Look what I found...

Ceili_whistle_man · Post by **Ceili_whistle_man** » Tue Jul 15, 2008 12:16 pm

I have just been cleaning out my filing cabinet drawer, it is the place where all my odds and ends of guitar strings USB leads, mic's, you name it, are 'stored'. Look what I found at the bottom of the drawer.

I made this whistle about 10 years ago, it is a prototype 'Ceili' whistle, a three piece high D made from seamless aluminium tubing. 2 interchangable heads, one 'quiet' for normal playing the other for loud playing in session. Tasmanian oak fipple.
I deliberately made it with big tone holes to see what effect it had on half holing.
In the pic' below, the second mouthpiece from the left was made by turning two pieces of tube to half its thickness on the outside on one piece and half its thickness on the inside on the other piece.
I then cut the windway and blade and slipped the other piece of tube over the top to form the mouthpiece. If you look close to where the blade meets the side wall of the tubing you can just make out the join.
I made this type of mouthpiece because I was not impressed with the ugly looking bulky mouthpieces on a lot of the high end metal whistles, not unlike my mouthpiece on the left.

I just quickly took these shots, if anyone is interested I will take a couple of more detailed up close shots of the back of the head pieces later. (damn you macro function, how do you work??!!!!)
I'm away to have a wee whistle with my long lost (almost forgotten) friend.

Jason Paul · Post by **Jason Paul** » Tue Jul 15, 2008 12:32 pm

Very nice - big tone holes indeed!

Jason

benbrad · Post by **benbrad** » Tue Jul 15, 2008 2:10 pm

Gorgeous whistle. If these were being made now I would definately try to buy one. Big honkin' tone holes though.

peeplj · Post by **peeplj** » Tue Jul 15, 2008 2:13 pm

How does it play?

--James

Ceili_whistle_man · Post by **Ceili_whistle_man** » Tue Jul 15, 2008 9:10 pm

It plays great, and loudly at that peeplj. The machined head plays quieter than the hand formed one, but the machined head is just as loud as most of my other off the shelf whistles, Clarkes, Gen's, Sweetone, and too many others to mention.
I like the tone of the whistle, each head gives a different focus to the air flow making the wider head breathier and the narrow head cleaner/clearer.
I would rather you heard it for yourself. If you give me a couple of days (I am really busy at the moment) I will post a few sound files of the whistle playing the same tune with the two different heads on to let you hear the difference between them.
As for the 'big honkin' tone holes' benbrad, the nice thing is that I can really feel the air column on my finger tips as it vibrates along the length of the whistle. It is a great whistle for easy slides and half holing.
I really wanted to see what effect the bigger tone holes would have on the overall sound of the whistle, so I don't think I would make one like this again on purpose, it was good for an experiment.
I was making low D's before I moved on to making the high D whistle.
Oh by the way, the picture of the assembled whistle is a bit skewed, if you look at both ends you will see that I took the shot from closer to the bottom end of the whistle which makes the tone holes look even bigger than they are. (I know they are big, but not that big!)
The biggest tone hole is the second from bottom (F#) which is 10mm or 7/16th's? Although the bottom three holes are oversized, the top edge of the holes are at almost the same distance as the holes on my Gen' high D.
I started drilling the tone holes lower than where they would normally be knowing that with each drill size up that I went, the edge of the hole would move outwards and upwards making the note increasingly sharper.
The bore is 13mm (Gen D is 11mm) and the wall thickness is 1.5mm.

benbrad · Post by **benbrad** » Tue Jul 15, 2008 10:29 pm

I would love to play one like that. I half-hole all the time and I love to slur up and down to notes. I came to the whistle after playing flute for over 30 yrs and often play the whistle like an open holed flute. Every now and then I play a little jazzy and even a little bit like Jethro Tull. I have a Chieftain hi D and it has pretty large tone holes and is easier to half-hole and slur for that reason I believe. Your whistle has wonderful looking workmanship too. I am an avid motorcyclist and I think the compact design would be perfect for people who need to travel light and less bulky.

Ceili_whistle_man · Post by **Ceili_whistle_man** » Wed Jul 16, 2008 1:00 am

benbrad said:
'I would love to play one like that', do you mean you want to try this one? It could be arranged I suppose.
There are things about it I don't like, but that is down to my own personal taste. I used a lathe in my brother in laws's workshop to turn the pieces. I don't have a lathe myself, cost prevents me buying one, hence I don't make these whistles anymore.
My brother in law moved his business into bigger premises (massive workshop, computer controlled lathes, whooa boy!) and the lathes he uses now are nearly always flat out making pieces for his clients, so the chances of me getting a few hours play time on one of his lathes is next to nil. I had thought of getting him to make a big batch of blanks for me to work with, but they are really cost prohibitive. I'm talking about AU$50 for just one joint ten years ago. I am afraid to ask what he would charge now. Ah stuff it!! It is his 25th wedding anniversary tonight and we are all going out together to celebrate, I shall soften him up with a nice bottle of wine and see if I can get a good deal out of him.

Wish me luck!!!

benbrad · Post by **benbrad** » Wed Jul 16, 2008 11:22 am

Luck, Luck, and more Luck. Just imagine the beautiful work you could turn out on a computer controlled lathe. It would be infinitely repeatable with total accuracy. If you were able to give your brother-in-law the whistle specs and he is well aquainted with using that equipment, he could knock out several whistle turnings in nothing flat. I'm drooling at the prospects. If you don't play the whistle you made you might consider selling it to someone who would give it a good home and a lot of play. Me, comes to mind if I could afford it. Oh well, if I made one like that I don't think I would ever sell it.

Ceili_whistle_man · Post by **Ceili_whistle_man** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 12:21 am

Not too much of a hangover from last night!!

Well it seems the wine did the trick on my brother in law, I've just been for a visit to chat with the workshop supervisor. It's looking good. He ran me through what he can and can't do with the lathes and he is going to do a couple of trial runs on some tubing I have just ordered.
He couldn't give me even a rough idea as to cost, he is going to run a couple of samples off and then do a price that includes lathe set-up, tooling and labour, then I will take it from there.
If the cost is not prohibitive I will start making my Ceili whistles again.
I want them to be affordable, not priced beyond most peoples reach.

benbrad · Post by **benbrad** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 9:05 am

Hurray! Good for you. Never give up, never surrender.