Did I kill it?

JillyKB · Post by **JillyKB** » Fri Aug 13, 2004 8:04 pm

Okay, I was playing around with the fipple of my Gen. C trying to make it sound halfway decent toward the second octave. Appearantly I got a little overzealous in whatever the heck I was playing with at the time, because now its even worse than before. The notes are really airy and quiet (it kinda sounds like it does when I use the poster putty volume control, except I don't have anything covering the hole). Is there any way to remedy this or is the fipple dead? (or was I even specific enough for you to be able to help? I don't have a clue what I did wrong or I'd try to give more details)

vomitbunny · Post by **vomitbunny** » Fri Aug 13, 2004 8:10 pm

What did you do? Sand the blade down too much? Learn how to to the "guitar pick tweak" or what ever you want to call it.....or just save it until you run into someone who like to tweak cheap whistles. My tweaking started with me ruining a few cheap whistles and then being determined to fix them.

Chuck_Clark · Post by **Chuck_Clark** » Fri Aug 13, 2004 8:10 pm

With no more to go on than that, it sounds like you took too much off the blade. I did it once with a Gen and once found a Walton that had somehow had the blade damaged (I have NO idea how) so much that I had to file it down too far and wound up with a similar result. The "guitar pick" tweak will work if that's the case.

vomitbunny · Post by **vomitbunny** » Fri Aug 13, 2004 8:53 pm

Oh, and you might wind up with a much better whistle than it was to begin with it you'r lucky, too. You can almost always repair it to as good as shape as it was originally, and usually somewhat better.

JillyKB · Post by **JillyKB** » Fri Aug 13, 2004 9:10 pm

Okay, after much searching, I am having issues finding out about this guitar pick tweak. HELP!

I'd love to give it a shot.l

fearfaoin · Post by **fearfaoin** » Sat Aug 14, 2004 10:25 am

JillyKB wrote:Okay, after much searching, I am having issues finding out about this guitar pick tweak. HELP! I'd love to give it a shot.l

You have to make sure to select "Search for all terms" on the search page, and even then you have a lot of posts to contend with. I found actual explanations of the tweak (as opposed to mere references to it) here:

http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=18878 (second post)
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=11486 (look for post by DRC, about half-way down)

JillyKB · Post by **JillyKB** » Sat Aug 14, 2004 12:27 pm

OH YAY! Thank you so much.

vomitbunny · Post by **vomitbunny** » Sun Aug 15, 2004 12:37 am

I might mention, if you decide to do the guitar pick tweak, to do it a little different. Find something thinner than guitar pick, and glue it to the underside of the blade (inside the whistle). I'm almost always happier with the results that way. You keep more of the characteristic sound of the brand. At least I do. Takes a steady hand, but it's not that hard.

JillyKB · Post by **JillyKB** » Sun Aug 15, 2004 11:48 am

Thank you all so much for your help. I got it back so that it plays about as well as it did when I first bought it. There are still a few rough notes (2nd octave D and E for instance... I can never get those to sound good on either of my whistles, though). Still, notes are coming out, so I'm happy for now

vomitbunny · Post by **vomitbunny** » Mon Aug 16, 2004 10:41 am

I bet you can make it sound better than when you bought it. Find some thin plastic material. Like about as thick as the plastic top on a coffee can. Cut a thin strip out about as wide as the space the blade takes. Cut it until it fits right down the ramp perfectly. About 5/16 inch wide maybe? Now sharpen the end that will be the blade a bit. Then cut it so it's about as short as it is wide, or slightly less. This little piece of plastic now needs a drop of glue or cement on it. What you'r gonna do is balance the piece of plastic on a small screw driver. Like a big glasses screw driver or electronics screw driver. Your gonna carefully guide it through the back of the whistle mouthpiece and stick it directly under the blade, so that it just barely (or very slighly more) sticks out farther than the blade. That's it. While the glue is still soft, try moving backwards or forwards just a hair at a time till you get the right spot. That's it. No harder than threading a needle.
YOu did the blue tac tweak too didnt you?

Afterwards you may need to do the bevel tweak to improve it a bit further. Maybe not.