I just spent a few days (too few!) with a whistle-set custom-made by Mr Syn from a chunk of teak wood for Matt Spangler (alespa). It consisted of one mouthpiece and 3 bodies: (high) D, C and Bb.
Teak is not a wood that’s normally used for flutes and whistles. It’s considered very durable (often used for nautical applications), but perhaps too porous for flutes. But surprisingly, the whistles actually sounded very good.
How should i describe this set? It has the traditional look of wooden Syn whistles, with the new Delrin moutpiece. Same clean minimalist design, with brass tuning slide. The teak wood has a dark beige color and feels lighter than, say, ironwood.
The sound of the whistles was also “lighter” than the other wooden Syns i have played (lancewood and ironwood), but it had a special quality to it. It was very responsive, and the word that kept coming to mind was “liquid”. An almost liquid sound. Very beautiful. In my opinion, the C body was the best, but the D and Bb were also excellent. As expected, the D was a little more responsive, but the Bb was not bad; even the bell note was well defined, full.
This was a fun and pleasant whistle set to play. If you’re looking for a great sounding wooden whistle for a bargain price, you should definitely consider sending Mr. Syn an email.
Did he seal the wood in any way? I’ve sometimes sealed more porous woods with good results. Although I usually use a non-polymerizing oil in my whistles, I use Tung oil on woods like Birdseye Maple. I do this after the wood has been bored and had a couple of weeks to dry. Several coats, then I re-ream the bore when the oil is fully dried.
Interesting comment I thought about something like that, but since I’ve already oiled this, I can’t do what you’re talking about, could I?
. . .
For anyone who’s interested, here’s a picture of the syn’s in teak. The multi-body set are the three whistles from the bottom. The top whistle with the longer beak is the lone D.
I could be wrong, but I think what makes the C so nice is the size of the 6th hole?
BTW, the whistles are straight, I think my photographic skills could use some improvement :roll:
I don’t see why not.. Try stuffing a paper towel in each section overnight to absorb some of the excess oil. Then apply the Tung oil, wiping the excess off the outside. Not too much at once, or it will pool on the downside of the whistle. You could repeat this a couple of times.
I also had a chance to play these whistles, even before Glauber did. Sorry this explanation is so late but I have been pretty busy lately (excuse).
Here is most of the note I sent to Erle and Matt a few days ago. Just to explaind ahead of time I own two complete Syn whistles, a D and a C.
"Howdy from snowy Twin Falls, Idaho. I have a few minutes this morning to send you a note about the teak whistles you made for Matt. Unfortunately I had them right in the middle of our move and the Thanksgiving holiday and could not spend as much time with them as I would have liked to.
One of the big things I have read and noticed is that most people credit the sound and timbre of a whistle mainly to the head area, specifically the window and blade area and how they are made and interact with each other. I have also noticed that this is pretty much true. When switching the two Lancewood heads on the same body it seems the head has more to do with the sound than the body does. That is until now.
When I put the teak body on the lancewood heads the sound was VERY different. Just like the wood, light and airy, I found the sound of the whistle to tend towards that as well. It did not matter which of the three heads I put on, the body seemed to dominate the sound that was generated. I found this quite interesting indeed."
That said I did NOT treat the wood with any oil while I had them. Matt wanted only almond oil on them and I did not have any.
And glauber, your description was wonderful. Thanks for taking the time