Some may recall I made a “low tech” low D PVC whistle a while back … that actually turned out fairly well, with some advice from this forum (and once I stopped totally flubbing piper’s grip) Sounds good (to me, anyway) through both octaves and a note or two into the third. So I must not be a total idiot at this low tech whistle business
My attempt at a regular, not-low D whistle, though … not so well yet.
I once again aimed for a fairly quiet whistle with a narrow window. Construction went OK, though the holes were a bit oddly placed (and this time I did use a whistle calculator, unlike when I made the low whistle - so maybe I should have just stuck with Guido’s drawings?).
At first I couldn’t get anything above a second octave D in actual playing (I must have overblown while tuning the holes?) … no matter what I did with the window, the ramp, the inside edge, the distance between the cover and the edge … I followed all the tips in Guido’s guide to no avail. Finally I made the mouthpiece as a whole shorter (I had made it too long, I believe), which helped - now I can at least get up to G in the second octave.
Hitting a wall here though … can’t do any better than a high G. Moved the windway cover up and down, the “sweet spot” still only lets me get to high G. Blunted the lower edge of the window, unblunted it … I think I’ve tried the usual suspects.
I can’t make the mouthpiece any shorter … it’s practically disappearing into the main tube as it is
I should have said above that when I have moved the windway cover, I have (obviously?) moved the fipple block in unison with it.
As it stands, the distance is now as short as it can be without the “beak” of the mouthpiece completely being subsumed by the main pipe
I’ll have to measure the actual distance when I get home later.
Perhaps I cut the cover and fipple block too short? But when it was longer I couldn’t even get notes as high as I am now. I know that the issue at that point wasn’t too much distance to the ramp - I tried every possible distance.
Maybe the window is too long now, to work with the shorter mouthpiece - the window needs to be shorter so fipple block can be closer to lip? If so, not sure what I could do at this point, short of cutting down main pipe from the top (hmm, it is just a hair flat overall).
Just wondering what the bore of your whistle is … your descriptions sound like the whistle may simply be too large in diameter for the expected pitch. From my experience, with regard to “normal” D whistles, 18mm bore just about reaches G in the second octave, 19-20mm struggles to get a good F# … the notes that they do play however are really “sweet”. My “Adri’s Dream” recorder, with it’s 15mm bore, also struggles to get above G except with VERY precise pinching of the thumb-hole.
I think Guido tells you not to bevel the fipple plug where it exits the windway, although many other whistle makers do this, myself included. Too much bevel or rounding will stick you firmly in the lower register though so if you rounded yours, you may want to make a new plug with less/no bevel.
I haven’t experimented extensively, but I think that trying to make the windway too narrow might be a problem.
FWIW-- my window dimensions are 1:2, length:width. Specifically, on my D whistle the window is 5/32" long (fipple to blade) and 5/16" side to side.
Might pay to go back to your plans and try to make one exactly as Guido suggests before you start experimenting on your own. Making a separate body tube and head with a connector will save you drilling finger holes each time.
In the picture, is that round and not rectangle? Also, have you moved the plug for optimal window and then the cover to find the sweet spot. Just thoughts. I have used guido’s plans and got good results. The walls at the windway (wall thickness) seem to be crucial for a fipple in a whistle. I think that he says that.
Also, I would not recommed a bevel in the plug except for the low D.
I’d keep the length to bore ratio somewhere around 23:1 or higher for a high D. Your ratio using am 18mm bore must be somewhere around 16:1. That would make the higher notes difficult to support.
I believe you are right … the wall thickness seems quite thin, which made it very easy to work (hooray!), but made for a wide bore for its nominal width (boo!).
Right! Look for something with a 12-13mm bore. That will make a good high D whistle. The Gonzato designs all work given that you use pipe similar to what his designs call for.
You can search through previous threads here on the forum to find other discussions on length:bore ratio. And you can find suggestions in many of those threads on just what pipe works best for different whistle keys.
I agree with the others - aspect ratio just looks wrong - need to stretch it perhaps.
I also wonder about the fipple plug not being finished off. Does this affect the seal between your lips and the whistle, making the second octave difficult?
Use a smaller ID pipe. (You don’t want the wall too thin, because a thin wall means a thin windway–hard to get air through. I’d aim for pipe with 2 mm walls or a bit less.)
As skyspirit suggests, cut the lip straight across. In my experience, it is more important to have a straight lip than a nice ramp or a sharp edge. (I have one whistle where the lip isn’t much more than a vertical wall with a bevel on the top: plays just fine.) Try re-cutting that lip straight across, so the window is a perfect rectangle–don’t worry about the ramp–and see what the whistle does.
Make sure the sides of the windway don’t widen at all from the mouthpiece to the lip. They can narrow a bit, but you don’t want any bottlenecks in the windway.
From a purely technical standpoint, how do you do that, with low tech tools?
To cut the window in the first place, I’ve basically only figured out to cut the sides with a razor knife (hacksaws are too big, of course), through painfully slow scoring and scoring … then just scoring as much of the lip line as I have patience to stand (it is so small!), and essentially breaking the window area off (weakening the lip line through bending back and forth first), and then sanding it flat.
Not sure how else to do it, low tech? I don’t recall seeing actually how to do that part in Guido’s guide.
That’s what you want. These can be bought stateside at places like Harbor Freight for under $5. They won’t be files you want to spend the rest of your life with but they will work for doing detailed work in tight places. They look like this.
As for getting the edge perpendicular to the length of the whistle - take a piece of card stock or stiff paper that has a straight edge. Wrap it around the tube at the position of the end of the windway so that the edges meet exactly on the opposite side of the pipe. That geometry ensures that the line is straight across the bore. Draw a line on the pipe along the card’s edge. Use a craft knife (Xacto-ish) to score the pipe ahead of the line for the edge of the ramp. Cut the walls of the windway up to the scored line. Break the loose pipe off at the scored line. Then file your way up to the pencil line keeping the file as perpendicular as you can. C’est finis.
Is that low tech enough?
And always clamp the work piece to a solid surface while you are cutting or filing!
Oh and if you do have an Xacto or similar knife, there are razor saw blades that are great for cutting the windway sides and they also cost very little.
Alternative method to make the window “lo-tech style” … drill a small hole, just big enough to get your smallest file into, then square it out from there. You can even do this with sandpaper on a wooden stick (from my modelling days), but I wouldn’t recommend it, except in an emergency, on something as thick as 2mm-wall pipe.
Sounds good (to me, anyway) through both octaves and a note or two into the third. So I must not be a total idiot at this low tech whistle business 
