A recent thread on this forum referred to the subject of modes (as in Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian and Locrian) and I began to wonder if any of the makers who visit the site would consider experimenting with different modal scales on a wet Saturday afternoon (!)
I realise that instruments in such scales would not be a runaway commercial success but if any maker wants to PM me, I’d be an interested party and, who knows, maybe other readers would consider broadening their horizons.
At the very least, I need all the help I can get with the sort of gigs I do.
Sure, I could make one if I had the hole size and spaceing? But given todays date I am not going to start lookin it up. 
Sorry, forgot about the date but I’m serious and, whilst the muse is with me, how about trying a quena (!). Good quenas are difficult to come by and they have the same number of holes on the front plus a thumb hole. Wooden whistle makers, in particular, would be welcome but all materials are worth a shot. You don’t even have to mess with fipples!
Tony, send an email to Dan Bingamon, he has been doing this for a couple years. Plus his whistles are not bad, I have a brass one which is a bit like a louder breathy Generation.
I don´t see the point in making a special whistle. I you for instace want to play a tune in a dorian mode (example: What shall we do with a drunken sailor) you just start on e (on a d flute) and end on the same note in the secon octave. You can play all the ancient modes on a modern tin whistle. It´s a wee bit trickier with minor scales and oriental scales.
Falkbeer, if The Chief says he needs a special whistle, he probably does. He has played on many a sound track including ones as big as Titanic and Braveheart.
OK, but I still need hole sizes and distance. I tried a quena but I could not play it. I did make a whistle without a fipple plug that played. Would you like to try that? Also have a whistle that can adjust the whistle out and the air plays notes. Takes breath control that I am sure you have.
Modal whistles the easy way 
Step 1: get Dan’s TWCalc program off his website. It’s free.
Step 2: Plug in your tube bore and wall thickness.
Step 3: Play with the scale sequence to get the scale you want.
Step 4: Play with the hole sizes.
Step 5: Cut, drill, and play.
(Alternate Step 1: call Jubilee Musical Instruments; modes are his specialty)
BTW, what’s the scale on a Quena?
Bula Ratu,
Were you not paying attention?
The modes of scale you mention are already on a standard whistle or flute because they are all diatonic relatives of the standard major scale.
If you play an octave starting
from XXX XXX u get Ionian;
from XXX XXO u get Dorian:
and so on in order of Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian and Locrian.
Employing the OXX OOO shifts the Ionian reference to the XXX OOO position and enables a new set of all those relative modes from sequential starting points.
I would be surprised if these are the modes you would want special scale pipes made for. You are thinking of some other scales which are globally extant.
Moce!
I think the point the Chief is trying to make is, if you had a whistle that was in… say… a Locrian mode (that is, starting on the bottom note and going up, it would play a locrian mode rather than an ionian), then you could play a tune you know on a regular whistle, and watch as it comes out something entirely different! Perhaps untelligible, perhaps not.
Isn’t most non-religious music Locrian lines transferred to the other modes? A devilish plot if ever there was one! 
I do, of course, realise that all the standard Western modes are available on an instrument built in a diatonic major key.
If, however, the bell note, of a whistle, was the tonic of another mode (other than Ionian), the two-octave range would begin in a different place and afford new fingering possibilities.
I frequently have to play “music” written by people who don’t know what they are doing, so one instrument doesn’t cover the range. Another flightcase-full of “back-up” can only help.
Also, some of these employers haven’t actually managed to write anything,
so I have to make something up. When picking up a normal whistle, or any other musical instrument for that matter, it can be difficult to avoid tried and tested patterns ("Nah, too Celtic, man… Nah, too Peruvian… Nah, too Classical… etc., etc.,).
John Lennon once opined that he started to write songs on the piano because he couldn’t play it and would, therefore, avoid trotting out the same old riffs he fell into every time he picked up a guitar.
My question was, simply, that if any maker feels like even a “one-off” experiment, I’m all ears.
P.S. I do have one of Daniel’s Ahava Rabba whistles - very usefull.
P.P.S. I’ve just acquired, from a contributor to this forum, one of Chris Abell’s chromatic whistles, which I’m currently trying to get my head around.
P.P.P.S. On Tuesday I’m going to find out how to post photos on sites, so I’ll put up a picture of a standard G quena (maybe alongside a G whistle) and if any maker is up for it, I’ll take measurements.
P.P.P.P.S. This quest is endless, but think what an Aladdins Cave my wife will have to flog when I finally peg out (!).
Her is a pic of The Chief trying to decide which whistle to saw in half and convert to a Miko Lidian Doodlum scale
Phil
[/img]
Interesting range in music is not necessarily dependent on the lineal two octave range.
