Tweaking a whistle with a dirty/harsh sound

[Moof]

When it comes to material, these are quite good:

https://tinyurl.com/23eaendk

I found them spectacularly useless for much else, but if you want very thin, easily cut sheet brass with projections that are just the right width for the ramps of some high whistles, they're perfect. I have a whole pile of them, bought from the sort of hardware store that will only sell you 50 of something even if you only need one.

I tried an offcut from one on the only whistle I have that doesn't work. I bought it from a junk shop a couple of years ago, at the time when fishing something out of a cobwebby old cabinet and shoving it in your mouth suddenly looked risky for the first time ever. I paid my £1, took it home, steeped it in Milton fluid, and then discovered that all it produces are cracked notes. (I don't know why, it looks fine.)

But I've now found that with a sliver of brass stuck to the outside of the ramp, it plays a mellow, in-tune Bb scale – except for the Bb, unfortunately, which is absent in the lower octave and dodgy in the upper. Clearly it needs further adjustment, but I had to go out at that point, and since then I haven't been overcome by a desire to hear tunes mangled in the key of Bb instead of D. I'll get round to it at some point.

[Terry McGee]

Ah, thanks for revealing what that device in the windway in your image was made from, Moof. It looked familiar, but I couldn't quite place it.

If you got adventurous, it would be interesting to try sticking an offcut or two under the ramp, as I've outlined above. I imagine that is pretty thin, so you'd probably need two or more, if it turns out that a bit "too much sky" is the issue on the whistle in question. But credit card if it's "far too much sky"!

Hmmm, Ebay is now trying to lure me into buying "Picture frame Bendable mirror plate hanging hanger brass (206)"!

[Moof]

it would be interesting to try sticking an offcut or two under the ramp, as I've outlined above.

I found Blu-Tack unhelpful for this operation, so I'm waiting for the universe to reveal the location of a pack of Bostik glue dots, which I know I have.

Somewhere.

[Terry McGee]

Yeah, I tried Blu-tack as well, with the same result. Best of luck finding the glue dots!

(Turns out later that, fresh from the shower, you inadvertently sat down on the glue dots, and they've been following you around ever since....)

[Moof]

(Turns out later that, fresh from the shower, you inadvertently sat down on the glue dots, and they've been following you around ever since....)

[Flywhistler]

I also have a Generation Eb whistle that sounds very rough. I tried substituting different whistle heads. I know this isn't a novel approach, but I came up with a really nice Eb whistle. I tried a whistle head from a Waltons Little Black whistle. Better, but still kind of rough. Next I tried a whistle head from a Feadog D (current model). Much better, but quite loud. Finally, I tried a whistle head from an Oak D whistle. This one was the best. Nice sound, light, nimble and flexible, just the way you expect Eb whistles to sound and play. So, for the cost of two inexpensive whistles, you get a very nice Eb! All the heads fit snugly on the Eb tube, except the Waltons which was a bit loose. But if you wanted to use that one, you could add some Teflon tape.

[Tunborough]

I also have a Generation Eb whistle that sounds very rough. I tried substituting different whistle heads. I know this isn't a novel approach, but I came up with a really nice Eb whistle. I tried a whistle head from a Waltons Little Black whistle. Better, but still kind of rough. Next I tried a whistle head from a Feadog D (current model). Much better, but quite loud. Finally, I tried a whistle head from an Oak D whistle. This one was the best. Nice sound, light, nimble and flexible, just the way you expect Eb whistles to sound and play. So, for the cost of two inexpensive whistles, you get a very nice Eb! All the heads fit snugly on the Eb tube, except the Waltons which was a bit loose. But if you wanted to use that one, you could add some Teflon tape.

And what does the piece-of-the-sky test tell you about the different heads? How much light does the Oak head show between the floor of the windway and the underside of the blade? How does this compare to the other heads?

(For the record, I prefer to peer up the whistle from the bottom, pointing the blowing end to the light, rather than down the windway from the blowing end. You can't skew the results as much by the angle you're looking through the whistle, and you don't need to remove the head. However, that may not tell you as much if there's a bevel on the lower side of the blade.)

BTW, different head designs can affect the tuning, so they aren't always universally interchangeable, even if the bore diameters match.

[bigsciota]

So, I did the suggested fix and glued a bit of credit card under the blade. Filed it to a bit of a slope, and for good measure filed it a little on the bottom to thin it a little (it was a thick card).

