Good morning, folks. (And a quick thank you to Bloomfield for advice–you’re right, the Bill Ochs tutor is wonderful. Much progress is being made.)
Quick question for the board. I was practicing this morning when I noticed that the fipple on my Walton Mellow D (about 2 months old) had developed a hairline crack. The crack extends right from the top of the mouthpiece down through the blade, just slightly off-center. (If you’re thinking that the path of the crack extends through empty space, you’d be right.)
Out of curiosity, I then checked the fipple on my regular Walton D, which I haven’t played much since it developed an odd tone after about 2 months of playing. Sure enough, it had a very similar crack.
The way the crack extends right over the airway makes me think that this might be some sort of casting defect. The whistles were bought from different stores, so I don’t know if they were both from the same batch or not.
Has anyone else noticed this sort of thing? Should I worry about it? FYI: my whistles are stored upright in a vase, and I live in the Northeastern U.S, so I doubt drying or rough handling is a problem.
Iv’e noticed the same thing on both my Walton c and my mellow. I don’t think it’s a crack though, more like a scratch. Doesn’t seem to affect the sound.
Iv’e noticed the same thing on both my Walton c and my mellow. I don’t think it’s a crack though, more like a scratch. Doesn’t seem to affect the sound.
I’ve had 3 generation Fs that cracked like that. I think it’s a problem with the way they inject the plastic into the mold, or the quality/type of plastic itself, but don’t quote me on that.
(blink) Yes, it looks exactly like that, NorCal. It even curves off to the right at the base just like yours does.
I can just barely feel the discontinuity with a fingernail, and the line does seem to extend straight through the full thickness of the plastic at the mouthpiece. Considering the consistency of the fracture line between our whistles, it does look like an injection-molding problem. Interesting.
My Waltons D has the very same thing, but I thought it was just a mark in the plastic rather than a crack. The kind of thing that you find on some plastic items from when they were put into their form when the plastic was liquid..? I don’t know how to describe that. lol
Sorry for this really unrelated post, but I had to do a totally mid-to-late 80’s scream because there’s an avatar of Robert from The Cure on this page! ::
Thanks. You may go back to your regular programming now.
I’ve gone through all six “new in the box” Waltons C/MellowD whistleheads I have on hand, and they all have the mark. It looks and feels like a scratch. The marks are very similar from whistle to whistle, but not identical. That means they’re not transfering a mark from the mold, or they would be exactly identical.
I’m wondering if it might have to do with the flow of molten plastic in the mold. The plastic appears to go into the mold from the underneath side of the whistlehead. The mark may be the place where molten plastic meets coming up from the bottom, up the two sides, meeting more or less in the middle on top.
: