Attention whistle makers: Fipple Question

MommaTune44 · Post by **MommaTune44** » Mon Oct 24, 2005 9:36 am

Hey all. I decided to take my shot making a whistle using the plans I found here. I came out with a nice D whistle, but I want to move on now. I've seen people (like S.B, and Mack) who make PVC whistles without cutting the piece to put the cap on the fipple, but out of a straight piece of PVC, for a nice smooth look. I can't seem to do that. Anyone have simple "unimaginably dummy" terms on how to do this?

Tommy · Post by **Tommy** » Mon Oct 24, 2005 10:36 am

I think you might need a machinist lathe to do that.

Daniel_Bingamon · Post by **Daniel_Bingamon** » Mon Oct 24, 2005 5:43 pm

If you're making a whistle for yourself and you have plenty of time on your hands (and patience), you can make windshaft using jewelry files and an exacto knife (to help scape the surface smooth). You can make the whole thing using an exacto knife, files, drills and hacksaw.

ctilbury · Post by **ctilbury** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 1:44 am

I recently bought a cheap whistle at a local market that is made from a straight bamboo tube. It sounds gorgeous, but it is woefully out of tune. But, I digress.

The windway and fipple labium (blade) is interesting. They cut a notch in the outer wall of the tube so that the part of the notch toward the bell of the whistle is slanted and toward the airway is straight along the radius of the tube. Its just a notch that you could make with a hacksaw. It looks like about a 45 degree angle and cuts into about 1/4 of the tube.

Next, the airway is tall where you blow and shrinks toward the place where the air escapes into the whistle. The stream of air is aimed so that the slanted edge of the notch cuts it it half. The top of the airway is straight along the top edge of the tube and the bottom part of the airway is slanted up toward the blade. The aim is at an angle that is 1/2 of the angle between the top and the bottom of the airway. Also, where the air enters the airway is quite a bit larger than where the air exits the airway. I think the fact that this accelerates the air stream accounts for the loud and full sound of this instrument.

It should be possible to make a really nice and sleek looking instrurment this way.

If the airway were straight, the air stream would just blow into the tube and miss the blade altogether. This is one of the problems with making a whistle out of plastic, there is no easy way to accurately bend the blade into the airstream. That is why a lot of these designs use copper tube. It is available and you can bend the fipple blade into the airstream. The Low-Tech whistle deftly solves this problem. It is made the way that it is so that the airway is aimed at a blade that you cut into the body whistle. However, a cover is required to guide the air.

I have several pieces of white PVC that I am going to cut up when I get time. I will post if anything good happens.

familyguy · Post by **familyguy** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 5:55 am

Is this what you mean??

My first PVC used a cap like the website suggested. This one is a neater job, with a piece of my trusty fipple-stock broomhandle chiselled and sanded down to fit VERY snugly in the PVC pipe, with a flat area chiselled off the top for the windway. The airway is straight, and the blade doesnt cut into the diameter of the tube at all, but it still works.

Its in some sort of tune...but not a good one. Lowest note is a close A, but XXXXXO give a note thats so far off it aint funny. But thats more hole size than the fipple. Second octave works well and is easily reached, but the OXXXXX is nowhere near what it should be.

But still! As a prototype of a more streamlined model, I learnt a huge amount.

MommaTune44 · Post by **MommaTune44** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 7:04 am

familyguy wrote:Is this what you mean??

My first PVC used a cap like the website suggested. This one is a neater job, with a piece of my trusty fipple-stock broomhandle chiselled and sanded down to fit VERY snugly in the PVC pipe, with a flat area chiselled off the top for the windway. The airway is straight, and the blade doesnt cut into the diameter of the tube at all, but it still works.

Its in some sort of tune...but not a good one. Lowest note is a close A, but XXXXXO give a note thats so far off it aint funny. But thats more hole size than the fipple. Second octave works well and is easily reached, but the OXXXXX is nowhere near what it should be.

But still! As a prototype of a more streamlined model, I learnt a huge amount.

