I picked up some Viceroy tin whistles this week on a used site. I thought all 3 were identical but see one has a slit near the bottom of the tube kind of at the back but not directly behind the holes. Any idea what the purpose of this slit is?
Another interesting observation is the bore of the tube is more like the size of my Generation b flat whistle.
I’m guessing they basically did it to create a “foot joint” extension like the double holes you see on bagpipe chanters and some old flutes. The slit acts as the vent for the bell note, rather than relying on the end of the whistle. I’d be a little surprised if that was enough to allow you to a hit the top bell note (third octave), but probably not that many folks fun into the need that often there. At least that’s my take, I’ve done some extended foot joints on whistles utilizing a double/thru hole before. Found it can make the bell note a little more solid.
I am struggling to get it to play all the notes in the lower octave in tune especially the D and the G. I found another high D whistle with the same size bore ( it was a very very cheap Amazon whistle I bought as a joke). Swapping the tube with the cheap whistle tube actually improves it loads and all the notes play in tune according to the tuning app I am using. You can see the hole positions vary. I put a Waltons Mellow D in for comparison.
You could try taping over the slit I suppose, see if that helps any. It may have just been some weird manufacturing error or defect, or possibly that they flipped the tube the wrong way and that was designed to be a glue slot or something that was meant to be in the head piece. Only guessing on my part again.
Thanks for the suggestion. I actually acquired 3 of the whistles and assumed they were all identical but only one of them has the slit. They all play pretty much the same as far as my unskilled ears can tell so not sure the slit does anything. I was just curious really as had not seen a whistle with a slit like this before.
It might even to connected to the manufacture of the tubing rather than the whistles. A section that shouldn’t have been used, but got overlooked in the factory.
Yeah I may never really know. The fact that 2 didnt have the slit does tend to suggest it was just a manufacturing error in that one.
