See the barely playable, Squistle I made:-)

Jeferson · Post by **Jeferson** » Tue Apr 22, 2003 1:05 am

Boxwood?

Jef

Zubivka · Post by **Zubivka** » Tue Apr 22, 2003 1:27 am

Interesting design, with its separate windway "hood" to check the oil level...

Mollenhauer makes a "Modern blockflute" where this part (top of windway) is also separate, but strapped. The... er, multi-holed duct instrument

is supplied with three different wood-plates (from ebony to boxwood) to alter the "colour" of the sound.

Jeferson wrote:Boxwood?

Jef

Nope--cratewood.

rbm · Post by **rbm** » Tue Apr 22, 2003 3:32 am

errm... intresting design.

mind you if you look a overton's or alba's or a whole host of others they start off square at the top.

I'm going to use a square taper inside the wooden low d I'm making.

BillBo · Post by **BillBo** » Tue Apr 22, 2003 8:13 am

Good Job Lark!

Now you've got me interested in giving it a try. You can get spruce sticks of different widths and thickness at hobby shops and I am going to see if I can fit something together.

One comment; in one of the previous post, the whistle makers were discussing the relationship between the blade edge and the windway.

I believe I remember them saying that the blade edge should 2/3 of the way down the windway airstream for optimal results. I'm sure someone with a better memory can comment if I am remembering right.

Anyway, great job.
Bill

serpent · Post by **serpent** » Tue Apr 22, 2003 8:20 am

So you finally built it! The octave shift is more affected by blade angle and position in the windway than the amount of air required. Finding those is the tough part.

Tuning: If you get the bell note right, then use Peter Kosel's Flutomat and it should still work. The resonant length of a column of air isn't that dependent on the shape of the column. Set the embouchure at 7/16" and just use the calcs as they come off. Get the area of the bore and calculate the diameter of an equivalent circle, add in the wood thickness (thinner is better), and do the calcs. I'll bet it'll come right in!

Let us know about your improvements!

serpent

TelegramSam · Post by **TelegramSam** » Tue Apr 22, 2003 8:55 am

All Hail the SpongeLark SquareWhistle!

glauber · Post by **glauber** » Tue Apr 22, 2003 3:18 pm

A thought: if you get the sound to be good, you can round off the outside using sandpaper, for it to be more comfortable to hold.

Thomas-Hastay · Post by **Thomas-Hastay** » Tue Apr 22, 2003 3:44 pm

Congrats Lark!

I think you can improve 2nd octave acoustics if you shorten the bore slightly (1/4") and reduce the bore end hole. This will "firm up" your upper octaves. It appears you have a bore diameter slightly too large. A bore diameter-to-length ratio of around 1/32 gives good results. A minimum of 10 times the bore diameter should be kept between the voicing and the top tonehole as well. Very good job!

Do you know about this site?...
http://www.organstops.org/MainFrameN.html

The "Illustrations" section, in the left frame, has oodles of diagrams for square bore and voicing concepts. Let me know what you think. Please keep at it and I hope your Joy in whistlemaking is as great as mine!

Thomas Hastay.

Lark · Post by **Lark** » Wed Apr 23, 2003 3:41 pm

Ok, I’ve drawn up V 2.0 of the Squistle, and made quite a few changes. I’ve thinned the walls to 1/8th of an inch, and I think this had greatly added to it’s look, if nothing else. I’ve also narrowed the bore to 7/16th, which works out to a circle with a diameter of 0.493 of an inch (approximately) and gives it a length to bore ratio of around 23:1 as opposed to 15:1 on the old one. The top tone hole is now at 9 times the bore diameter from the fipple as opposed to 5 times on the old one. I’ve changed the length and angle of the blade to 45 degrees as a starting point so that I may be able to make those adjustments as needed. I used the fluteomatic as serpent suggested for placement of the bits, and hopefully this one will be closer to tune

See it here:

http://www27.brinkster.com/bumtown/squistlev20.html

I’ve also placed the isometric drawing of the old one next to the new for comparison

Thanks again for you’re suggestions :- as you can see I have used most of them, and if you have more, I would love to hear them!

Walden · Post by **Walden** » Wed Apr 23, 2003 4:00 pm

I like the look of the new sleeker model. Were you in any way inspired by the Hind ocarinas? Actually, I am a bit surprised that this form of construction hasn't already been more embraced among whistlemakers.

Jack · Post by **Jack** » Wed Apr 23, 2003 4:10 pm

I like the look of the new sleeker model.

Me, too.

Thomas-Hastay · Post by **Thomas-Hastay** » Wed Apr 23, 2003 4:12 pm

Walden

The "square" whistle has a design flaw. In the low pressure fundamental octave, the square whistle still uses an aircolumn that is cylindrical and "ignors" the corners of the bore. The problem comes when the whistle is overblown. The increased air pressure "pushes out" into the corners,increases used cubic area and results in very flat upper registers.

Walden · Post by **Walden** » Wed Apr 23, 2003 5:01 pm

Thomas-Hastay wrote:The increased air pressure "pushes out" into the corners,increases used cubic area and results in very flat upper registers.

I think that the square rec***ers have a standard round tapered bore.

NicoMoreno · Post by **NicoMoreno** » Wed Apr 23, 2003 6:20 pm

I know that this is the WHISTLE page, but, nonetheless, let me tell you about my square flute: i made one... But I decided it needed to be conical, so I put angles in the side walls and it "conicalled" up nicely. (I guess you would really call it a pyramidical flute)

Side note: Can barely get a bottom note out.
Side note 2: It is made out of plywood.
Side note 3: I added a piece to the top where the embouchure hole is and sanded the whole thing so it is round at the top and very round where the chin hits the body.

It is in G, The upper octave (actually just three notes at present) is nice, but I can't really get much sound out in the bottom.

antstastegood · Post by **antstastegood** » Wed Apr 23, 2003 7:19 pm

well done, it's actually pretty nice looking

*holds ears after listening to sound clip because the computer speakers were turned all the way up*

BTW do I detect some aversion to the word "Rec--der"? I remember growing to hate those things way back in third grade music class.

Chiff and Fipple Forums

See the barely playable, Squistle I made:-)

WooooHoooo

Square Whistle

Square Flute