Is there a way to make Clarkes and Shaws tunable?

Jack · Post by **Jack** » Fri Oct 24, 2003 1:23 pm

I wonder with all the other tweaks done to these type of whistles (Whistle Shop tweak, Jerry's tweak) if anybody had ever tried to somehow cut one in half and make some kind of tuning slide, and if so how well it worked?

glauber · Post by **glauber** » Fri Oct 24, 2003 1:55 pm

Won't work much, because of the conicity (coneness?)

Jack · Post by **Jack** » Fri Oct 24, 2003 1:58 pm

Why not? Aren't high end conical whistles (Copeland) tunable? I've never played one but I'd always assumed they were. Sweetones and Megs are tunable...

Jerry Freeman · Post by **Jerry Freeman** » Fri Oct 24, 2003 2:41 pm

The high end conical whistles are precisely formed so they have sections that will slide. If you look at the inside of a Shaw or Clarke Original, you'll see that the metal is rolled so an edge of metal sticks up inside the barrel. Even working around that, these whistles aren't uniform enough in shape to facilitate cutting them and then fashioning some kind of tuning sleeve.

The design and materials just don't lend themselves to being tunable. Anyone who's equipped to attempt such surgery is probably already making whistles from scratch and doesn't see a need to invest that amount of effort into a whistle that isn't well suited to the project.

Best wishes,
Jerry

Henke · Post by **Henke** » Fri Oct 24, 2003 2:42 pm

Cran, I haven't played a Copeland eighter but I think the tuning slide has to be cylindrical. You could maybe get it to work on a clarke if you hammered out the bore some way to make it cylindrical at the place you wanted to put the slide, but, with all due respect, I really don't think you would sucseed.

glauber · Post by **glauber** » Fri Oct 24, 2003 2:44 pm

I don't have any tuneable conical whistle, so i don't know how they do it, but in a flute, for example, the tuning slide is part of a non-conical section. Maybe these high-end tunables have a non-conical section at the end? The conicity of the cheaper conicals is very steep, and i'm pretty sure that adding a tuning slide would mess up the intonation noticeably.

Jack · Post by **Jack** » Fri Oct 24, 2003 3:58 pm

That makes sense, Jerry. And glauber. And Henke.

Walden · Post by **Walden** » Fri Oct 24, 2003 4:56 pm

The Copelands are made in a different way than the Clarkes. The Clarkes are rolled up sheet metal, which construction doesn't lend itself at all to tunability, but the Copeland whistles, as I understand it, are made from a single piece (per section), using techniques of brass wind instrument making, and thus stretched and formed precisely, and without the seam, thus making a cylindrical section for tuning more practicable.

Apparently Copeland, early on, indeed managed to produce rolled metal whistles with tuning slides, before developing the following process, "I came across a fellow, from Lawson Brass (he lives outside of Baltimore), and he and his sons make, from scratch, French horns. So I went down to get some tubing and he showed me how they take a mandrel and with a seamless tube, step the tubing with draw rings and draw plates down onto the mandrel. Then they put the whole thing through a prepared steel washer to smooth the steps down. So you start with a cylindrical tube and end up with a tapered tube. On the high D whistle, the head joint and body are made from one tapered tube. With the Low D and others, the head joint and body are two separate tapers. We prepare a cylindrical piece of tubing for the tuning slide and solder it to the body. The body is then trimmed to size. We lay out the tone holes on the body and drill them. Next the Copeland name is stamped on the head joint and we use a milling machine to cut a slot for the window on the mouthpiece. If it's a low whistle we fashion, out of flat brass stock, the wall that is silver soldered in place. A piece of cylindrical Delrin is fashioned on the metal lathe to fit in the top of the head joint. The Delrin plug, especially the slot, has to be very accurate within one or two thousandths of an inch. The lip is stamped down and the window is filed by hand to the proper size and the instrument is voiced by filing various bevels on the lip. When the voicing is finished and I am satisfied how the whistle plays, the plug is pinned using two brass wire pins. The beak of the mouthpiece is formed by cutting the curve on the bandsaw. Then sanding drums are used for the final shaping. The whistle is then buffed on a buffing wheel and given a bath and prepared for shipping to its new owner." (Michael Copeland, quoted from http://www.chiffandfipple.com/mcinterview.html )

Jack · Post by **Jack** » Fri Oct 24, 2003 6:07 pm

And Walden.

Zubivka · Post by **Zubivka** » Sat Oct 25, 2003 3:42 am

If a whistle sounds too sharp (up to a quartertone), there IS a cure.

Put "ears"--little pieces of plastic, or blue-tacked cardboard for initial try--each side of the window, and going down a bit further than the blade.

This will flatten the tone of most any* whistle, make the sound more focused, too. The bigger the ears, the flatter.
(as an illustration, elephants can flatten a wistle so it fits in an envelope. Who needs mailing tubes?)

The sound seems to be particularly improved with designs like the original Clarke, or Shaws, and generally whistles where the blade is made by pressing in the body metal.

Now, if the whistle sounded originally quite flat, flattening its voice with ears can get you close to one halftone deeper--i.e. close to make a D from an Eb.

* Except for instance mezzo and low Copelands, since these ears are "built-in". Now, if you think your Copeland sounds too flat--eh-eh--you can always give it an earectomy (no, this doesn't mean cutting down an ærection...) and get a true Van Gogh Cope De Luxe

Finally, performing this same operation of yourself is also a quite efficient mute, so you can practice quietly. To yourself, that is.