Here’s a way to get rid of that recorder sound that plagues these models. It also reduces volume, which is sometimes a good thing, sometimes not.
Put a piece of masking tape on either side of the fipple window. I use about an inch on each side and where it passes over the window, I press it down into the hole. It doesn’t have to follow the contours of the cavity, but it does need to be pressed in a bit. The tape should cover about 2/3 rds of the hole width, and it leaves a slit open in the middle that is quite narrow.
The new tone is clean, not recorder-like. It’s quieter. I continue to experiment, but I’ve found that it makes the higher notes easy to reach without screaming or squawking, but sometimes the low octave D is a bit weak.
Let me know what you think of this idea.
If someone comes up with a whiz-bang sure fire improvement on my method, let us all know.