Announcement: Tweaked Generations now available ...

Whistle
1

I believe the commercial guidelines allow for new product announcements, so I’ll go ahead and post this with its own heading.

I’m now taking orders for the tweaked Generations.

I have 15 D’s on hand and 20 more en route from a supplier (purchased the entire stock of two suppliers), with 3 complete sets coming also (should be here Monday). I sent a complete set to Stewy Smoot, but he’s gone on a trip. I don’t know the duration, so I don’t know how soon he’ll be able to comment on the board about the set.

If they’re in stock from my supplier, I can get whistles in two days’ time, so anything I don’t have, I should be able to get pretty quick. There is some time involved in the tweaking, as I use slow drying epoxy for the blade lamination, and I like to keep each whistle around for a couple of days to make sure I haven’t missed anything. However, I should be able to fill orders in reasonable time.

Prices are:

G - $16.50
F - $16.50
Eb - $36.50
D - $36.50
C - $37.50 (This is a Waltons C, which plays and sounds exactly like a Generation. It’s impossible to get the heads off most Generation C’s without wrecking them.)
Bb - $37.50

Complete sets - $160.00

The pricing reflects the amount of labor involved in tweaking, as some keys are easier than others. These are all redtop brass whistles (except the C, of course, which has a green Waltons top).

Postage for one, two or three whistles in the U.S. is $3.85. Worldwide postage for one whistle is $6.00. Postage for more than three whistles or complete sets in the U.S. is $5.00. Worldwide postage for more than one whistle will vary. I’ll need to know the destination. Insurance is extra; I’ll need to check the costs. If you’re only ordering one or two whistles, let’s not bother with insurance. If one or two get lost in transit, I’ll replace them. OTOH, if you’re concerned about losses in transit, go ahead and insure orders of three or more.

I am set up with PayPal, if you would like to use it. Use my email address for my PayPal ID, which you can access with the button at the bottom of my posts. Remember to remove the spamblocker letters and extra dot. If you want to place an order, you can just do the PayPal, or you can email me. Any way you’re comfortable with. Personal check or money order is fine for U.S. orders. International orders can be done with a USD bank draft or PayPal.

Of course, I stand behind everything I sell. If you’re ever not satisfied with one of my whistles or a whistle I’ve tweaked for you, please let me know and I’ll do whatever it takes to make it right: refund, replacement, retweak, whatever.

Wombat, et al., I would definitely recommend the high G tweaked Generation. After tweaking, it isn’t shrill, and it’s about the cutest, funnest little whistle you can imagine.

Tyghress, et al., if the tweaked Generation isn’t loud enough for session play (a possibility, since the loudness remains more or less the same after tweaking), a tweaked Shaw will do very nicely. I’m getting a lot of positive comments about the tweaked Shaws as session whistles.

Thanks, all for your friendship, encouragement and support. I do appreciate it very much.

Best wishes,
Jerry

P.S. Mouse update: Mouse number three showed up as I was writing this message. I’m used to my mice showing up for the night shift, so he surprised me. He stuck around for a good while, and I got to look him over. He’s not a deermouse like Ralph II. He’s the same kind of mouse as Ralph I, and I’m not sure what that is. I would expect a regular house mouse to have a long tail, but Ralph I and mouse number three have short tails. I’ve checked into meadow/field mice/voles, which have short tails, but what I’ve read tells me they’re bigger. So I’m puzzled. Maybe the voles around here are smaller.

2

that’s a tweaked mouse jerry!! :stuck_out_tongue:

i think you deserve every bit of your big reputation, wich started from very scratch!

3

Take a good look Jerry that may be Ralph I. He heard about the new product and is back ready for work. When I get my WhOA budget under control I’ll be sending a request.

Ron

4

So Jerry, are you buying unimproved Gens?

5

Hi, Weeks.

I’ve thought about this. (I assume you mean “previously owned” unimproved Gens.) I know there are mountains of Generation type whistles out there that could benefit from tweaking.

The problem is, the whistlehead geometry varies from batch to batch, and I have to work the finished job to very close tolerances to get the results. If I buy new whistles in batches of 10 or more at a time, I’ve got a pretty good chance they’ll be all alike, which makes tweaking them much more straightforward.

These whistles are so cheap to buy new, it just wouldn’t be cost or time efficient to send them back and forth and try to tweak them. Even if I could get a predictable good result, the price wouldn’t change much because it’s almost all labor. As you can see from the prices posted, the easier ones to tweak I can sell for much less, even though the original, untweaked whistle cost the same.

Best wishes,
Jerry

6

They’re not IMPROVED, they’re FREEMANIZED!!! You heard it here foist.

7

Question from the Perpetually Uninformed: can you tell me a little bit about what a Freemanized Gen sounds like, and things like that?

8

Freemanized Generations? Or just Jerryations? Freemanations? Or just Gennys?

