After playing around with a the standard Clarke for a few years, I became curious about the Low D. Instead of spending $100+, I followed the directions at http://www.ehhs.cmich.edu/~dhavlena/low-d.htm and made my own.
Attempt 1: a low D that sounded like a snake charmers whistle and now resides in the back yard where my children use it as a horse-shoe pole.
Attempt 2: a C that sqeaks and squawks something fierce.
Attempt 3: a low D that actually sounds really nice. It has a rich flute-like sound and nice ring. But it has some problems.
Problem 1: while playing the bottom two or three holes on the second octave, the whistle plays the notes from both octaves. A short note will avoid this behavior but any sustained note and the lower octave will ring in shortly .
Problem 2: probably related to problem 1, it is difficult to get the lowest note to play if it is the first note. I have to start up a few notes and work my way down. This problem decreases when the whistle warms up.
About the whistle: The tube is 7/8" OD, 3/4" ID, 1/16" wall. Sound hole is 1/2" x 3/16". It has a maple plug.
Can anyone give me some ideas for improving this whistle or avoiding the problem on the next one?
I can send pictures of any part of the whistle if it would help.
If the soundblade isn’t too high in relation to the windway floor, cutting a small chamfer on the window end of the plug usually clears up what you’re describing.
Start with a chamfer that produces a flat surface of about 1 mm. If that doesn’t clear it up completely, carefully enlarge the chamfer. I wouldn’t go bigger than about 2 mm, or you risk creating other problems like having to push the upper register too hard or not being able to play the highest notes at all.
Best wishes,
Jerry
P.S. Also, if the soundblade is very sharp, dulling it somewhat can also help reduce that mixing of registers. However, the chamfer very often works without changing the soundblade edge.
P.P.S. A longer voicing window (distance from the windway exit to the soundblade edge) favors the lower register; a shorter voicing window favors the upper register. If the top notes of the upper register play OK, but the bottom note(s) of the lower register don’t, shorten the soundblade a little until the bottom notes come in. You have to be careful not to go to far with this, or you’ll lose the top notes. There’s a sweet spot where both registers play well.
Oddly, or idiotically as the case may be, I have the exact problems you’re describing…i.e. 2 octaves for the price of one on the low notes/second octave, and having to work my way down to the lowest note.
And it’s an Overton low D. Must mean you’ve got yourself a nice whistle there! Don’t think I’ll go chinking away at mine though…these things must, in my case, be the fault of inexperience.
Jerry’s comment about the chamfer is very important. It needs to be a clean cut with no burrs on the edges of the chamfer. The slightest burr will affect sound.
Having a slight chamfer on the roof of the windway is also important. It’s usually not as pronounced as the chamfer on the floor of the windway.
An uneven edge on the blade (labium) will also affect this. Check for trouble spots by using a small tweeking screwdriver or toothpick by placing it in the window and moving it around. If you find an area that does not affect the sound, then you have found a “dead spot” in the window. look directly at the plug in front of this dead spot and also look at the blade edge near it as well. This should clue you to voicing problems. Get a nice jewelers file and go at it and be patient.
If a homemade whistle has a tuning joint and it was cut using plumbing pipe cutters, the small ring or lip on the edges that protrudes into the bore will kill sound. I can’t understate this ---- It will kill sound.
I spoiled a whistlehead checking the effect of putting a chamfer on the exit end of the windway ceiling. I tried only a very small chamfer, and it made the upper notes take too much push and the upper register generally less focused. Can you elaborate on what the windway ceiling chamfer does and how to get it to perform as intended?
I took a look at the soundblade and found that there was quite a bit of space in relation to the windway floor. I simply lowered that and the problems cleared right up.
Thanks for the info on the window dimensions. I am pretty happy with both octaves. The bottom comes in nice and strong and the top is even a little on the loud side. I’ll need to get the opinion of one of my younger musician friends though as my hearing is not what it used to be.
I am anxiously awaiting my tweaked Shaw off eBay (clothedinscarlet). Hopefully my wife didn’t already receive it and is now hiding it until Christmas!
Thomas,
The math is ok. You have to divide the difference by the 2 walls of the tube to get the wall thickness. The pipe is aluminum by the way. I am not sure if that makes any difference when it comes to voiceing depth.
There are definatley no leaks around the plug. I left the C whistle I made in the car on a hot day and the plug actually dried out so much it fell out! On my low D, I soaked the fipple end in a clear varnish and carefully sanded. I repeated this twice. This keeps moisture fluctuation in the plug to zero but spit sure builds up fast.
Thanks for the link. The titles are all flute related. Do any of these have significant content on crafting whistle fipples?
The tweaked Shaw went in the mail this morning, Priority Mail.
I’ve noticed that the soundblade position can affect the upper register loudness. Within the range where the voicing is well focused (within the bottom 1/4 of the windway height usually), if there’s a little more room under the soundblade, you tend to get a louder, purer, more strident upper register. As the soundblade approaches the same level as the windway floor, the upper register tends to become more complex and softer. If you lower the soundblade a little more from where it is now, you may find a spot where the upper register better matches the lower register. We’re talking about a few thousandths of an inch at a time here.
I don’t yet know if this is universal, but I have observed it with several different kinds of whistles.
At the risk of seeming pedantic, the wall thickness is not 1/8, but 1/16, 0.0625". which is 1/2 the difference between ID and OD.
For a low whistle, a window depth of only 3/16 seems excessively short to me, and likely to foster, if not cause, the sort of sound you describe. I’d be inclined to suggest lengthening the window to 1/4". It likely won’t affect the upper notes at all, but it might bear on the ringing problem.