I decided to try the “blu-tac tweak”, but didn’t notice any difference afterwards. I’m comparing two Generation Bb whistles and two Mel-Bay branded Megs, one of each with poster puddy in the cavity under the windway and one of each without. So far, the sound and playability of the puddied whistles are virtually identical to their respective control whistles. I compared them through their full two-octave ranges.
I’m wondering what it is that people usually expect from this modification.
try also to clear the mouthpiece from all plastic that shouldn’t be there, make it as clear as possible. Then you notice differences.
I’ve already checked the windways. I don’t see any obstructions when looking into them.
Really, I am hoping that someone will tell me what this modification is supposed to do.
What I’d like to do to the Bb Generations is eliminate the “hiss” that starts getting noticeable by C of the second octave.
It is supposed to strengthen the bottom notes. I have never noticed any significant difference and always though it a useless idea. But whatever keeps you happy.. 
To be honest, the few times I have tried stuffing blue tack into my whistles, I haven’t noticed much of a difference either. I thought people did it to mellow the tone a bit, and possibly to make a whistle a little less prone to squeaking.
Hm, mellow. I’d say ‘dull it’ probably
I have found it can make a great difference in many of the cheapies. If your Gen screeches on a few notes then the putty tweak has a good chance of helping. The Bb is the one whistle in the Generation range that I have found that rarely needs this tweak and that it does not make much of a difference if applied.
Jerry Freeman is an authority on tweaking whistles and it would be good to hear from him.
My Generation Bb whistles have a major “hiss” noise, emerging at the C of the second octave. A tweak to appropriately solve that would be nice.
I exactly have the same problem. Like you, I have checked my windway, cleaned it of plastic bits and pieces, I have done the blue tack tweak, I have dulled the sound blade, I have put my Gen Bb in hot water in order to make it tuneable, and STILL THE HISSING.
Basically, I have done all the well known and easy-to-do tweaks on my Gen Bb and none of them helped. Since one of you mentioned Jerry Freeman, in the http://www.chiffandfipple.com/tweak.html address, he says that basically making a new soundblade can be a helpful method of eliminating the hissing noise:
“More advanced tweaking involves laminating a piece of something (soda bottle plastic, guitar pick, etc.) to the ramp to create a completely new soundblade edge. This can produce an excellent result, but it’s tricky to do and is very hit or miss. I’ve developed an improvement on this technique, where I laminate a new soundblade edge underneath the ramp, inside the whistlehead, but it’s technically demanding, and I wouldn’t try to coach someone through it.”
Since I didn’t completely understand how it is done and since it is very “hit and miss” I am not thinking of doing this tweak. Tweeto, if you take the risk, you might give it a try.
Also, I started a similar thread a few weeks ago in this address which you can look at: http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=44382&highlight=
In this thread, someone was saying that replacing the soundblade can also be a useful method:
Bloomfield: “I think you should replace the blade on your Bb. That’s fun. Get a thin guitar pic or similar piece of plastic, a sharp pen knife, super glue, and some fine sand paper. Just be sure to mark the spot to which the blad reaches and use a bit of blu tac under the replacement blade until you’ve got the angle right.”
I didn’t understand that either(I think both freeman and bloomfield are talking about the same thing) and since this is a difficult tweak, I didn’t want to do it without completely understanding how it is done.
All in all, after reading everything written on them, both on this board and in the chiff&fipple site and after doing all the standard tweaks, I have come to the conclusion that I if you are a person who wants to spend more time on playing rather than tweaking and if you are a person who doesn’t like doing amateurish mechanical arrangements in something that you just bought, Generations SUCK, because they DON’T have a STANDARD. (the same feelings for Feadogs too).
As a consumer, I think that if the product of a firm doesn’t have a clear standard of what they are producing, it is definitely NOT worth taking the risk.
I know that despite all those complaints from people including myself and all the negative things about those two brands, some people will still defend Gens and Feadogs. Well, it is another thing that I have difficulty understanding.
Perhaps, if he was willing, you could send that faulty Gen Bb to Peter, and let him play & record a tune with it. Just to get a second opinion.
who is Peter?
Peter Pan, I guess. The one with green tights. Like Robin Hood. 
I think, even Peter Pan cannot help me.
Peter Laban, whose contribution to this thread can be found by scrolling up a bit…
oh, OK.
I have tried the blu-tac thing myself, it did change the sound just a bit but I can’t say I liked it any better.
Now I did a blade replacement to a Walton’s Guinness whistle one time, and produced a very lovely whistle. I didn’t laminate anything on top of the blade that was already there; I built a new blade out of superglue after cutting the old one away. It took a lot of time and had some tricky moments, but the results were startlingly good.
I’ve still got that whistle, and it still plays wonderfully.
–James
Well, how do you play second octave c? Finding a good way to play it is probably more effective than starting to hack away at the whistle. (I hope were talking about the same note though: I assume the convention is to refer to notes as if they are on the d scale)
What, blu-tac debunked?!?! I’m shocked.
By far, the biggest problem with Gens and the other cheapies is that the blade (labium) is waaaaaaay to high above the floor of the windway. I mean, it’s not even in the ballpark really. This is why laminating a new blade (above or below) the current blade, or raising the floor of the windway, to correct the problem, yields the most improvement, by far.
Loren
Then wouldn’t a spread of blu-tac along the windway floor yield better results than blu-tak in the cavity?
I’ve found when tweaking the cheaper whistles that the most effective simple tweak is to dull the edge of the blade a bit. Most of the molded plastic headjoints (especially Gens) will have a very thin, almost transparent, piece of plastic extending from the edge of the blade and once I take that down a bit I get a more consistent and focused sound from the instrument and it isn’t as shrill in the upper register. Rarely will I have to do anything to the chamfers but sometimes they extend too far out into the path of the air exiting windway and you get some air noises from the whistle. In those cases I file those down a bit too. I bought a very small metal file set from a hardware store and use that for all of the modifications I mentioned. All of the files I have are small enough to fit inside the window and that has made it very easy on me. Just go slow and try it out bit by bit as you go along… once you take it off you can’t put it back on unless you’re willing to completely replace the labium with other material(s). Also, don’t rule out the possibility that you may need to spend some more time with that particular whistle. Also, check the tuning of it. I’ve bought so many cheap whistles that were 50 to 60 cents sharp in their glued position and that can effect the playability and response slightly with some designs (especially Oaks in my experience).