Spit

Whistle
1

What’s the easiest way of getting rid of spit from a Tin Whistle? Other than just to keep playing til it comes out of the end onto the floor or your lap. I know there is a standard way, but I don’t know what it is. Can someone help me?

2

Here’s the definitive work on the subject:

http://www.chiffandfipple.com/moist.htm


Some players also swear by a product called Duponol

3

I prefer Duponol to Jet Dry and soap (both have been recommended here in the past). After it dries, Duponol has no taste, and doesn’t make your tongue numb. :wink:

That helps condensation from gathering in the windway. Or, you could just lightly cover the ramp with your finger, and forcefully blow.

A guy in Houston, when he got a little soused, used to hold his whistle by the base and flick moisture on whoever was sitting next to him. blech! :slight_smile:

4

Here’s another one that I like. Take a thin dryer sheet, wrap it around a flat wooden coffee stirrer and swab the windway (I do not wet it, but if I’ve been playing for a while, it often comes out wet). Dryer sheets are just fabric with soap. Mack Hoover gave me this idea a few years back.

5

That is a GREAT idea.

Wow. Color me impressed.

6

Hmmmm - I wonder if that stuff would work on paintball masks . . .

7

Spit?

I thought it was condensation…

8

Play Burkes! I almost never have a condensation problem with them. :slight_smile:

9

I do.

10

I always seem to leak a little bit of moisture out the side of the beak on my Burkes. Probably has to do with the interaction of the shape of the beak and my pucker.

Speaking of Burkes; I just picked up a comfortably tarnished 2003 High D session bore black tip brass whistle in a trade. What a lovely smooth feel and sound. It’s like the whistle equivalent to a perfectly worn pair of jeans. It quickly moved into my top 4 played whistles.

11

I’ve got the brass Burke Session Pro in D, but was made before the black tip. It has quite the finger patina…I really need to clean it out. I used to be really good about dipping the heads in rubbing alcohol every few months or so, not so anymore.

I think I have been trained to produce saliva as I was once a saxophone player and it helped to have a slightly moist reed.

12

Sounded like a good idea but the only dryer sheet in the house stunk with some added fragrance so I took an unused paper coffee filter, soaked it in soapy water, let it dry and cut it into strips, half an inch wide and about three inches long. I then folded the strip lengthwise, inserted it into the windway and pulled it through. The filter paper soaked up the moisture and left a soapy film behind to repel moisture. Worked great.

13

Great adaptation! You would have made a good MacGyver. :slight_smile:

14

This is one of our favorite topics. Here’s the other thread about spit going on right now:
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=36836&highlight=

15

I’ve bored more recording engineers to death than I’ve had hot dinners by simply blowing down the thing until it is so warm that no condensation can possibly form. A useful side-effect is that the pitch does not then fluctuate at all. There is, of course, the valuable standby of putting it/them under your armpits, up your jumper, down your trousers etc. The latter practice has caused much mirth in well-known recording studios over the years (particularly, it seems, amongst lady violinists - ?!?).