The session in town has 6 or more violins, and they looooove playing tunes in A. I’ve been trying to print a low E whistle, so I can play along with them.
The usual tin whistle, or low whistle, plays a D major scale, with the option of playing C♮ instead of C♯. That means you can also play a G major scale. So if I make a whistle that can play E major, I’ll be able to play A major by playing D♮ instead of D♯. If this is confusing to you, don’t worry about it.
The hardest part of a whistle to get right is the fipple. That’s the part on the top with the window in it, where the sound is produced. I’m cheating, and designing a whistle that can take my Tony Dixon fipple. It took me about 10 attempts before I got the size just right for the rubber O rings, but I finally got a good seal and was able to move on to the tube and holes.
Taking careful measurements of my Tony Dixon aluminum whistle, I entered everything into my 3D modelling software, added tenon joins so I could print everything in three manageable pieces, tossed in a couple of minimal adornments, and sent it off. It worked perfectly the first time. Now I have two low D whistles! (But still only one fipple.)
The printed whistle has a little trouble with the lower notes, which is no surprise given what I’ve discovered about the importance of flute bore smoothness. But I already have a good low D whistle: the goal here is a low E whistle.
I reduced the size of the inner bore by 0.9mm, and used this whistle calculator I found for a first pass. 3½ hours later, I had a working E♭ low whistle with good intonation after the top finger is down. That’s not what I wanted, but wow! I might get this thing knocked out in under 10 prototypes!
One of the first things I noticed about the E♭ whistle is that the small holes were difficult to find by feel. I’ll have to play around with different ways to make these easier to find.
It’s all very promising so far! Maybe I’ll be able to play in A by the May session!
My work in OpenSCAD is at https://git.woozle.org/neale/whistles/