In looking at the photos, the tuning joint of the Susato Kildare models appears to be somewhat short, but perhaps this is just an illusion. Can sufficient pitch adjustment for practical purposes can be achieved in this model? Is the joint mechanically stable?
The tuning joint is very stable and easily stays put. As for sufficient pitch adjustment, my experience is that with the bottom piece fully inserted, it’s tuning is spot on. Sliding it out a bit gives a decent amount of room to flatten it as needed. However, this means that it isn’t possible to make them any sharper than A440.
Every once in a while I play alongside a piano that has been tuned a tad sharp, and it drives me crazy because the bloke who tunes it repeatedly tunes it sharp. The string players just groan, toss aside their electronic tuners, and tighten up their strings. I groan and, regrettably, toss aside my Susatos. I find that although my Dixons (tunable Bb and D) are capable of being tuned both up and down, and I can even blow a bit aggressively and edge my tweaked Clarke up a bit, I just can’t seem to get the Susatos to head uphill.
Jef
I can easily slide mine out 1/2 an inch, and it’s nice and stable. I can’t imagine needing to adjust it more than that.
Redwolf
You’re spot on there. The Susato seems invariably dead-on 440 when shoved all the way in. And contrary to your suggestion about a piano, a piano is often closer than a session started by a banjo or fiddle that didn’t really care about a tuner in the first place. More often than not old D pipe chanters are way sharp of concert pitch as well. Italian boxes are tuned to A442 very frequently. So most of the time I find locally a session is sharp to very sharp of concert pitch, and it has nothing to do with a piano.
Royce
My susato low G is actually a few cents sharp when the slide is pushed in all the way. I have it slid out about 1/4 of an inch to be at A 440. This is nice because i can tune to sharp people. Now, if only it sounded decent.
Is the tuning slide geometry such that shortening the part of the whistle that bottoms in the tuning slide at A=440 would make it possible to tune sharper?
Jerry, I’ve wondered that myself, but I’m not sufficiently brave to try shaving the top end of the body off and risk ruining it.
Has anyone tried this?
Jef
Yes.
It seems to me that you could also permanently sharpen a whistle by drilling a very tiny vent hole near the bottom end of the whistle. I would not think that this would significantly alter any other characteristic by any noticable amount. Well, I don’t know… I suppose it could affect the octave tuning.
Now that I continue thinking about it, I recall that in one of the ‘home made’ designs, the maker suggested putting a small vent hole on the side of the whistle, near the top, close to the mouthpiece, gradually enlarging its size to accomplish final tuning… I will have to try and find that again.
Someone correct me if I’m mistaken, but I believe this will only sharpen the bell note.
I’m not familiar with this. The size of the embuchure/voicing window (flute/whistle) affects tuning, so that may be the mechanism used for this adjustment.
I have the Kildare model, I think… It always seems to be slightly flat to me, no matter how far I push the mouthpiece in… It won’t go any further… It annoys me!