Now, trill, assuming you
are familiar with the paddlepop stick and weren't hoping for an image of that, is this what you were hoping for?
You were warned - it's ugly! From left to right:
- the really old Generation Bb whistle head in faded pink,
- a brief glimpse of the brass tuning slide I turned up (not having supplies of that diameter tube), then
- the barrel in delrin, and finally
- the prototype tapered piccolo body I'd made years ago but decided not to progress, as the top few notes in the second octave were pretty hard to control.
A few things to note:
- even in this image, you can see that you can't see the end of the floor of the windway. Is "undertruding" a word?
- a hairline crack in the head socket. (a very thin dark line running just below halfway at the right hand end of the pink head.) I see that in quite a few old Generations. I guess it's further evidence of shrinkage over time. Fortunately, it doesn't seem to progress to leaking.
- I didn't waste much time on finishing the visible parts of the Delrin barrel. It's job is just to hold the ends together until I work out if this is worth progressing.
- not even a terminal metal ring on the wooden body. Again, it's part of the journey, not the destination. The timber is an Australian acacia, possibly gidgee or lancewood.
- pretty big holes, but not hard to cover as the outside diameter is considerably greater than on a brass tube whistle.
- holes not perfectly round and crisp. Being a prototype, I would have walked them a bit as well as enlarging them during the tuning process.
You can see why the family are pleading with me to dye the head. I image that that's not so easy! Better I think to make a new head, slide and barrel in matching timber when I'm convinced it's got a future.
I decided to lash out and order a Clarke Sweetone to further update my experience of more recent tapered flutes. Should be here in less than a week. Will be interesting to compare them.