Paper clips placed upright in
the windway seem to make excellent
baffles, effectively muting
whistles while preserving
a pleasant tone. I’m playing low Ds,
and so a large paper clip
is needed. I can get even
more muting by using two
of them.
Does this affect the tuning any? I’ve noticed that the sticky-tack solution tends to send things flat.
Not at all, Michael, as far
as I can tell. A paper clip
is a thing of beauty!
I find that stuffing beef jerky shavings in the window quite effectively mutes my whistles, until I inhale explosively, cough a lot, and chew it thoroughly.
Serp
Serpent, hahahaha:-)
Even worse I reckon is burping big time whilst playing. I hit about three bum notes whilst letting air flow through the whistle. :-0
I tried to mute a whistle
with peanut butter once.
I will not relate to you here
the outcome. When you are
older, my son.
I tried to mute a whistle once
Put a bag around my head
But halfway through Lord Inchiquin
I found that I was dead
Boyd
he he he
Er, ahem.
A paperclip upright in the windway?? hmm… I wonder how that is able to effectively mute the whistle… I mean, wouldn’t the air just go through…??
It’s sort of a baffle and, yes, it
does work. One of the nice features
is that the whistle seems to sound
better than it does with other
muting devices. Also you can
up the muting by adding a second
clip. When you consider that other
muting methods take time to apply,
tend to degrade or change shape
while in use, are a safety hazard (the
paper bag, the peanut butter, heaven knows),
this method is a boon to
humanity. Try it, you’ll like it!
[ This Message was edited by: jim stone on 2002-11-15 13:59 ]
Yes, I think I will one of these late nights… lol
I made a kind of interesting mute the other night out of a paper tube. Imagine a whistle inserted into a funnel, so that the mouthpiece end sticks out the wide end of the funnel and the barrel of the whistle sticks out the narrow end. The funnel does double duty, cutting down on the volume of the whistle while directing the sound back towards your ears. This also had the useful behavior of muting the second octave more than the first octave.
Reversing the funnel has the effect of improving the timbre of the whistle.
In either case, you have to be careful that the part of the funnel over the windway isn’t too close, or it interferes with the airflow (and hence the tone).
I eventually abandoned the mute because I felt a little silly playing into a paper tube, but there might be some fertile ground there for an inventive whistle maker, to build a mute (or “amp”) right into the whistle.
– Scott
Anyone tried one of these fancy “mute headphones” sold by Bose in airlines novelties ads ? Looks cool : the dog and family may resp. scream and howl til deaf, while you can keep on experimenting your 3rd octave quietly. Subjectively.
Cool!
I’ve tried this paper clip mute in my Clarke several times tonight. For one thing, the paper clip won’t stay there, and for another thing, it doesn’t actually mute the sound. What am I missing, Jim?
The User’s Manual says that, with the
Clarke, the clip must lean against
the blade, standing vertically.
If it leans the other way, so that it
slopes into the whistle, it will
slide out the other end. (Indeed,
it can be expelled at considerable
velocity, transforming the Clarke
into a weapon useful in
hunting small varmints.) Two small clips
–easily procured–mute more than one does.
Science marches on!