Alright, I searched first and wasn’t able to find any thread on this topic.
So, this will be a thread where you can post tips and tricks concerning the making of your Low-Tech PVC whistles. In your whistle making adventures, what has worked well and what has failed miserably? What techniques, tricks, shortcuts, and designs have been particularly successful for you?
I have yet to start on my first Low-Tech PVC whistle, and it would be nice if we had a thread that went into some depth about this specific topic, so that we can all learn from the experience of others in this particular craft.
I’m sure the Topic Starter knows Guido Gonzato’s great website with instructions for building a low tech whistle from a PVC tube.
But he obviously wants to know more tips and tricks about making a LTW. I’ve made two up to now, and I have questions like:
what is the best way to cut out the windway opening;
what to do when a tone hole is too big;
how do you get a smooth and well shaped lip;
what’s the difference in tone or tuning between a short fipple/windway cap and a longer;
what to do when the upper octave flips a quint higher too easy;
what’s the trick to get the upper octave right in tune, not low, in comparision to the lower octave;
in general, tips about tuning … I found out that’s the most difficult part.
So, I second the Topic Starter - let all the more experienced builders of Low Tech Whistles share their experience and techniques here.
The reason we ask new members to do a forum search first is that, many times, questions have already been asked and answered in thoughtful detail, and asking posters to repeat their answers can be very frustrating.
That said, when you have specific questions that you don’t think have been addressed previously, ask away!
Right, I’ve been to Gonzato’s website. I was asking more for tricks, easy ways of doing things. For instance: shortcuts that aren’t on the site. No worries, I’ll figure it out. I’ve made my first LTW (in Eb) and it went great! Perfectly in tune (until I tried to make it tunable, how ironic), sweet upper end, balanced between the octaves. I can even get up to the third octave without blowing my head off, and without making anyone scream in agony. That was a nice touch; I wasn’t expecting to get to the third octave so easily. Db (C natural on a D whistle) is in tune using ooo xxo and xoxxxo. The 2nd octave Db is easily in tune with oxx xxo and the 3rd octave Eb can be attained with both all closed and xxx xxo fingering. Did I draw those diagrams backwards? I’m reverse player, so I might have drawn those backwards. It made sense in my brain, at least. I made the blade curved, like an alba: the apex pointing away from the player. I don’t know what this does. Anybody?
Yeah, anyway, it turned out nicely. VERY nicely. I like it more than my Susatos and more than most normal pennywhistles I’ve played. Based on sound samples I’ve heard, it sounds a lot like a Black Diamond pennywhistle, with a bit more backpressure, I think. Nonetheless, I think I’ll give it to a friend to learn on, and proceed to make a better one.
Meanwhile, this whistle-making fun has inspired me to further tweak the Jerry Freeman tweaked Gen Bb I recently acquired. I pulled out the head about 3mm to bring the Bb and C into better tune and then made every hole except for the bottom hole bigger, to bring the rest of the notes–now a bit flat–up to tune. It’s now in perfect tune and a bit louder and sweeter than it was. I learned on Susatos and have a good musical ear in general, so I have very little tolerance for anything but perfect intonation. Also, according to Gonzato’s whistle making instructions and how NOT to make a whistle sound like a recorder, I tried blunting the blade on my Low E Susato. In doing this, I also enlarged the window by 2 or 3 mm. It sounds quite a bit better now, more balanced between the octaves, more chiffy attack. I like how it plays a bit better than it did. Generally sounds the same though.
Yes. Conventionally, the fipple end is on the left and the bell end on the right.
Also, when referring to the notes, most people treat the whistle as a transposing instrument. So, e.g., xxxxxx is referred to as D, regardless of the actual concert pitch produced on a non-D whistle.
Perhaps if you were more specific of what short cut your looking for there might be some response. Most makers don’t mind sharing a few specific things but don’t have the time to cover it all in a book form as Lemon asked for.
I have played a few whistles with the curved blade, and found them to be on the quiet side, and pure. I have a soprano D made by Ian Turnbull with this style and it will also play up into the third octave. A recent visit to his web site http://impempewhistles.co.za looks like he has changed the blade to a straight one. He makes a first class whistle, and when he ships a whistle out you always get some really cool stamps from South Africa.
One caveat: what do you mean by perfect intonation? There are several issues.
o Unlike many whistles, Generations are laid out for something approaching Just Intonation, not Equal Temperament (12TET). So if your goal is to reconfigure it to ET, fair enough. But be aware that in the context of Irish trad, Just Intonation in D is the prevailing standard for winds (which Jerry Freeman is aware of). In your quest for perfect intonation, you may be “sanitizing” the instrument away from its more traditional sound, if your good ear has been trained on 12TET.
o The C# and C-nat (scale 7th) are notoriously squishy in ITM, and may want to be played anywhere around the canonical pitches, depending on the melodic context. So using the scale 7th as a reference for retuning a whistle is generally not a good idea.
o Beginning players often think that the bell D and E notes are tuned sharp because they tend to overblow those notes, especially on whistles that do not flip octaves easily. So, without knowing your playing, the radical modification you describe of the Freeman Bb - pulling the whole whistle flat and reaming the holes - strikes me as compensating for overly aggressive breath rather than a desirable tweak. If wanted, the D and E can normally be brought down a bit by inserting a bit of putty in the bell to act as a choke, without retuning the entire instrument in ways that may affect both tuning and overall response. There’s nothing wrong with experimenting, of course, But there’s also a reason that the Generation configuration has endured as highly desirable in ITM playing.
Two suggestions! First, knock-off a Generation high G. Copying a design is high praise when you are starting out and it teaches you a lot in the process. Second, design your own using TWCalc, the flutomat or any other calculator. You’ll need a narrow bore tube to start with.
“Best”? I don’t know the answer to that one. Generation whistles are available in most music shops that serve the folk music crowd. How common that may be in your area I wouldn’t know. Mail order works. I’ve purchased many whistles from Elderly Instruments over the years. Here’s their selection.
If you want to follow the Gen design here are some measurements you could try starting with.
Tube outside diameter → ~7/16" or ~11mm
Tube inside diameter → ~13/32" or ~10.5mm
Sounding length → just over 7 and 3/4" or ~198mm
Voicing window → ~ 7mm by 4mm
And you will need very skinny fingers to play it. Hope that helps.
I do have a copy of Daniel’s books. You can learn a lot from them. If you have not done something like this before, it is a good place to start. It will give you a good walkthrough on all the steps required to make a whistle. I’d recommend buying it if you have any desire to make your own whistles. Get the CD-Rom version. I bought the printed version and the photocopied pictures aren’t great. The CD should cure that. Daniel has provided such a great service to whistle makers by providing TWCalc. I spent years working on Excel spreadsheets before that became available.
Of course you can use Guido Gonzato’s web site to get started as well. That’s the subject that started this thread.
Monumental cudos to Guido, i made my first whistles following his tutorial, BUT!
Don’t rely solely on his hole measurements.
Percentages of length for the hole placements are OK, but the hole diameters aren’t necessarily correct (in terms of the type of material you’re using). My first whistle was totally out of key (later i found out that i had been using different tubing). So i suggest that you get a tuner if you don’t have the perfect pitch perk (as i don’t) and drill holes gradually, checking them for every, say 0.5mm incremented drill diameter.
I just made my first whistle by the Gonzato method and it turned out OK but not stellar. The tuning isn’t very good (I don’t own a tuner so I just tuned it against my Sweetone), and I had some trouble making the labium ramp. It’s only really sharp in the middle. At the edges the curvature from the inside makes it so that I either have to curve the ramp down, sand the bottom of the ramp to sharpen it, or put up with it not coming to an edge. Any suggestions? I’ve also noticed that it’s really tetchy about flipping from the first to second octave and seems to want to sit at the interface and flip back and forth horribly. Oddly, my generation has the same tendency.
Conventionally, the fipple end is on the left and the bell end on the right.