Chiff and Fipple Forums

[Thread revival - Mod]

tstermitz wrote:

Nanohedron wrote:I guessed C was the one. Hooray me.

...looking at Ben's pics, both Killarneys' ramp surfaces show tooling that I would have considered rough, and furthermore each looks differently done. I wonder if leaving the ramp this way is by design, from the maker's experience that such roughness is what brings out better tonal focus somehow.

Gene Milligan mills the ramp of his whistles, and he has changed from smooth to somewhat rough, saying that it makes no difference to the sound, but is much easier to mill.

I expect that the edge smoothness is much more important than the ramp smoothness.

Being a former organ builder, I can say that a smoother edge provides more overtones and thus a brighter tone. If we want to soften the tone, we would nick the edge. I don’t think the ramp, itself, makes much difference; it’s the angle. And smoothness of the edge that matters.

Still a beginner here, though by now I can play my little set of 14 jigs and reels at 100 bpm and am starting to focus more on making them musical rather than just getting them done.

I've got a lot of whistles and I keep returning to the Killarneys. They just do everything well. I sometimes pick up a different whistle and think "oh that sounds good," but soon I'm back with the killarney. More in tune, crisper response to ornaments, more even and predictable. Takes more air than the old Feadog MarkII or generation from the 1970s. I have two killarneys in D, one brass and one nickel. I slightly prefer the sound of the nickel whistle: it's a little rougher and slightly more complex in tone. Very subtle difference though. The ramp surfaces are extremely close to identical

My objection to it is maybe silly: it's slippery. It's harder to play because it wants to slip out of my hands and it takes more effort to keep it in place. I took a green scotchbrite pad and roughed it slightly, took some of the gloss off the finish, and that made it easier to hold.

flootoot wrote:
Being a former organ builder, I can say that a smoother edge provides more overtones and thus a brighter tone. If we want to soften the tone, we would nick the edge. I don’t think the ramp, itself, makes much difference; it’s the angle. And smoothness of the edge that matters.

Would that be a nick in the middle or at the edge(s)?

Just wondering if I nick a Generation whistle to make it more neighbour friendly when practicing at home.

fatmac wrote:

flootoot wrote:
Being a former organ builder, I can say that a smoother edge provides more overtones and thus a brighter tone. If we want to soften the tone, we would nick the edge. I don’t think the ramp, itself, makes much difference; it’s the angle. And smoothness of the edge that matters.

Would that be a nick in the middle or at the edge(s)?

Just wondering if I nick a Generation whistle to make it more neighbour friendly when practicing at home.

I’m not sure how to answer. An organ pipe is caused to speak by a slightly different mechanism. In general, nicking changes tone, not volume in an organ pipe. A whistle utilizes a fipple. An organ pipe utilizes a languid (which is what is nicked). The edge of the languid, together with the bottom lip form the flue through which the sheet of air passes. That sheet is cut by the top lip. On a whistle, you’d be nicking the fipple, or “top lip.” Im not sure what that would do to the sound production.

Thanks for responding, two totally different ways of creating the sound then it would seem, shame - a few of us would like to find a good way to quieten a whistle for practicing at home.

fatmac wrote:Thanks for responding, two totally different ways of creating the sound then it would seem, shame - a few of us would like to find a good way to quieten a whistle for practicing at home.

Whistle mutes have been discussed many times here. Here for instance.

Yes, thanks, I've participated in that thread, it's more about high notes & second octave.

I have also read the thread about blowing over the top of the wind way, but that just gets one octave.

Then there was the piece of plastic, cut the width of the sound hole, folded one third, & placed into it covering the edge of the fipple blade.

I just thought the practice of nicking the organ sound mechanism might have been an alternative way for the whistle, but it seems not.

fatmac wrote:Yes, thanks, I've participated in that thread, it's more about high notes & second octave.

I have also read the thread about blowing over the top of the wind way, but that just gets one octave.

Then there was the piece of plastic, cut the width of the sound hole, folded one third, & placed into it covering the edge of the fipple blade.

I just thought the practice of nicking the organ sound mechanism might have been an alternative way for the whistle, but it seems not.

The methods for reducing the width of the window do work. Try 'em! A bit of stiffish paper will do - or at least it has when I've tried. Of course, you have to have a new bit every time, because it gets soggy.

And Carey Parks makes a pvc whistle with the Parks Tone Ring that has the same effect without the sogginess...

Best wishes.

Steve

benhall.1 wrote: The methods for reducing the width of the window do work. Try 'em!

Thanks, that sounds like a good way - I'll see if half a tooth pick does the job, (dont have any match sticks).

benhall.1 wrote:And now for your delectation and delight ...

... recordings (on phone voice recorder thingie) of all three of the above whistles, not necessarily in the above order. It's perfectly obvious to me which is which.

(BTW apologies, of course, for the rubbish whistling from me. I'm overtired and ludicrously out of practice. )

Whistle A
Whistle B
Whistle C

I like C best---to my ears !

All I have to add is that when I got my Killarney (a couple years ago, nickel body) I found that the Bottom and Middle D were both sharp of all the rest of the notes. The oddest thing was that it was obvious that the bottom of the tube had been aftermarket-chopped. So who can say what the tuning would have been like with the original non-chopped tube. Was it too flat and they just over-shot the mark? Or was it originally in tune, and they chopped it for no reason?

Also crossfingered C natural was too sharp.

So straightaway I switched the Killarney tube out for a vintage Generation tube and voila! the whistle played right in tune.

So one of my main questions about new Killarneys is the relationship of tube-length and the fingerhole tuning. Add to that C natural.