I’ve Googled this to no real effect so am now posting the question here: what exactly do our whistle makers mean when they talk about voicing their whistles? I presume they’re using the word as a verb, so what exactly are they trying to achieve, how do they go about achieving it, and how do they know they have?
Or do I already know the answer in some other form?
Thanks in advance,
Keith.
Oh boy, that’s a big can of worms!
Voicing is the process of creating the actual parts of the whistle that make the sound. In my own whistles, for example, this includes cutting the windway and the square “window”, forming the ramp, rounding or beveling the end of the fipple plug etc.
Very tiny changes in any of the dimensions of these areas can have a huge effect on the sound of a whistle: whether it has a strong low octave, or an easy to reach high octave, or hopefully both. Whether or not it has a lot of chiff or is pure sounding. How loud the whistle is, etc. I’m convinced that part of this is magic 
. I can try to make two exactly identical whistles of the same wood, cut from the same piece, all dimensions as close as I know how and yet they may end up with entirely different “voices” or personalities. Maybe not better or worse, but definitely different. To me, this is one of the most exciting parts of making whistles.
I KNEW IT! You’ve not only answered my question but explained why the whistle can mesmerise like no other instrument, elate with its unique magic, electrify whistlers when it sings on its own. Seriously Paul, is your other name Gandalf?
Keith.