Ants, from all reports, they sound like good Generations. Listen to Cathal McConnell, Mary Bergin or Paddy Moloney. That’s what you’ll sound like. :stuck_out_tongue: After a bit of practice. :laughing:

9

Well, I have shared my genius with the all-original term “FREEMANIZED” because TWEAKING has an unfortunate connotation here in the States (methamphetamine use) that will likely trigger an ATF computer snoop. So Jerry, use it with my blessing (I’ll expect 5% in the mail)…

10

Ah. I see. That would be an unfortunate association. Wonders why nobody seems to have objected to being called a tweaker before :astonished:

Well, I do think some nickname or other will stick, so I just thought I’d put in my bid by running through all the obvious candidates that you’d overlooked Lance. If he finds a case of older Generations I guess they’ll be called Jerryatrics.

11

How about Jerry Rigged generations?
Good luck on your new venture Jerry!
Folks-- support this nice guy!

12

how about Jerrymandered?

13

Someone sent a PM asking what I do to the whistles and how it affects the sound and playing. Here’s what I wrote:

I’ll start by describing what it does to the sound and playability.

The basic Generation sound remains the same. About the same loudness (assuming you can play the whistle more or less at normal volume before tweaking, which isn’t always the case). The sound gets cleaned up of virtually all tendency to buzz, squawk, etc. The bottom two notes become respectably strong and comfortable to play without too easily overblowing into the second register. The end result is a very pleasing sound right up to the top of the second register (loud, but not harsh) and an easy to play whistle. What one well known Irish whistler has called “That Generation sweetness” comes out clear and true.

The cornerstone of the tweaking scheme is that I laminate a layer of plastic material under the soundblade and then rework the ramp to create a new soundblade edge that’s appropriately positioned in relation to the windway. The length of the voicing window remains the same (although I have to work it back to that original length after the lamination), but the soundblade edge is brought down to just a little above the windway floor, which is the ideal position.

In addition, I fill the cavity under the windway and work a bevel onto the “block” i.e., the window end of the windway floor. Once the soundblade is in the ideal position relative to the height of the windway, a combination of adjusting the bevel, the soundblade edge configuration and the length of the voicing window produces the final result.

Best wishes,
Jerry

P.S. Y’all can go ahead and call them whatever you like. For formal marketing, I think they’ll be Jerry Freeman tweaked Generations, unless someone can think of a respectable sounding name that might be more descriptive. I’m not worried about “tweaking.” It’s a very widely used term outside the drug connotation, so the association isn’t strong enough to taint the word, IMO.

14

I will be back home Wed night and will write up my impressions of the Gen set then.
I am quite sure they will be as sweet as my dog-chewed JF Tweaked model and I am also sure I will be quite pleased!

Thanks again, Jerry. I am not sure if you realize this but there is a book or 2 that may need to be re-written when it comes to reviewing how well a Generation can sound!

Sincerely

Chris

15

I think that’s the perfect term.

Can we expect a tweak off between Cillian O’Briain and Jerry Freeman? Would Don King promote this? I smell a Pay-Per-View!

Cheers,
Aaron

16

Jerry, best of luck with your venture! How fun!
Cheers, mate! :smiley:
serpent

17

We are already, Paul. I’m kicking off with a full set straight away.

Whatever we get to call them, one term we won’t be using is ‘Jerrybuilt’, at least not if it has the connotations in the States it has here.

Good Generations at last. Wheeeeeeeeee! :slight_smile:

18

Continuing with the subplot of this thread …

Last night, as I was visiting with a few Chiffers on chat, mouse number three returned for a visit. He has now gotten used to me and is beginning to show promise of becoming a productive long-term staff member here at Global Pennywhistle Tweaking and Production Consortium headquarters.

So I presented the chat participants with the dilemma of what to name this new mouse. Ralph III doesn’t seem right, somehow. Not individual enough, as this is a real, individual mouse, with a different personality than either Ralph I or Ralph II.

The upshot of the chat conversation was, the task of naming the new mouse should be taken up by the children, who after all, were the ones to name Ralph in the first place.

The children have deliberated, and the new mouse shall now and forever henceforth be known as Gus, in honor of the mouse in the Disney animation of Cinderella.

Please welcome Gus, the newest member of the GPTPC headquarters staff.

Best wishes,
Jerry

19

Jerry, I’m still curious about sound details. I have a Cillian Improved. It takes incredibly light breath pressure and has a lack of breathiness. It’s easy to squawk by blowing too hard. Does your tweaked Gen have any breathiness? It sounds, from your description, that it tolerates stronger breath pressure.
Tony

20

Hi, Tony.

I would say, the tweaked Generations take very normal, “good Generation” (if that means something to you) breath pressure. They’re not delicate about flipping registers, not prone to squawking. I do my best to clean up anything you would have to pay extra attention to in getting the whistle to cooperate, so you can focus on the music without a fussy whistle forcing you to do extra work.

As to breathiness, the lower register isn’t breathy at all; there’s a hint of breath sound behind the upper register, but I wouldn’t characterize the timbre as breathy. The upper tends to be clean and sweet sounding.

Those are my impressions. However, some of this is subjective, so as more of these whistles go into circulation, others can add to, clarify or adjust them.

Best wishes,
Jerry