Some time ago I made my first whistle: A Low D made out of thin walled aluminium (a broomstick actually). I used the instructions written by Dennis Hablena.
It was great fun to do, and it is playable and in tune…
The thing is, the holes are quite small and stretched far apart.
Is this to do with the fact that the tube has a very thin wall?
If I would move some holes up or down to adjust the spacing - would the hole size still need to reach to where the top edge is on the original design?
I have some more questions, but will post them in another thread.
If you have a few simple tools - have a go at making your own whistle - it’s fun, and i learned a lot (and got a lot of questions)
Spacing and whole size both affect the pitch. Making a whole bigger will raise the pitch, and moving it up (closer toward the fipple) will raise the pitch. So larger wholes can be spaced closer together.
I don’t think it has to do with the wall thickness, except that with thin walls and large holes, your fingers actually protude into the whistle body and affect pitch. It might not be significant enough to worry about in a basement-built whistle.
To reduce the spacing between the toneholes, the bore diameter must be larger or you must use a conical taper (like a Recorder).
The only other way to reduce the distance between toneholes is to make them deeper. This last is not always very practical and it flattens the notes of the upper registers.
Here is a program to “try out” changes in your design.
