GreenWood wrote: ↑Sat Apr 09, 2022 4:22 pmThe idea of applying share of any design to sound quality is difficult. For example I think wood has a lesser effect as stated by Frank...except when it doesn't.
Yes - it was helpful to hear that from Frank as it gave me
the confidence to push for more from this wood and not just blame
the material. I've just finished boring out another birch rod and reached
the point where it produces its lowest note. This one matches
the sound quality of my best bamboo quena, though it's a warmer sound. I no longer see any great need to rush into finding better wood to work with as this is clearly adequate for acceptable flutes. On
the previous prototype I made
the wedge angle too acute, so
the steeper angle used this time has cured
the problem in a better way. I was also questioning
the ability of a 16mm bore to handle
the lowest notes well, but this one proves that it can. I'll make flutes with wider bores in
the future, but I wanted to start with a quieter instrument that's easy to play over a two octave range, and this looks like it could be exactly that.
I need to work out
the best way to chamfer
the holes - they initially feel more comfortable, but they make it easier for air to leak out, so you have to press harder and it becomes less comfortable after playing
the instrument for a while. You likely need to maintain a reasonably sharp edge to prevent that problem, but there are places where normal holes feel too sharp, and that can certainly be fixed. What I particularly like about chamfering holes though is that it gets your finger closer to
the bore, making
the hole less disruptive to
the bore when covered, while it also makes
the open hole behave as if
the wood is thinner there than it actually is. I was looking through Geoffrey Ellis's site last night and found his description of how he makes quenas: he cured
the tuning problems with them by having
the tube thinner on
the hole side, which is something I've achieved in a different way, and that likely accounts for how easy I found it to tune all
the holes for two octaves. I just need to find a better way to chamfer them where I preserve a reasonably sharp edge to prevent air leaks with gentle presses.
My big innovation is getting rid of
the hole in
the far end of
the quena. I've copied what I did on
the previous prototype by drilling a hole right through
the instrument perpendicular to
the bore, just beyond
the end of
the bore (
the furthest point
the 400mm bit could reach). I then cut through from that to join
the vertical hole (12mm wide) to
the horizontal bore (16mm wide). On
the previous one, I hacked through using a drill as if it was a Dremel file and made a bit of a mess in there. This time I used some new tools to do that job neatly. So, I now have a nice channel for condensation drips to lead them straight out of
the hole underneath. I could just have had a hole underneath without going through
the top as well, but on
the original prototype it looked like a snake's anus, whereas having a hole right through
the instrument looks neat, and
the vertical asymmetry of
the hole into
the bore is hidden. Having a hole on top as well as one underneath also makes it a lot easier to get those new tools into
the right places and to see what they're doing.
For the lowest tonehole... they are almost always slightly more veiled than the rest for their size, except on higher pitched instruments. I am sure there must be a way around that without using keys though.
On
the new prototype I'm going to make
the lower three holes bigger than
the upper three in an attempt to make
the volume more consistent across
the range. By using
the little finger instead of
the fourth one, I can put
the lowest hole further down and make it bigger than normal, and it doesn't make
the fingering any harder as you can just treat those two fingers as a single unit. I may do
the same with
the higher three holes and use
the little finger there too in order to avoid that hole being too small while still minimising stretch. I've managed to get hole spacings similar to a D tin whistle, which is what I was hoping for as it makes fast playing a lot easier, but hole #3 (from
the top) is only just an acceptable size on
the previous prototype, while I want to make holes #1 and #2 a bit smaller to make them quieter, so using
the fifth finger for hole #3 may be
the most acceptable solution as they need to move further apart. I think it'll be possible to get used to this weird fingering pattern, and over time I might manage to keep both finger #4s held against
the instrument all
the time to hold it more stable. If I can reach that point, I could then put extra holes under those fingers which could be uncovered for two notes that normally require half-holing. Anyway, things are now on track: my sister plays
the flute and her birthday is a month away - I was hoping to get a quena with similar sound quality made for her in time for that, and it now looks possible.