Putty Tuning

The Ultimate On-Line Whistle Community. If you find one more ultimater, let us know.
Post Reply
Polara Pat
Posts: 284
Joined: Tue Nov 14, 2017 9:01 pm
antispam: No
Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
Tell us something.: In an effort to ease from lurker to forum member; I'm hoping that this elite gang of whistlers will help this very green player to advance to the next stage. My current stage is slightly below novice and is only permitted in the garage like the dog I am. Oh yah, not a robot.

Putty Tuning

Post by Polara Pat »

Alright, adding putty or plastecine or whatever maleable material you choose to smooth the hollow part under the windway of the mouthpiece seems like a fun project for a few of my whistles that seem a bit scratchy. Maybe with a bit of effort and some time invested I can try to smooth them out a bit. Anyone have any good images and tips on performing this task?
fatmac
Posts: 1149
Joined: Mon Aug 14, 2017 5:47 am
antispam: No
Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
Tell us something.: Kickbiker - at over 70!
:lol:
....................................................................
....................................................................

Re: Putty Tuning

Post by fatmac »

I saw a picture of someone using a pencil with a blob of BluTac on the end that was pushed into the head, whistle body removed, & said to add a little extra until it was flush with the edge of the hole vertically down.

(I'm tempted to give it a try sometime as well, just to see if it really makes that much difference.)
Keith.
Trying to do justice to my various musical instruments.
PB+J
Posts: 1306
Joined: Sun Mar 25, 2018 5:40 am
antispam: No
Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
Tell us something.: I'm a historian and the author of "The Beat Cop:Chicago's Chief O'Neill and the Creation of Irish Music," published by the University of Chicago in 2022. I live in Arlington VA and play the flute sincerely but not well

Re: Putty Tuning

Post by PB+J »

I just make a little ball of poster putty and push it in with an Allen wrench/hex key. I start out trying it flush with the end of the cavity, and try to make it even. Sometimes it sounds better if there's less putty in there.
Polara Pat
Posts: 284
Joined: Tue Nov 14, 2017 9:01 pm
antispam: No
Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
Tell us something.: In an effort to ease from lurker to forum member; I'm hoping that this elite gang of whistlers will help this very green player to advance to the next stage. My current stage is slightly below novice and is only permitted in the garage like the dog I am. Oh yah, not a robot.

Re: Putty Tuning

Post by Polara Pat »

Sounds like a bit of trial and error. I'll give it a go.
PB+J
Posts: 1306
Joined: Sun Mar 25, 2018 5:40 am
antispam: No
Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
Tell us something.: I'm a historian and the author of "The Beat Cop:Chicago's Chief O'Neill and the Creation of Irish Music," published by the University of Chicago in 2022. I live in Arlington VA and play the flute sincerely but not well

Re: Putty Tuning

Post by PB+J »

I just did this to an old C Generation my sister in law got in Ireland in the 1980s. Used hot water to loosen the glue, removed the head, cleaned it, and then made a pea size ball of Duco poster putty and inserted it using a hex wrench. The cavity was about 1/2 filled. The whistle was less prone to "cracking" or breaking, but still tended to be a little rattly. So I filled the cavity all the way. The whistle is now much smoother playing, but also has a different tone that I like less--a little less bright, a little less sharp, a little less airy. If I wanted to continue messing with it, and did not have a very large pile of papers to grade, I'd try taking a little bit out.

I also think it probably matters what material you use. It would make sense that a very sound-absorptive material like poster putty would have a different sound than, say, a material that cured harder like epoxy. I have a lot of shellac on hand, for wood finishing. It cures hard and could be relatively easily removed since it dissolves in alcohol. I could drip it in with an eyedropper till it got to the level I wanted
Polara Pat
Posts: 284
Joined: Tue Nov 14, 2017 9:01 pm
antispam: No
Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
Tell us something.: In an effort to ease from lurker to forum member; I'm hoping that this elite gang of whistlers will help this very green player to advance to the next stage. My current stage is slightly below novice and is only permitted in the garage like the dog I am. Oh yah, not a robot.

Re: Putty Tuning

Post by Polara Pat »

PB+J wrote:I just did this to an old C Generation my sister in law got in Ireland in the 1980s. Used hot water to loosen the glue, removed the head, cleaned it, and then made a pea size ball of Duco poster putty and inserted it using a hex wrench. The cavity was about 1/2 filled. The whistle was less prone to "cracking" or breaking, but still tended to be a little rattly. So I filled the cavity all the way. The whistle is now much smoother playing, but also has a different tone that I like less--a little less bright, a little less sharp, a little less airy. If I wanted to continue messing with it, and did not have a very large pile of papers to grade, I'd try taking a little bit out.

I also think it probably matters what material you use. It would make sense that a very sound-absorptive material like poster putty would have a different sound than, say, a material that cured harder like epoxy. I have a lot of shellac on hand, for wood finishing. It cures hard and could be relatively easily removed since it dissolves in alcohol. I could drip it in with an eyedropper till it got to the level I wanted
Interesting. The epoxy would be self leveling and leave a smoother finish I would think.

I have a Gen Bb and Waltons D I was going to experiment with. Knowing that I could remove the filler would be pretty important since I'll probably screw it up a bit at first.
JackJ
Posts: 81
Joined: Wed Feb 14, 2018 8:29 am
antispam: No
Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
Tell us something.: A new tin whistle player, I'm eager to learn more from the collective wisdom of this group. While my playing could use lots of help, I'm especially eager to learn which recordings to listen to.

