See the barely playable, Squistle I made:-)

Lark · Post by **Lark** » Mon Apr 21, 2003 8:04 pm

Ok, this is my 1st shot at this , so be kind : ) well I got the idea trying to think of how to make a simple wooden whistle without boring it out. Then I was shown some contra bass re**rders that have been doing it for some time. Anywho, well I didn’t expect much from this, but I got more then I expected. It's made from Oak

See it here: http://www27.brinkster.com/bumtown/whistles.html
(there is a sound clip at the bottom

See the plans here: http://www27.brinkster.com/bumtown/whistle.html

It’s performance is rather poor do to several reasons.

1st the lower notes take very little air, and the upper ones of the 2nd octave take a lot. I think this is because the wind way is too small, but I may be wrong. It’s a little under 1/16 of an inch, and ½ inch wide.

2nd is that it’s way out of tune, but no worries, as I didn’t really try to get it in tune

3rd is that it is just way too chunky! I mean if I was going to name it, I think Strong-Mad ( http://www.homestarrunner.com/yearbooksm.html ) would be a good name, so the walls have to be thinner and lighter ( it is heavy)

So yeah, I thought you would like to see my 1st attempt at it:- ) Really this was slapped together in a day, and I used many power tools, so I didn’t get the accuracy or the hands on …. ness that I wanted (the whole thing actually goes to the right, but you can’t see in the pic) So the next one will be far better as I will be using thinner wood, and really just upping the time put in to it

Anywho, I would love to hear your suggestions, comments, ideas or rants

Walden · Post by **Walden** » Mon Apr 21, 2003 8:22 pm

Excellent tubemanship, El Capitan! I give you a C+ for effort.

spittin_in_the_wind · Post by **spittin_in_the_wind** » Mon Apr 21, 2003 8:26 pm

So I suppose the conical vs. cylindrical bore question is moot?

Bobby

Paul · Post by **Paul** » Mon Apr 21, 2003 8:29 pm

Hey Lark, At least you made one! Bravo!! I'm sure the next one will be better. You might want to try beveling the blade on the top and bottom next time. I'm not sure what exact angle the bevels should be but a lot of whistles have this feature. From the picture, it isn't clear as to whether you did it or not on that one.

Jack · Post by **Jack** » Mon Apr 21, 2003 8:46 pm

I'm impressed.

Lark · Post by **Lark** » Mon Apr 21, 2003 8:48 pm

Well the Conical Vs. Cylindrical debate is still important as there is this…
http://www27.brinkster.com/bumtown/whistle2.html

And the blade is only slanting on the top, the underside of the blade is flush with the bottom… of the top.. Is that understandable? Anywho, the plan was to just rough it out like that, and then to make adjustments as needed, however is seemed to do fine right away

I could actually get the bell note no problem until I cut the tone holes, then it became almost inaccessible due to the low air requirements.

Jack · Post by **Jack** » Mon Apr 21, 2003 8:51 pm

Not that it matters or anything, but square whistles rub me the wrong way. Or something.

Lark · Post by **Lark** » Mon Apr 21, 2003 9:15 pm

it's the sharp corners

Paul · Post by **Paul** » Mon Apr 21, 2003 9:33 pm

Long Live The Squistle!!

Walden · Post by **Walden** » Mon Apr 21, 2003 9:47 pm

Paul wrote:Long Live The Squistle!!

Hear, hear.

The squistle gave a squawk
Like a lazy-circling hawk,
When Lark wandered from the flock
And made that rectanglewhistle rock.

fatveg · Post by **fatveg** » Mon Apr 21, 2003 10:22 pm

Oh. So you've made a pencil case.

(

Prety cool!).

Jack · Post by **Jack** » Mon Apr 21, 2003 10:28 pm

Oh. So you've made a pencil case.

( Prety cool!).

A Gen G might fit up in there...

fatveg · Post by **fatveg** » Mon Apr 21, 2003 10:48 pm

So, just a thought, but would glueing an old guitar pick or a piece of your partner's credit card to extend the blade down a fraction make it 'whistle' more?

Lark · Post by **Lark** » Mon Apr 21, 2003 11:11 pm

I’m not sure, I’ll try it tomorrow, as it’s too late to be loud now

However I don’t think it will make much of a difference as the tip of the blade is level with the bottom of the wind way, but what do I know, I mean, it’s square!

hank123 · Post by **hank123** » Mon Apr 21, 2003 11:32 pm

"monstrosity" is the standard spelling, but i often prefer non-standard spelling myself, so i'll leave that up to you. Sometimes the substitute teacher in me just cannot help being a pain in the a#se.

It looks nice though- maybe you should look into Native American flutes, they LOOK similar to your idea, but have different fipple configuration. You can find all kind of sites using google. I've heard some beautiful beautiful tones come out of Native American flutes. The fingering is a bit different from tinwhistle from what I understand. Thought you might be interested as it seems you kind of went in that direction (accidentally or intentionally)...