I recall seeing a rank of pipes in an old organ in North Carolina that was built like this (pardon my crude drawing). It was an honest effort to imitate a transverse flute by actually blowing air across a hole in a resonating pipe. The piece of tubing was very soft lead and the end of the tube nearest the hole was soldered to the pipe body, and pushed flat and nearly closed to provide the “embouchure”, functioning very much like your ingenious exo-fipple whistle. That is very interesting work you’ve done there!
Reg
Good job! I think the exo-fipple may be the new black for us bitten by the whocd, the whistle obsessive construction disorder bug 
Btw, as to the exo-fipple sound, I posted a couple of clips of mine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1f-8ZTl8Tw and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JN_vMXSP10.
Be warned, the playing mercilessly reveals my beginners status. Also, my pipes are tuned in an old-fashioned herding-pipe modus, which will sound out-of-tune to 12-tet trained ears.
Some Native American flutes use a brass gasket to make the windway - similar to your Exo-fipple.
You can also do a transverse “exo-fipple”:
The round piece of brass has a rectangular piece inside to create a windway duct. Under the red paint, polyclay compound (Sculpey or Fimo) is molded around the piece, stuffed into crevices and it’s all baked together in an oven and spray painted afterwards.
That’s inches from the starter fifes and flutes with ‘cheater’s’ windways so you don’t need an embouchure.
1"? 
In this case, it’s an expression, not a dimension.
I know. I just tried to make a joke. When is an inch not an inch? 
I know. I just tried to make a joke. When is an inch not an inch?
In’sh Allah, not for us mere mortals to tell.
Whether the air blows externally straight down for to the side what does it really matter?
rhulsey wrote: The piece of tubing was very soft lead and the end of the tube nearest the hole was soldered to the pipe body, and pushed flat and nearly closed to provide the “embouchure”, functioning very much like your ingenious exo-fipple whistle.
Thanks for the kind words, but the ingenious one is Jon (aka Pipsqueak).
Thanks for the kind words, but the ingenious one is Jon (aka Pipsqueak).
Thank you R. Jay, but I too had my sources of inspiration from which I extrapolated, this being one of them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqqJWAO1AIs
R.Jay’s page has been linked by Guido Gonzato himself! http://www.ggwhistles.com/howto/index.html#Roll
Looks great. I really liked the look of your “Tapladder” too.
I liked the sleek design of the exo-fipple. I read and heard your stuff about the tapladder. That was pretty nifty. Thanks for sharing that.
That straight down orientation helps cool your fingers on those blazing hot solos.
Doesn’t it matter for measurements? I am new at this, but I think the hole placement estimation calculations are from the center of the blown edge, which might vary a quarter inch or so.