How loud is your bell note?

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Squeakie
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How loud is your bell note?

Post by Squeakie »

I’ve tweaked my Clare in D, by putting in poster putty in the mouthpiece, filling in the hollow spot below the fipple, and kind of ramping it down all the way to where the tube starts. I also took a file to the sides of the window and filed off those plastic side tags. I think they’re actually formed that way, not leftover bits, but I don’t have another Clare to check it against. In the pictures of other Clare D whistles, it looks like they’re there, maybe someone can confirm.

Anyhow, I think it sounds great. The bell note is very stable, clear and loud. It either is playing low D, or jumps straight to high D when I give it a little more wind. No quavery, wonky sound.

I downloaded an app onto my iPad and played the bell note on all my whistles. I played each one, going as loud as I could without the notes breaking to the upper octave or sounding weird, just a nice, steady tone.
Feadog mkI, Soodlum’s Mellow D (Not Walton), Mel Bay, pre 1980’s Gen Eb and C, Sweetone C. Basically the Eb and D’s came in around 83-85 decibels for the bellnote.
Mel Bay D and Gen C coming in at 90.
Sweetone C at 74.
The Clare came in at a whopping 95, 10 more than the rest of the D pack, except for the Mel Bay, which has a sound tube much thicker than the rest, including the Clare. The Mel Bay mouthpiece is very loose on all the other D’s (Except the Mellow D, too big of course), and only the Feadog can fit on the Mel Bay tube, and that’s barely, I wouldn’t try it again for fear of cracking it! I was sweating bullets taking it off, what a mistake that was! Luckily I used cork grease on the Mel tube first, or I’d have a Frankenwhistle, a Mel Dog or a Fea Bay.

This is subjective of course, it’s a freebie decibel program I downloaded, but it did confirm what I thought, the Clare is far louder. The tweak actually didn’t affect the stability of the bell note, I should add. It made the upper octave more playable. The lower octave plays exactly the same. It’s why as a newbie, it was my favorite whistle before I tweaked, the low notes sounded so nice and steady, no quanks, but the upper octave was very frustrating, I had to blow quite hard to keep the notes from breaking, I liked the airiness, but it was too shrill, if that makes sense. The tweak fixed that. It’s still got that airy quality and a lot of chiff. It’s nothing like the Feadog or the others, it’s not so bird like. But I like that airy, smoky sound. I said it in another post, my Clare sounds like it’s had too much whiskey and smoked too many cigarettes the night before. I actually call her Janis, as in Janis Joplin. :lol:

I’m just not sure if it got louder overall. I did take the putty out and it’s just as loud, but there’s no way I can be sure, since I did take a file to the sides of the window, so that might of affected loudness.

I’m just wondering how loud and stable other whistles are on the bell note, really the lowest two notes, which are somewhat weaker for me on my other whistles.

I hope everyone else is enjoying their Sunday morning, and can grab some whistle time, like I am!

Lisa
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Re: How loud is your bell note?

Post by benhall.1 »

Depends what I've eaten.
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Re: How loud is your bell note?

Post by Mr.Gumby »

Depends what I've eaten.
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Re: How loud is your bell note?

Post by fatmac »

Love the Janis Joplin analogy......... :D
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Re: How loud is your bell note?

Post by jimhanks »

benhall.1 wrote:Depends what I've eaten.
Bwahahahhahah! :thumbsup: :lol:
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Re: How loud is your bell note?

Post by Matt NQ »

I'm interested in the question in relation to tapered bore vs cylindrical:

- Do tapered bore whistles have a quieter bell note than cylindrical whistles?
- Does enlarging the bore in the last centimetre or two at the foot of a tapered bore whistle improve the bell note?
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Re: How loud is your bell note?

Post by Squeakie »

My Clarke Sweetone in C is quieter for sure, per my data.
I'm not sure how you could flare open the metal without tearing it, but as cheap as they are, it mitt be an interesting experiment.
I do believe it would change the tuning, though, making it higher. If you partially block the end of any wind instruments bell end, it will drop down slightly in tone, a trick common to Native American style flute players. Just put the end of your flute close to your thigh, partially muffle it. If you've got big enough hands, you can put your pinkie over the end of your whistle a little bit while playing your bell note and see what I mean. I'm assuming that making the end larger will have the opposite effect, raising the pitch.
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Re: How loud is your bell note?

Post by pancelticpiper »

I never thought about, or evaluated, bellnote loudness as an independent thing.

But I'm aware on Low Whistles of the volume/power of the bellnote in relation to the overall volume of the whistle.

What jumps out is the Burke Low D with a very powerful Bottom D. I've not measured it but it feels like the Bottom D is much louder than the other low-octave notes.
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Re: How loud is your bell note?

Post by Matt NQ »

From Guido Gonzato's "The Low-Tech Whistle":

[Q:] "The whistle is OK, but the bottom D
is too quiet and a bit flat
[A:] You need to enlarge the foot as shown in the figure below:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1tN4I- ... LoHqqPHaX6

Remove just a little, check the bottom note, and repeat if needed. You
may like to cut the foot so that its section becomes an ellipse instead of a
circle."
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Re: How loud is your bell note?

Post by tompipes »

- Do tapered bore whistles have a quieter bell note than cylindrical whistles?

It depends on the rate of taper and the overall whistle design. But they shouldn't be quieter.

- Does enlarging the bore in the last centimetre or two at the foot of a tapered bore whistle improve the bell note?

It can be incorporated into the overall design too give a stronger bell note. 19th century flutes would have a different rate of taper on the foot joint. Even medieval recorders employed a similar design.
I use 2 different reamers to shape the last inch or so of my tapered bodied whistles with good results too.

Tommy
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