Yep! That's what I mean. How's that done? I try with a wind hole, and a blade, and a dowel piece that is cut off the top to leave space for the windway, but no sounds..

ctilbury · Post by **ctilbury** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 10:48 am

You have to aim the air stream at the blade. Notice in the pictures that the airway is much larger where you blow than the blade side. That is why this instrument works. If that were not true, you could not get a sound out of it.

S.B.O'Gill · Post by **S.B.O'Gill** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 11:03 am

I made some whistles almost exactly like the one that Familyguy posted a picture of. I modeled them after a cheap souvenir shop bamboo whistle probably imported from India or Pakistan. The "strait-through" system seemed to work fairly well for me.

Here is a pic of the bamboo whistle and the first one I made to copy it.

familyguy · Post by **familyguy** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 7:11 pm

ctilbury wrote:You have to aim the air stream at the blade. Notice in the pictures that the airway is much larger where you blow than the blade side. That is why this instrument works. If that were not true, you could not get a sound out of it.

Actually, the top of the fipple is dead level. Thats probably why its out of tune and requires mucho breatho. I did have to push the fipple further in than I'd normally have wanted it to get sounds, and bevel the blade edge pretty severely. If you did indeed make the windway sloped, so as to "point" the wind at the blade, it would probably sound better and be in tune. Thats for next time. There's a good reason why Clarke's have the blade 'dented' into the windway, and the others split the air higher up that this one does.

This straight through system works well. Note, however, that if you have a tube too long, no matter how hard you try, you'll never get a note out of it. You have to essentially build the fipple, blade and hole, then cut the tube till it starts to come into a tuned note. I built this out of a 2-foot long piece, which gave me no audible note, till I shortened it.

Hope this helps.

Jim

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 4:17 pm

After looking at the site to make a low tech whistle I gave it a try and screwed up the holes. I'm almost positive i did it where they said to (the last three holes sound perticularly bad). Anyone else have an out of tune whistle with the given D measurments? It really made me not want to try again, too much work and I dont even know if it's possible for me to make a whistle thats actually in tune. haha

ShadowBG625 · Post by **ShadowBG625** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 5:40 pm

FenianForFreedom wrote:After looking at the site to make a low tech whistle I gave it a try and screwed up the holes. I'm almost positive i did it where they said to (the last three holes sound perticularly bad). Anyone else have an out of tune whistle with the given D measurments? It really made me not want to try again, too much work and I dont even know if it's possible for me to make a whistle thats actually in tune. haha

I didn't even bother with those measurements. I used the instructions to make the fipple, and then used TWCalc to measure the holes.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Oct 27, 2005 11:20 am

woah, I just googled TWcalc...is there any dummy instructions available online because 70% of that goes over my head.

ShadowBG625 · Post by **ShadowBG625** » Thu Oct 27, 2005 1:14 pm

In the box, your Hole Diameters are the same for any whistle. Conversions for these are under Help: Fractional Drill Sizes. TWCalc is set up for 1/2" bores, but you can adjust it. You just select which key you want to make, hit Calculate Frequency, and then click Do It! On bottom, next to graph, is Air Length. That is the estimated length of the whistle. Near the bottom of the screen is Hole Position (Inches). This is where you drill your holes in the whistle body. You start from the bottom, and go up towards the fipple. Hope this helps, as these are just my opservations. Though everything else probably has some meaning, I've been okay making whistles with the TWCalc Usage Method I have made.

Daniel_Bingamon · Post by **Daniel_Bingamon** » Thu Oct 27, 2005 4:59 pm

I'll sit down and write some simple instructions for TWCalc.

One thing to pay attention to is the cutoff frequencies, Keep them close together, no extremes and the whistle should sound well. If you don't observe the cutoffs, you'll get certain toneholes that play in tune but sound 'fuzzy' in relation to the other holes. Consistency is very important a whistle with all low cutoffs sounds better than one that varies greatly from hole to hole. Ideally, the cutoff frequency should increase with the tonehole frequency.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Oct 27, 2005 6:13 pm

I have no idea what any of that meant, haha. I inserted bore inside diameter and wall thickness from the beginning screen. then calculate frequencys than "do it". What do I do with all of those numbers? and also what do i have to do to make the cutoff ratio or w/e good? it doesn't automatically do it?