I am a newbie with a wife and two cats who are less than appreciative of my relentless practicing. I’ve played around with the blue tac “pea” (my fav, so far) and the modified plastic garbage bag tie mutes that have been mentioned on this list, but to be honest I’m not totally satisfied…mainly because I would rather not be experimenting with homemade contraptions (read lazy?)…instead I just want practice the tunes (and believe me I need the practice.) Which brings me to why I’m posting…I find myself scratching my head in wonder that the whistle makers have don’t offer quality mutes for their whistles. I would think the demand would be high for such items. I would pay $5-10, maybe more, for a good one with a variable volume control (a sucker is born every minute, you say?). Maybe they do make them and I don’t know of them…if so please enlighten me as to where I could buy one for my Susato VSB. I’m sure there is a demand for quality mutes (at least 1 for sure)…so why isn’t there a supply from the whistle makers? Any whistle makers care to comment (would you like my visa number and address where you can send it)?
Loke, I’ve a modified garbage bag tie for my VSB. . .should I send it on?
Free. . .gratis. . .cheap.
I now have a good dozen of these little gizmos all over the house. I’ll send you a whole selection!
The trick with my VSB is to run the gizmo over a finger nail to give it a bit of a curve that will hold it in place so it doesn’t slip further than you want it to.
I think the reason none are sold
is that it’s so easy to fashion
something workable oneself. A rolled
piece of paper or cardboard works
fine, is easy to adjust, lasts
a fair while and is easily replaced.
I believe something can be done
with silly putty, too. Best, Jim
I think muting via the window by any method to be unsatisfying due to the increased out- of- tuneness that follows.Muting via the airway entrance not only produces a rather satisfying back pressure but has less impact on a whistles voicing.StevieJ came up with a great way to sweeten the tone and playability of a gen fipple by heating and lightly squashing the airway entrance.Taking this a step further to the point where the entrance is almost closed produces a very silent and workable whistle ideal for late night practiceing.I,m not sugesting this on anything but a gen type fipple(celulose) which is easily replaced and should not be attempted on a susato or sweetone(it melts!) unless to want to ruin it. Peace, Mike:)
I’d say keep a cheapie whistle around with a mute in place for spur of the moment quiet whistling, and save your upper end whistles for when you can play them the way they were designed to be played. Trust me, a LOT of work goes into making a handmade whistle sound terrific. All muted whistles sound pretty much the same:quiet. The plastic bag tie works really well, but don’t try it on delicate wooden whistles since it may damage the blade.
I have a bag tie sitting in a Meg and I leave it there- I can sit in the bedroom and play and not wake up my wife
This is a not pertaining to the post about increased out of tuneness caused by the garbage bag zip tie mute. Most cheapie whistles vary from slightly to very out of tune with themselves anyway. Insertion of the mute does change the tuning, but I’ve found some whistles that are actually more in tune, even almost in tune, with the mute inserted. Sometimes the improvement is dramatic enough that I’ve toyed with the idea of securing the muted inside the fipple so that the whistle is not muted, but still benefits from the better in tuneness.
On 2002-09-05 07:58, scissors wrote:
This is a not pertaining to the post about increased out of tuneness caused by the garbage bag zip tie mute. Most cheapie whistles vary from slightly to very out of tune with themselves anyway. Insertion of the mute does change the tuning, but I’ve found some whistles that are actually more in tune, even almost in tune, with the mute inserted. Sometimes the improvement is dramatic enough that I’ve toyed with the idea of securing the muted inside the fipple so that the whistle is not muted, but still benefits from the better in tuneness.
John
John,I didnt mention your zip tie mute if you were refering to my post.What you have is pretty nifty but claiming improved voicing/tuning as well as muting is wishful thinking.Lets not get too carried away. Peace ,Mike
Thanks for the offer Tyghress, but I think I’ll pass on the ties…I’ve got a bunch around too in various tinkered states. If I get any more around here my wife might make me take the garbage out or something. I will try your finger nail trick though…thanks.
Too bad there hasn’t been any whistle makers replying yet…I’m really interested in their perspective on this. Have any tried making mutes that are volume adjustable…only to find no one bought them? Maybe I should invent something and sell it…naw, that’s why I posted here…I don’t want to tinker anymore!!!
Loke, as much as I like the garbage bag ties, which is a whole lot, try the tape thingy that Loren mentioned. You just tape off 1/3 or more of the window, and everything quites down. I didn’t like the residue.
Of course, another possibility is just get a quieter whistle.
I simply use the tape more or less permanently on one (cheap) dedicated whistle for practice - so for me residue isn’t an issue.
So far the scotch tape trick has worked far better than anything else I’ve tried. There’s some initial experimentation at first, to find the best spot for the tape, and to determine if horizontal or vertical postitioning will work best on a given whistle, but once that’s done, you’re set - the tape stays put no matter how much knocking around the whistle takes.
I also find the sound and a playability, through both octaves, to be superior with this method.
I’ll give the tape thing a try…I haven’t tried that yet. Still it would be nice to have a mute with a knob that varied the volume without adversely affecting the quality of the sound.
Any MIDI whistles out there? (Don’t answer that…it’s a joke…I hope).
On 2002-09-05 17:53, tyghress wrote:
Loke, as much as I like the garbage bag ties, which is a whole lot, try the tape thingy that Loren mentioned. You just tape off 1/3 or more of the window, and everything quites down. I didn’t like the residue.
If I recall correctly from some previous discussion that I can’t locate, you place the tape vertically, or londitudinally if you prefer, covering about 1/3 of the left or right side of the window?
Hey Loke, that MIDI whistle thing is something I’ve thought about for a while. It would be cool if someone made an electronic “whistle”! It could have a pressure transducer in the mouthpiece so that it would sense the air being blown in, and each whole could have a little light sensor for each finger that would control the pitch. You could also attach headphones to the thing so that you could practice without disturbing others. Now all we need is someone to make it at a reasonable price!
Peace ,Mike