There is such a thing as octave jumps, which you must know.
Octave jumps actually make the melodic line more interesting
than may be the case with octave conforming expression.
With octave jumps (up or down) you have, in effect, two octave range for every mode.
When it comes to flutes and whistles most melodic traditions
from Eastern Europe to India do not prefer the bell note as the tonic.
The bell note is at least
- the leading note below the tonic,
- the sub-mediant below tonic,
- the dominant below tonic
4)the sub-dominant below tonic - the mediant below tonic.
In North Indian classical bansuri tradition all the modes already
mentioned as well as four other exotic scales and some other one off
ones are played with XXX OOO tonic rendering the bell note the drop
down dominant.
The drop down ornaments characteristic of most Eastern traditions
(European and Asian) adds a haunting dimensions to these musics as it
does to many ITM pieces also.
If I were having special scale instruments made (for the non diatonic scales)
I wouldn’t want bell note basis for the scale but, more probably,
XXX OOO basis to allow for these drop downs.
I have already done this with several flute makers.
I do recall a discussion with Daniel Bingamon about this some time ago.
I have not got back to him because this year I am focussing on large lutes (B key etc) rather than whistles acquisition.
I admit my post is not too neatly expressed.
I hope you can understand me even if you may not agree with my perspective.
Good Luck and Aloha.
Wish I could help you chief, but thus far I only have the capability to make whistle tubes for C,D,Eb-- much too small for a quena. I did forward this thread to a friend who does make wooden quenas and also wonderful NA style flutes.
Then there is only the hard way to go. Plug and redrill the holes! It´s not that hard to do actually.
Here in Sweden we´ve got an ancient whistle-type instrument called the Spilaapipa (playing pipe) tuned in a minor scale, on a d-whistle (from the bottom: D E F# G Bb C D). One could describe it as a g-minor modal scale (Dala-moll). I retuned recently a Bb-Generation whistle. It´s very interesting to play such an instrument, virtually everything one plays when one moves the fingers automaticly sounds like an old swedish folk song from the province of Dalarna.
On the other hand, the Dala-moll scale is so unike so I decided that it was worth the trouble. I try to keep things simple. At one point in my life I had a zillion flutes, recorders and whistles. Diffrent scales, tunings and sounds. I loved them all and tried to pay them all attension as if they were my children. I got to complex! Nowadays I have only a few flute-type instruments.
Unseen, I read a later mail by Chief and I now understand what he means now. It wasn´t that clear in his first mail. When one plays a familiar instrument the fingers tend to move in familiar patterns. This is a problem when one wants to think in new ways. In that case it might be a good idea to have a whistle or any other instrument in a other tuning - it might give you a fresh new view and perspective on things. for example its very interesting to tune ones guitar in a strange chord and just see what the fingers might find!
On the other hand. Burt Bacharach once said in an interview that he never composed or arranged at the piano. If you do that, he said, you will always play what the fingers CAN play. He feels freer with just pen and paper!
What mode do you want to do?
I know you didn’t ask me this but seeing it was not a PM but a publicly expressed question I am going to phantasise my order to molliify my rising WHOA:-
I would like a G Bhairav whistle or G hejaz if you like
with the tonic G here XXX OOO
meaning the bell note is the dominant below the tonic.
The scale has a minor 2nd and a minor 6th. All other notes are natural.
G Ab B C D Eb F# G+
The scale, which is not diatonic, is an exotic kind of major scale used in Eastern European, Middle Eastern and Indic music.
the 2 octave range from the bell note (low dominant) =
D- Eb- F#- G Ab B C (x fingered) C# D Eb F# G+ Ab+ B+ C+(x fingered) C#+ D+
Without cross fingering I should be able to get G Pooravi Scale:
G Ab B C# D Eb F# G+
Using C as a tonic and the C# as the minor second and skipping the D I would get another exotic scale - namely Todi.
There fore I would like a drone pipe as the second tube with C and G drone options.
In summary a double barrelled whistle which allows for a G and a C drone
and the notes from bell note D Eb F# G Ab B C(x fingered) and C#
with 2 octave range from bell note.
Copper body and non metal fipple.
OK, here’s the duct-tape version, for what it’s worth. No drones, yet.
Take a Clare and duct-tape over the tone holes.
Flip it over and drill, measuring from the bell:
3/16 at 1.0 inch
3/8 at 2.61
3/16 at 3.29
3/16 at 3.69
1/4 at 5.05
3.16 at 5.85
This gives d, eb, f#, g, ab, b, c#.
The c works with OXX XOO, and an awful lot of other cross fingerings are possible. I’ll post a clip when the baby’s awake!