Bass A Whistle project

[AngelicBeaver]

I'm still in the research phase, but I've been considering making a Bass A whistle out of copper pipe. Has anyone tried this with any success? I know they're quiet, but as long as I can get it pretty balanced and the tone is nice, volume isn't a necessity, and might be nice for indoor playing.

So far, I figured I'd do trials out of pvc and then go for a final version with copper pipe once I had a good idea of what I wanted (although copper might be too heavy for a bass whistle).

So, really, I'm looking for anyone who's gone through the process already and can give me a good idea of hole spacing, sizes, window size, etc.


Thanks to anyone who responds.

[kokopelli]

I'm pretty sure Daniel Bingamon has made one. I can't remember the lowest one I saw from him but it was way down below most whistles. He tends to experiment a lot with that sort of thing. He also has a wonderful spreadsheet on his website for calculating things like tone hole size and placement. Check it out. I've never made one as lower than low D but the ones I made all used his excel spreadsheet and turned out sounding pretty good.

[highwood]

just lost a too long post - somehow the system logged me out and ate my post

I do not have the energy to redo it all, I'll just include a couple links that may help:

http://music.bracker.co/Music/Searching ... istle_Bore
Hans also has a calculator on his site

http://www.bingamon.com/jubilee/store/basswhistles.htm

[nickthepiedpiper]

I used to make a bass A in copper back in the day, but although I still make Bass A Whistles I found that, for the style I make, the copper doesn't have sufficient wall thickness for the windway. I made a bass G recently out of CPVC that turned out great. That material resonates much better than copper for a bass whistle, and it is cheaper and easier to work with. It is much better to work with than PVC, but if you don't have a lathe then making the fipple and windway work with CPVC would be very hard. If you have specific questions i'd be happy to try and answer them for you... i LOVE the low low whistles!

[emmdee]

By way of a slight thread hi-jack, may I ask a couple of questions about "low low whistles"?

I've been playing whistle 20 years, low whistles for 15. I own a low D, and have played Low C and Low Bb Overtons/Goldies. I have pretty big hands and pretty long fingers, but the Low Bb was at the very edge of my ability to play. Slow stuff was fine, but forget jigs and reels! I doubt I could handle a Low A - somebody's selling a Low Low G on the C&F used instruments exchange which is boggling my mind, quite honestly.

How reasonably playable are these really big babies, when all's said and done, and what practical use are they beyond the confines of a recording studio? I should say that they sound good and interesting - I'm not criticising them as instruments, just wondering how useful they are in the grand scheme.

Thanks, guys
m.d.

[GerardG]

While it may not be for everybody, it's certainly possible to play a Bass G as Hatao proves here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESr6jrVSSuk

[AngelicBeaver]

If you look at his hands, Hatao plays with a rather extreme version of the piper's grip in order to make it work.

From what I have gathered, bass whistles are not as responsive as their higher brothers and are very quiet.

Personally, the quietness thing could be a plus, as long as the quietness is pretty even across the octaves. I can play in the house without waking up the baby or being kicked out by my wife. If I need to play it for an event, there are microphones for that.

Bass whistles aren't suited to fast reels, but I'd imagine they'd be pretty nice for a slow air, and I gravitate toward the slower stuff anyway (though I'm trying to make myself learn some faster things to improve my skills).

As far as professional usage, listen to Lunasa play Autumn Child/Heaton Chapel. The whistle they use for that is a bass A. I can play it on my D quite nicely, and if I had an A whistle, I could play along.

[DrPhill]

I made a bass A from plumbing pipe.

It is not particularly quiet, but is certainly not for playing reels......

I moved L1 and R1 round to the back as thumbholes to eas the spacing, and included a 45 degree bend at the head joint to reduce arm stretch.

Here is a clip - if you do not all rush at once and blow my bandwidth limit....

[a.proszynski]

Some years ago I mede a low whistles set from tenor E to bass A using Howard whistle head and 1" aluminium tube. Two years ago I sold them.

[whistle1000]

I have a Goldie Bass A...as nice as it sounds, it is fairly impossible to play...the first two fingers on top and bottom hands are comfortable...the 3rd and 6th holes are very hard to reach...I've always wanted to have someone put a key on those holes...I have bigger problems with it now because the second hole on a D whistle who "stole" (suddenly left town with it) it from me, finally returned it to me bent like a banana. I don't know if he bent it intentionally before shipping it. This is what I suspect. Or he hoped that it would bend in transit as he put it in the mail wrapped only in bubble wrap.... As a side note, anyone have an idea how to unbend it? Also, any ideas on the notion of putting keys on the 3rd and 6th holes? Could it work? The sound is amazing and I certainly would like to pull it out at a gig or a session every now and then...

[dunnp]

I know this is the whistle forum but anyway

I would consider a low low a flute from Casey Burns or another maker. More volume, easier stretch due to conical bore. My Burns is very capable of playing fast music.
Ormiston, Noy and Mcgee are other makers that come to kind.


I could try and record something on mine so you can hear it if I have time.

I have a pvc low low a whistle that never sees the light of day.

[AngelicBeaver]

I have a Goldie Bass A...as nice as it sounds, it is fairly impossible to play...the first two fingers on top and bottom hands are comfortable...the 3rd and 6th holes are very hard to reach...I've always wanted to have someone put a key on those holes...I have bigger problems with it now because the second hole on a D whistle who "stole" (suddenly left town with it) it from me, finally returned it to me bent like a banana. I don't know if he bent it intentionally before shipping it. This is what I suspect. Or he hoped that it would bend in transit as he put it in the mail wrapped only in bubble wrap....

I've considered the Goldie Bass A. It sounds great from the clips I've heard. I'm curious how big your hands are.

I think you deleted out the end of one thought and the beginning of a story.


As far as buying a flute, definitely not now. I got an Eb flute so that I can work on my ebouchure. If I can get to a point where I can play the thing as well as I can play my whistles, I might go for another flute. There's a sound about the whistle that is pleasing to me. Flutes are softer, whistles have more pop (from what I can tell).

[dunnp]

Flutes are softer?
Well you do have a volume control, your embouchre.
But my low low flutes are capable of much more volume and pop.

In my experience not a lot of folks play low low whistles on a regular basis most using it for an effect now and again. Mine is buried somewhere?

My low low a flute is in constant use.

Fair enough you want to have that voice and range and youre a beginner on flute so a whistle makes sense. However from my experience and from the experience of others I know the flute simply works better in that key and is more useful for me as a player.

However the whistle is lovely for that certain effect, also they are capable of playing fast stuff as well.

If youre stuck on a whistle the Goldie works well.

[AngelicBeaver]

I should have clarified. By "softer", I was not talking about volume. I guess it's the transition between notes that seems softer on a flute and more "poppy" on a whistle. This is just my amateur observation from listening to Michael McGoldrick and Lunasa CDs. I'm finding that describing the differences between sounds of whistles and flutes is quite treacherous. I say "softer" thinking one thing, and someone reads "softer" thinking another.

Like "chiff". Seems like every other person to use the term has some personal sense of what the word means.

Another parallel is trying to explain to someone how to get proper embouchure. Once I figure it out, I'm sure I'll understand what all those nice people were trying to tell me.

Words seem a bit inadequate for describing subtle musical qualities (or embouchure mechanics).

[trill]

I moved L1 and R1 round to the back as thumbholes to eas the spacing

Very clever ! First I've heard of it !