Re: Putty Tuning

Post by JackJ »

Polara Pat wrote:
Interesting. The epoxy would be self leveling and leave a smoother finish I would think.
Yes, but I'd be a little concerned that the heat of curing epoxy might affect the shape of the windway. Not at all sure on that--anyone had a problem with it?
User avatar
swizzlestick
Posts: 669
Joined: Sun Jul 31, 2005 5:34 pm
Please enter the next number in sequence: 1
Location: Boulder, Colorado

Re: Putty Tuning

Post by swizzlestick »

The poster putty fix worked so well on the Generation and Feadog whistles I had been using, that I just automatically did the same for the Dixon Trad I purchased. It was one of the old design, narrow window models and it lost some of its complexity and character with the putty installed. I was glad I used the poster putty rather something more permanent. It only took a pair of tweezers to yank it back out.
All of us contain Music & Truth, but most of us can't get it out. -- Mark Twain
PB+J
Posts: 1306
Joined: Sun Mar 25, 2018 5:40 am
antispam: No
Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
Tell us something.: I'm a historian and the author of "The Beat Cop:Chicago's Chief O'Neill and the Creation of Irish Music," published by the University of Chicago in 2022. I live in Arlington VA and play the flute sincerely but not well

Re: Putty Tuning

Post by PB+J »

Because I'm a nerd, and was looking for any distraction from grading papers, I tried this with Shellac. I wanted something that would fill the cavity but be hard and reflective, and also reversible. Shellac dissolves in alcohol (hardware store alcohol, i think called "meths" in England and ireland) is fine
.
So this is a generation in D from the 1970s. It had a bad tendency to sort of break and rattle. Putting putty in the cavity smoothed that right out, but changed the tone in a way I didn't like--made it too smooth. I used an eyedropper to put shellac in the cavity and waited for it to dry, then did it again, then again etc. It's maybe 1/3 full.

The whistle is more stable but still has the whistle sound I like. It also got more "airy" which I don't completely understand: it might be a small coating of shellac in the space under the windway.

Anyway the thing I'm deciding to take away from this is that I would probably prefer to fill the cavity with something that cures hard, like maybe water based polyurethane or epoxy.
User avatar
AuLoS303
Posts: 464
Joined: Sun Apr 30, 2017 12:17 pm
antispam: No
Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
Tell us something.: I have a fascination for musical instruments of all kinds, and though I'm not a very good player I have a small collection of acoustic instruments including 5 recorders, 3 tin whistles , 3 guitars and 2 ukuleles.
Location: Darlington UK
Contact:

Re: Putty Tuning

Post by AuLoS303 »

Where exactly do you place the putty?
You can play beautiful music on an ugly flute
My musical endeavours on my blog
fatmac
Posts: 1149
Joined: Mon Aug 14, 2017 5:47 am
antispam: No
Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
Tell us something.: Kickbiker - at over 70!
:lol:
....................................................................
....................................................................

Re: Putty Tuning

Post by fatmac »

Rather than type it again... :wink:
I saw a picture of someone using a pencil with a blob of BluTac on the end that was pushed into the head, whistle body removed, & said to add a little extra until it was flush with the edge of the hole vertically down.
Keith.
Trying to do justice to my various musical instruments.
Polara Pat
Posts: 284
Joined: Tue Nov 14, 2017 9:01 pm
antispam: No
Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
Tell us something.: In an effort to ease from lurker to forum member; I'm hoping that this elite gang of whistlers will help this very green player to advance to the next stage. My current stage is slightly below novice and is only permitted in the garage like the dog I am. Oh yah, not a robot.

Re: Putty Tuning

Post by Polara Pat »

So I didn't invest too much time in this but I tried a bit of green plastecine in the head of my D Waltons that usually lives in my van. At first I added too much and it sounded really flat and for some reason I couldn't make a clean C natural no matter what finger position. I took half out and smoothed it as much as possible and it sounded better. Still a bit of a crackle but it does sound better. I might mess with it a bit more over some eggnog.
PB+J
Posts: 1306
Joined: Sun Mar 25, 2018 5:40 am
antispam: No
Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
Tell us something.: I'm a historian and the author of "The Beat Cop:Chicago's Chief O'Neill and the Creation of Irish Music," published by the University of Chicago in 2022. I live in Arlington VA and play the flute sincerely but not well

Re: Putty Tuning

Post by PB+J »

AuLoS303 wrote:Where exactly do you place the putty?
Under the "beak." It doesn't always make them sound better, and it's worth trying varying amounts of putty


Image

Image

Image
User avatar
AuLoS303
Posts: 464
Joined: Sun Apr 30, 2017 12:17 pm
antispam: No
Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
Tell us something.: I have a fascination for musical instruments of all kinds, and though I'm not a very good player I have a small collection of acoustic instruments including 5 recorders, 3 tin whistles , 3 guitars and 2 ukuleles.
Location: Darlington UK
Contact:

Re: Putty Tuning

Post by AuLoS303 »

Interesting, so you basically reduce the cavity size in the fipple by a tiny amount. I gather that the putty is biologically safe, in case you have to suck out any moisture after playing for a while...
You can play beautiful music on an ugly flute
My musical endeavours on my blog
PB+J
Posts: 1306
Joined: Sun Mar 25, 2018 5:40 am
antispam: No
Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
Tell us something.: I'm a historian and the author of "The Beat Cop:Chicago's Chief O'Neill and the Creation of Irish Music," published by the University of Chicago in 2022. I live in Arlington VA and play the flute sincerely but not well

Re: Putty Tuning

Post by PB+J »

I think the theory is you are reducing turbulence back there.
Post Reply