soap trick questions

[justajoe]

apparently i have a wet mouth (???) and my Syn D doesnt like that. i have made a real soapy mixture and soaked a piece of business card in it and slid it down the opening of the whistle like all of those posts said to do. this helped with the clogging, but not for too long. i got three or four sittings of about an hour to an hour and a half each before it started to clog again. is this normally the case? do you usually have to keep re-soaping.

PS - i just made another soapy mixture, and dunked the top of the whistle in it… up until where the sound comes out, then wiped off the excess. is this OK ? i guess i will find out in a few days lol

[Congratulations]

I would think the “dipping” technique would be fine with a Syn. Just don’t ever do that to a whistle with a wooden block or body or anything.

Plus, if it does something odd to the Syn, you can take out the pin and clean it.

[Cynth]

@justajoe

apparently i have a wet mouth (???) and my Syn D doesnt like that. i have made a real soapy mixture and soaked a piece of business card in it and slid it down the opening of the whistle like all of those posts said to do. this helped with the clogging, but not for too long. i got three or four sittings of about an hour to an hour and a half each before it started to clog again. is this normally the case? do you usually have to keep re-soaping.

PS - i just made another soapy mixture, and dunked the top of the whistle in it… up until where the sound comes out, then wiped off the excess. is this OK ? i guess i will find out in a few days lol

You need to re-do the soap solution. If you got an hour’s sitting, or more I guess, from the soap solution, then it is working very well for you. I think your saliva washes the soap away. I drip the solution through my mouthpiece at the end of every practice, blow it out and let it dry. That was what my maker’s instructions said to do.

[Congratulations]

Sounds like you should look into Duponol. I’ve only done the soap thing a bit, but I didn’t know it was so short-lived.

[crookedtune]

I’m playing a new Syn also, and have noticed moderate (not bad) clogging, compared to other whistles I’ve played. I didn’t try the soap treatment. I’d be interested to know how the dipping worked out, as I may want to give that a shot.

Sure do like the whistle, though!

[Cynth]

I have my solution in a little eye drop bottle, and it just takes a few drops to rinse down the inside. Then I wipe off the outside. I think this has also helped the inside of my mouthpiece stay clean. I can’t take it apart to clean it, so I’m wanting for it never to get gunked up. So far, so good.

[fancypiper]

Aha! Music Juice!

Has anyone tried Rain-X? That’s a windshield treatment that I used when I couldn’t find replacement wipers for my vehicle. It seemed to work well for that in the 70s, but I haven’t heard of anyone trying that.

If you can get inside of the fipple, you might try waxing it and the windway with some sort of paste wax.

At least, I have heard waxing recommended for some bagpipes and wooden flutes

[Congratulations]

@fancypiper

Aha! Music Juice!

Has anyone tried Rain-X? That’s a windshield treatment that I used when I couldn’t find replacement wipers for my vehicle. It seemed to work well for that in the 70s, but I haven’t heard of anyone trying that.

If you can get inside of the fipple, you might try waxing it and the windway with some sort of paste wax.

At least, I have heard waxing recommended for some bagpipes and wooden flutes

Very interesting suggestions.

[Mitch]

Hey jusajoe, There’s one person that knows more about SYNs than anyone! I’m sure that if you PM Erle he might have some effective suggestions - his handle here is “syn whistles”.