Chiff and Fipple Forums

Having a splendid time at Celtic week here. Good tunes, good food, good people.
Walt

Dear Flutophiles, For your consideration, I am pleased to offer "CLARE" , my new model of keyless flute: https://wdsweetflutes.com/ Blayne at Irish Flute Store has made a nice video featuring his excellent playing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JPO9rnk2NM "CLARE" offers classi...

Thanks, Paddler. I've identified this upper quarter as a critical zone, not getting the attention it deserves, finding it unfairly grouped with the rest of the tapered section (i.e., the lattice). I used a flute fish to find the physical limits and I moved the tuning gap accordion-ly (as we say in t...

Do you own/have access to a flute with tapered bore but Boehm fingering? I have a Badger here (c.1862). It has an interesting, complex tone, but certain other issues. Claire Soubeyran (RIP) used to make flutes like it. It's always insightful to start with something that's already working, and seeing...

Steve, I'm in the throes of designing my new Bb drumcorps fife, EMMETT model. The tuning issues are slowly resolving. Simplified rule: The more taper (greater taper rate, more inch-per-inch), the greater stretch of the octaves. I avoid saying "the top octave is flat." Boehm's curvilinear* ...

Steve, You mean you want to tune the 3rd octave on a classic ("Irish") flute, 6 or 8 key? Here are some ideas: The E-hole (#6) is very small. Siccama had the right idea. The D# key can prove very useful (each new key doubles the possible fingering combinations). Historically, there are 1-k...

About the blowing style. I've met players of the Boehm flute, competenet musicians, who struggle with tuning issues on the "Irish" flute. Mostly, it's about the idea of "octave stretch" (or "droop" as I call it, related to Benade's observations). The "droop" i...

When I started making whistles back in 2003, I used a tapered bore ("Pro" model and later "WD Sweet" and "Black Pearl" model pennywhistle). Rather soon, the field evaluations seemed to break into two camps, one comparing to Generation and the other to Copeland. Generati...

My Boehm flute in F above C has a tapered bore in the body, as does the Copeland whistle.
I think the way to go is the swaging that Terry describes (without naming the process). It's how Boehm heads are shaped.
And then again, there's hydraulic forming. It worked for me.
Walt Sweet

...It sounds like you need a Mass Air Flow (MAF) sensor. I ran into these when I owned a VW Golf. As the name indicates, it tells the mass of air flowing into the engine. ...I understand this to be the principle: The intake air is directed thru a duct of known cross-sectional area. In the path of th...

The Basel Piccolo with 6 keys is alive and well, being made in Switzerland. It is traditionally played into the 3rd octave, similar to the practice of American Bb fifes. As to the older keyed piccolos for band use, I'm not sure how high they were expected to go. The antiques have very primitive tuni...

I've seen dozens of antiques, some with obvious signs of neglect; in many cases, there are no cracks, so I de-emphasize the processing of lumber (the seasoning) or the handling of the finished instruments. I've sent several loads of timber to the sawmill (not flutewood), and the growing patterns are...

Dear Flute-Reviewers, I think this would be very helpful: When describing tuning, it would be meaningful to say "the octaves are stretched (too far apart)" or "the octaves are compressed (too close together)" (see Terry's graphs); these are opposite assessments, requiring opposin...

I've just made some wooden cases. I cut and plane a bat of rigid Styrofoam insulation, then use a router bit in the drill press. Bump-outs can be cut with a Dremel sanding drum. Then I glue velveteen in the channels.
Walt