I’ve made a low D whistle, it sound great but only in the lower notes. I couldn’t make it sound fine in the last two notes (C and C#) nor in any of the notes of the second octave. It sound too airy. I’ve tryied changing the position of the plug, opening the windway, changing the angle of the blade (a bit since I didn’t bend it)… but nothing seems to work.
I just read about the blade undercut… I had no idea about that, now the plug is glued in place and I put some walls around the window like the Copeland’s and is very difficult to make it… I could get the walls out if I knew that making that undercut would help, but I would like to know your experiences with this first
I’ll try and post some pictures of the whistle.
Yes, I know the windway is way too short, I didn’t wanted to make it that way, it just happened :roll:
Yikes, what a window!
You’re going to need to move the blade edge closer to the windway exit to strengthen the upper notes.
You can cheat a little bit by moving the fipple plug, but not quite that much.
Right now the airstream exiting the windway is mostly going up over the blade edge… you want to split the airstream with the blade edge.
Otherwise, it looks like a fine whistle.
Learned several things: Longer windway, smaller (or shorter?) window, blade undercut, plug chamfer… am I missing anything?? Is the lower angle of the plug ok?
The advice offered sounds good but no one has mentioned the finger holes yet. I would have a look at other low Ds on the market (via websites and such like) and look at the size of the finger holes aswell as the relative positioning of them. The holes you made look like the sound would be muffled and not helping with the intonation between the octaves if it ever was in tune to begin with. Try experimenting with different bodies making the holes bigger, until you get it right,it will help with the tone too.
You did a very neat looking whistle. Try not gluing the fipple plug and sealing it with bees wax. The plug can be moved untill the best postition is found. The windway surface of the fipple plug should be glass smooth. There is also a slight rounding of the exit edge of the fipple plug to consider, and the same for the top of the windway exit.
I think you did a fine job on this first(?) whistle. I would like to give a few “basic” suggestions?
The voicing window should be about 1/2 the diameter of the bore diameter at the window site (average). You can adjust it up or down a little to favor low harmonics (smaller) or high harmonics (larger). The shape of the window should have a rectangular ratio, length/width, of between 1/3 and 1/4 to reduce energy loss. The wider version will be reedier.
“Messing” has made some good comments on toneholes. I have a few suggestions here too. The lowest tonehole can be brought higher up the instrument by adding a “plate” of the same thickness as the PVC tube to double it’s thickness, ref. Recorders. There will be a flattening of the upper register, but you can compensate with breath (unless you wish to add a single “key”).
Toneholes should otherwise be kept to a minimum thickness to reduce flatness in the upper registers (cylindrical acoustics). The spacing between the tonehole can be adjusted by changing bore diameter. Smaller diameters will spred out the spacing and larger diameters will compress the spacing. A reduced bore end hole will help with large bore diameter acoustics.
All in all, I think you did a wonderful job! Keep improving!!!
Thomas Hastay.
Thank you very much for all your kind comments and help!
I’ll start the next one this weekend… this is going to be a tin whistle, my first. I’ll post some pics if it comes out “decent”. I’m using a smaller diameter but thicker tube this time.
What is your plug made of, and what did you glue it with? It looks like Delrin, in which case you should still be able to knock it out since Delrin doesn’t hold glue very well. If it’s stuck in with epoxy, you can heat the metal exterior with a small torch and that will break the glue bond.
FWIW-- I don’t have any blade undercut on my whistles. The flat bottom of the blade is exactly level with the top of the fipple. Also FWIW, the ratio of width to length in my windows is 2:1 . That might not be great for a low whistle though.
The plug is made from wood, I just used a black varnish to protect it. It’s glued with flech-tite, that’s a glue used to fletch arrows (archery arrows)… I used that because it was the only glue I had at the moment It’s pretty strong, I don’t think I could remove the plug without breaking it. Anyway, the window is too long, so I’ll just start working on the next whistle.
I’ll keep the 2:1 ratio in mind since I’m now going to make a tin whistle and my Feadog window ratio is closer to 1/2 than 1/3 or 1/4.
I’ve looking at some pics of the Overton Low Whistle window though and that one really looks closer to the 1/3 - 1/4 ratio.
It’s pretty strong, I don’t think I could remove the plug without breaking it. Anyway, the window is too long, so I’ll just start working on the next whistle.