Tune a bosun's whistle???

[chazmo]

Guys, I need some help. Has anyone tuned a bosun's pipe? I need to play this thing in a band concert in a few weeks, and I can barely make it whistle. It's "supposed" to only require a light breath to work, but not so. My band director bought one of these off eBay and it needs (a lot of?) work to make it play properly. There's metal filing and soldering apparently needed to make this whistle the way it's supposed to. Apparently that work is not done by the folks making/selling these things.

Anyone know how to do this? Especially someone not to far from central MA?

 

[FNG]

The Devil's Bane!

Sweepers Sweepers man your brooms!

What song requires one of these?

Check if there is a Navy League or VFW where you live. Maybe some old BM can help you.

 

[davidbeinct]

Do you have a Navy reserve facility near you? I would call them and see if they have a boatswain’s mate attached. I never used one, I got out of Deck Department as soon as my A school billet came up.

 

[chazmo]

Thanks, guys. I will check!

 

[FNG]

Do you have a Navy reserve facility near you? I would call them and see if they have a boatswain’s mate attached. I never used one, I got out of Deck Department as soon as my A school billet came up.

Maybe a local recruiter might know somebody.

 

[Uke]

Unfortunately I have no idea --- didn't even know you could "tune" such a thing. But thanks for the pic; now at least I know what a bosun's whistle looks like.

 

[chazmo]

Oh, and Sousa's "Jack Tar" march.

 

[Guildedagain]

Any of the old naval war movies feature it, I can hear it now.

 

[chazmo]

Any of the old naval war movies feature it, I can hear it now.

yeah, well, you're not hearing the one I have because it sounds like crap.

 

[Guildedagain]

I'd never seen one before.

 

[Midnight Toker]

Here you go…



He shows how to tune it several minutes in. He even mentions most whistles you purchase that say they are pretuned...aren't. From the looks of it, the key is making sure the main tube you blow into, that the top edge of the end of that pipe is level w/ the top of the ball the blown air circulates in or else you'll just have air that escapes and there won't be enough entering the ball to force it to sound. Then tuning is up to the amount of air the ball can hold. Too much and it won't sound cleanly. He adds bees wax into the chamber, holds it at a 45 degree angle and holds a lighter under the ball to melt the wax. Then dips it in cool water to solidify the wax. Then tests it again. If it's still sounding like more air than clean whistle sound, add a little more wax and repeat.

 

[chazmo]

Thanks, MT. I saw that vid. The one I have has the tube aimed too high over the bowl... Anyway, more than beeswax in the bowl, I think this needs some reshaping with solder to get it to the right level, etc.

Anyway, I'll see what I can do.

Best.

 

[GardMan]

I may be wrong... but on the video, re: a pipe where the "gun" was aimed too high over the bowl, he mentioned "peening" the end of the gun. It might be that one can use a small hammer to gently flatten the tip of the gun to redirect the air stream over the hole in the bowl? Might be worth a try... At least it sounds like you have a few weeks to find another, if you can't get this one "tuned"...

 

[chazmo]

Saw that too, Dave. I might try that if I can't find someone to help.

 

[Midnight Toker]

Is that main pipe just 1/4” copper tubing? If so it should be soft enough to reshape the end a bit by means of crimping then reaming out w/ a small fille….

Edit: sorry, I posted before reading Gardman’s response…which is pretty much what I was thinking.

 

[chazmo]

Is that main pipe just 1/4” copper tubing? If so it should be soft enough to reshape the end a bit by means of crimping then reaming out w/ a small file?

I ordered another one so I might experiment. However, I don't have the tools to do any real work on this, MT.

 

[FNG]

Little background vid...

 

[Midnight Toker]

Or….you could always pull some Jeff Beckesque trickery and mimic it on guitarw/ a slide and a volume pedal for the hand mutes.

 

[zulu]

Can you just hold it next to your face, and whistle?

 

[chazmo]

I got another (different) one, and this one works right out of the box.

I am going to get some beeswax to experiment with raising the pitch a little bit to make this as authentic as I can.