The result:

https://voca.ro/1cehhJxhnNhZ

For reference, the original is here (I tried replicating as best I could, same room, same device, same tune):

https://vocaroo.com/1lsbSuOkqw7t

To my ears the sound is softer, sweeter, and less "dirty" for lack of a better term. It's not quite perfect, but I'm pretty happy with the fix. It's now a whistle I would play around others, whereas for the past 9 years it's sat more or less untouched.

Thanks for the advice, all!

[Flywhistler]

In response to Turnborough’s question, the Oak had a relatively thin bit of daylight, followed by the Feadog and lastly the Waltons, which showed the most light.

[Terry McGee]

Very good, thanks bigscotia, an impressive improvement. Any hints on how you went about it to encourage others to give it a shot? Let's stamp out bad whistles wherever we can!

And thanks too, Flywhistler. Again poor old Mr Walton and Messrs Feadog are not coming out of this well, are they. Bit of an embarrassment that they are Irish companies making Irish whistles. C'mon lads, put a bit of effort into it.....

Interestingly, I've heard of Oak whistles, but don't think I've ever seen one. Maybe they don't make it down this far? Maybe I should be having a word with our new US Ambassador to Australia, Caroline Kennedy about balance-of-trade issues?

"I've been sending lots of flutes over to America, Madam Ambassador. Surely you could shoot us back a bucket load of whistles every now and then?"

[stringbed]

I've heard of Oak whistles, but don't think I've ever seen one.

Look familiar?


The mouthpieces are interchangeable without the slightest strain and the casting marks on them are identical. The visible blob of poster putty in the one on the body labeled Feadóg got there by my hand, and before you ask, its audible effect follows with the mouthpiece when placed on body labeled Oak. I can’t find a dimension in which they differ either by hard measurement or optical comparison (and I’ve stared down a fair number of windways in my day).

[Mr.Gumby]

I've heard of Oak whistles, but don't think I've ever seen one.

Look familiar?


The mouthpieces are interchangeable without the slightest strain and the casting marks on them are identical. The visible blob of poster putty in the one labeled Feadóg got there by my hand, and before you ask, its audible effect follows with it when placed on the other body. I can’t find a measurable dimension by which they differ.

They were initially US made. I think Feadóg teo then made them for a while but some years ago they became US made again. Feadóg put their own heads on but before and after that they were different. If you get a current one (I have seen them in Custy's) you won't get a Feadóg with a different label. I have one I bought some twenty five years ago that's a nice whistle.

[stringbed]

Both whistles in my photo are of recent manufacture. I bought the Oak from Custy’s and the Feadóg directly. They differ noticeably from the Oak I picked up many decades ago on 48th Street in NYC. The recent acquisitions were packaged under their own brands and there’s no question of post-production label swapping. If there’s anything that needs wondering about, it seems to be which is OEM, who actually runs the production line, and where.

[Moof]

I thought I'd have a go at shimming one of my very old Feadógs. One of them hasn't the lovely tone of the other, possibly because the blade's rough or because the window's longer than on the first whistle.

The back of the ramp is curved on this whistle, so whatever I used had to be the same shape. My sheet brass is thin enough to cut with scissors, so it'd be a breeze to hammer into shape if I had a vice to hold a dowel of the right diameter. No space for tools, though, so I had to do my best by wrapping PTFE tape round the whistle to give it some protection, taping my shim over that, and then tapping it gently to curve it.

It did sort of work, but glueing it was tricky. The only thin adhesive that wanted to stick to plastic was superglue, and it's a bit too runny. It's hard to apply enough to stick it to the whistle, but not so much that it oozes out onto whatever is supporting it.

In the event it slipped round slightly on one side, and also left a tiny gap between the edge of the blade and the shim itself. The tone was unsurprisingly slightly woolly.

The shim popped off again easily enough, so I could have another go if I find a better glue. I think a slightly heavier brass would make a much better shim, but cutting it with tin snips might mangle it up so much that it's hard to reshape.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/wkyqva4w ... ep9gd&dl=0

The other thing I discovered during the experiment is that lip salve works as slide grease, but slide grease does not work as lip salve. Best to get them in different coloured packaging.

[Mr.Gumby]

Both whistles in my photo are of recent manufacture.

I assumed you showed D whistles. The C s I have seen are still identical to Feadógs, I assume because they don't sell in any volume compared to the Ds. The D s aren't anymore and haven't been for some time. The Feadóg identical Ds were sold as made in Ireland but changed design when that changed back to 'made in USA'.