Would anyone happen to know of a good way to make my whistle play quieter without sacrificing much of the tone or playability? I live in an apartment complex, and I know for a fact my practicing can be heard 2 flights below me (thankfully I haven’t received any complaints 
). Thanks!
Jim
Havent; tried it with a whistle but I know that a recorder plays quieter if you rubber band a light piece of fabric over the fipple hole.
Jim,
unfortunately tone and playability is inevitably compromised by the various methods folks on the forum have used and proposed.The best solution is to have a quieter whistle on hand.StevieJ,s Gen fipple tweak which closes the airway by heating is a good solution.I have one thats reduced to less than 1mm using Stevie,s method and its very quiet and has an Overton type back pressure thats very satisfying and the tone is quite nice as well.
Peace,Mike
Best way to a quieter whistle - call Mack Hoover. He makes the best quiet whistles, in my opinion. And not very expensive, either. I can play my Hoover brass D with the baby sleeping in the next room. Nice tone to it, too.
Jim
A quiet whistle must have at least 1 of 3 basic features(or all).
1)A small,deep voicing window.
2)Small toneholes
3)A small diameter inner bore or a decreasing conical bore.
The “best tweak” to mute a whistle is to make a small square block of soft wood,like balsa etc.,that will fit between the walls of the labium ramp on the voicing. This block must have a flat or slightly rounded face nearest the voicing window.
Sliding the block towards or away from the open window along the ramp will reduce the volume. When you reach the tone you desire,set the block with some tape.
Hope this helps
Thomas Hastay.
On 2002-05-07 14:23, Thomas-Hastay wrote:
The “best tweak” to mute a whistle is to make a small square block of soft wood,like balsa etc.,that will fit between the walls of the labium ramp on the voicing. This block must have a flat or slightly rounded face nearest the voicing window.
Thomas,
Does either the height of the block face nearest the voicing window, or the length of the block along the ramp, have any particular bearing? Surely they must… Some sort of even a crude side-view sketch would be most welcome.
I know this whistle-maker has a bad rep in this forum, but if you can find a McAffie whistle somewhere, it has an adjustable mouthpiece that can be used to narrow the windway such that it plays very quietly. It takes some getting used to, because with the mouthpiece closed down you have to use very little air. But it does work. I don’t think McAffie is making any new whistles, but maybe you can get one used. They are not great whistles, but they are not expensive (25$ new). Useful when it’s late at night, and you just gotta’ whistle!
Dennis
Since mack is not taking anymore orders …have you considered a clarke its soft a quietly sweet. And of course…INEXPENSIVE
On 2002-05-07 14:50, CDon wrote:
On 2002-05-07 14:23, Thomas-Hastay wrote:
The “best tweak” to mute a whistle is to make a small square block of soft wood,like balsa etc.,that will fit between the walls of the labium ramp on the voicing. This block must have a flat or slightly rounded face nearest the voicing window.Thomas,
Does either the height of the block face nearest the voicing window, or the length of the block along the ramp, have any particular bearing? Surely they must… Some sort of even a crude side-view sketch would be most welcome.
CDon,
A tiny ball of wax or blue tak jammed into and filling 50% of the airway entrance will make your whistle nice and quiet while we are all waiting in anticipation for T.H,s “best tweak” theory pic/sketch to explode onto the screen.
Peace,Mike
On 2002-05-08 02:42, mike.r wrote:
CDon,
A tiny ball of wax or blue tak jammed into and filling 50% of the airway entrance will make your whistle nice and quiet while we are all waiting in anticipation for T.H,s “best tweak” theory pic/sketch to explode onto the screen.>
Thanks Mike… The blue tak should be placed into the windway on the end that goes into your mouth? This is my understanding of the ‘entrance to the windway’.
I started a big archive search last evening on ways to quieten a whistle. There has been quite a bit of info posted, and I didn’t finish reading it all. Will try to get that done today or tomorrow. Lots of ideas there.
On an inexpensive whistle, take a bit of scotch tape and put it lengthwise down the voice window where the blade is. I taped off about 1/3 the width of the window and got a whispery whistle that could barely be heard in the next room. Yet I was able to take it off easily and restore the whistle to its pristine state.
Hi Akuma12,
while searching Brother Steve’s website for information on triple-tonguing, I found another temporary quietening method you coud try under quick tips: