Chiff and Fipple Forums

Why is there a wind block around the sound hole of some of my whistles and not others? For instance my Copeland C has one while my Copeland D does not.

You'll get a lot of expert responses, but my novice YouTube whistle review and forum reader response is that the three-sided wind barrier around the window area helps give the whistle a much more rich and balanced tone. I've seen whistles with and without the wind barriers there and the difference is quite remarkable. I highly prefer the sound produced with the walls on. I vote "Wall ON".

I think how much these wind walls changes the sound also depends on the whistles base design. My MK pro low D is a thick tube. If you measure from the bottom of the lip to the top of the outer wall, its a decent distance. This whistle has a nice strong low end.

I made a DIY low F with a D shaped windway, that I just hammered the tube down to make a flat lip. This whistle has the weakest low end of any whistle I've ever played for its size. A huge amount of the air is just escaping out and never interacting with the lip. I'm assuming this is part of it. Where the MK walls are thick so all of the air is contained within the walls already, so higher walls probobly wouldn't do a lot.

And on Goldies and other flat windway whistles, the difference between these and my crap DIY is that the windway in the middle doesnt go up over the walls, like on my D shaped windway. So the walls are still sufficient to have a good low end even though they arent tall.

Trying to make a wall with my fingers on my thunderbird F lowers the pitch but I'm not sure if that's really making the low end stronger or if its just bending the pitch down somehow.

These are my theories at least. I haven't looked into it much because I honestly just think the extra tall walls look bad. So if I don't need them I don't want them. And I'm very happy with the low end on my whistles. but it is nice to know how things work.

You can experiment with the effects of raising the walls around the window using poster putty. How aesthetically pleasing a more permanent design turns out to be is a matter of personal opinion too. But the effect is undeniable, giving a stronger and louder tone. Organ builders knew this and added what they called ears to the mouth of the pipes.