G'day all,

Homeless,

There are a lot of ways to make a whistle - particularly a dig one like a low D. My first large whistle (a low G)I made in an old smithy in Tasmania, in 1965, from copper water pipe, when I also made a standard C and high F and G from smaller copper pipe (something like 1/2", 3/8" and 1/4" i.d., respectively).

I sawed a narrow slit to form the lip and hammered the lip side down over a pre-shaped mandrel, then filed it smooth and lightly undercut the edge. I also hammered down the top of the windway and trimmed a bit of local hardwood (eucalyptus) to fit into the pipe as a fipple I positioned the holes by looking at (or scaling up from) existing whistles and drilling each of the holes undersize and reaming out as I checked pitch.

Since I got back to making large whistles last year I have used either PVC plumbing pipe (1" or 25mm for a low 'D') or thin-walled aluminium tubing (25mm id x 1.4mm wall thickness). I have made fully swaged heads (a la Overton), simpler formed heads ... more like my 1965 efforts and curved windway styles, where the wall section IS the lip position and the windway is a slit cut down the wall and defined as the space between the cylindrical fipple (plug)and a slightly larger tube slipped over the body tube. Currently this is a PVC tube but I am looking at alternatives.

One of the reasons I made more whistles was to explore alternative spacings to the wide spacing of the Overtons (I own 5 Overtons - a small D, a small C, a low G, a low F and a low D). So far, I tend to think that narower spaces work ... and are necessary for people with smaller hands (Alison, indeed, wants one!) BUT the wide spacing produces the strongest and clearest sound.

Fortunately, I can fairly happily play with the piper's fingering style, but I suspect it would not allow the rapid 'rolls' of Irish technique used o trebles. Perhaps this is a good thing and the low whistles are best in a more harmonic role - or handling those low, soulful tunes that are just squeky on the small whistle.

Regards,

Bob Bolton