We’ve been discussing whether it’s possible to tweak a Shaw and solve the problem that it requires more air than some players can handle comfortably.
I received a Shaw A today to try out some tweaking on, and I’m pleased to report that the experiment was 100% successful. Before sending the whistle back to its owner, I recorded this clip:
My playing is very wobbly, but hopefully it still gives a sense of what the whistle sounds like. In the hands of an actual musician, I believe that whistle will sound really lovely. I certainly enjoyed it during the few hours it was here.
I laminated two layers of .01 inch thick plastic film to the bottom of the windway using a layer of double faced tape underneath each layer of plastic film.
That brought the windway floor up to the ideal position in relation to the windcutter blade edge (for most whistles, there should just be a sliver of daylight visible above the windway floor when sighting into the mouthpiece through the whistle). And it reduced the breath requirement to a level where it feels quite natural and easy to play.
For those who haven’t been following closely: Two schools of thought are currently developing in the Northeastern United States regarding the Tweaking of Whistles. There is Plastic Film And Double-Faced Tape school of thought, espoused by Jerry Freedman and the fat little elves in his workshop. And there is the Jim Dunlop Tortex .5/.6 mm Guitar Pick And Super Glue school of thought, which was pioneered by mike.r and is carried on by yours truly.
As for .5 mm vs .1" … an inch is 2.54 cm, so you go figure it out…
My double faced tape is .003 inch thick, so the combination of one layer of .01 plastic film plus the double faced tape = .013 inch.
Therefore, the lamination I used for the Shaw A windway tweak would have been .026 inch thick. So the .5 - .6 mm Tortex guitar pick would have been in the same ballpark. I also use .006 plastic film for some of my windway tweaks.
I like this system because it gives me very fine control of exactly how much I build up the windway and because it’s 100% reversable. If I don’t like the result, I can remove the layers and start over. I would be hesitant to put superglue into the windway of a whistle.
Also, the metal floor of the Shaw windway wasn’t anywhere near flat. The plastic film layering technique allowed the lamination to follow the contours of the windway floor. A stiffer material would have made a less tidy job.
Where do you get your “plastic film?” My low-d shaw needs repairs anyway after its last outing at an street fair, and I am game to try tweaking it as well.
My plastic film came from a hardware store. You might also try graphics supply houses. What they sell would be Mylar, or acetate, film. It also comes in different thicknesses.
I like this system because it gives me very fine control of exactly how much I build up the windway and because it’s 100% reversable. If I don’t like the result, I can remove the layers and start over. I would be hesitant to put superglue into the windway of a whistle.
I like my system because I cut, I glue, I’m done (I don’t have any elves, fat, jolly, or drunk). I cut the pick to size with a very pointy pen knife (exacto knife, I think), try it for size. Then I put the smallest drop of super glue on there, and wipe most of it off again. I insert the piece of pick, balancing it on the tip of the knife blade, into the windway, super-glue side up (WARNING you must hold the whistle window-down during the pick piece insertion process). And I use the blade to press the pick piece down (or up, hehehe) for 20 secs or so. Goes a lot faster than it took to write this paragraph.
The procedure is reversibel, too, by simply popping the piece of pick out with the knife blade, it’s not even very hard to do.
Rather than touting these as different schools of thought, how about we think of them as variations on a system, that allow for several different ways to approach any given whistle.
For many of the whistles I tweak, I only use a total of .009 inch of lamination, which often makes a world of difference. That’s less than half the thickness of a guitar pick. For other whistles, I use .013 inch. It’s unusual that I would use as much as .02 or .024 as a Shaw might need, but in such cases, the guitar pick sounds like an excellent option.
I will also occasionally laminate the bottom of the windway until it is at the optimal level with relation to the windcutter blade edge and then decide that the whistle still requires too much air. At that point, I may laminate a thin layer to the top of the windway to fine tune the air requirement.
Best wishes,
Jerry
P.S. Can’t lock the booze. I tried that once and the elves went on strike.
I’ve been out of town, but I’m very excited because that’s MY Shaw that sounds so nice!!
I can’t wait for it to come home to me.
As an added bonus, I just got a soundboard installed on my computer while I was away, so the VERY FIRST THING I have ever heard on my computer was my very own Shaw.
Hmm. Clearly what is needed here is empiral research. So, I’m thinking I’ll buy two Shaw high Ds–send one to Jerry and one to Bloomfield and then do a side-by-side.
Maybe I could send my Shaw Eb to you to tweek. How much would you charge? I can’t seem to play it like it is. Don