I don’t have a Shaw or Chieftain for comparison, but I’ll have a go at it since no one else has responded. The overall hole spacing is only about a half inch more than a Generation Bb. For each hand, that’s only about a 1/4 inch of additional stretch. Individual hole size is also very close to that of the Gen Bb.
When comparing to other brands, remember this is a narrow bore for an A whistle. Just a little larger than the internal diameter of a Susato S series tube and, therefore, the bottom notes are on the quiet side. You might have a tendency to over blow until you get the feel of it. That said, this is one excellent whistle. Even with all these positive reviews, I was pleasantly surprised.
You might be interested to know, I spent some time after the Hartford, CT Lunasa concert Saturday night with Kevin Crawford, Cillian Vallely and Colin Farrell (who was filling in on fiddle and whistles for Sean Smyth).
They all loved the key of A tweaked Generations (Cillian already had one I’d gotten to him through a mutual friend). It was pure delight to listen to them playing tunes together on three of my tweaked A’s.
Kevin also commented that he has one of my tweaked Eb Generations he brings to all the Lunasa concerts. (He’s commented in the past that he uses my tweaked Eb, C and Bb Generations in the studio.)
In the last year, I’ve been able to improve the tweaked C and F Generations, so I brought examples of those for them to try. Kevin loved both. The high F tweaked Generations are pure and sweet, not shrill. I offered one to Cillian and he said, “I probably won’t play it. I mainly just play the low whistles.” I told him to take it anyway, and said, “You could play ‘The Last Pint’ on it,” which he immediately did. It sounded very apt, lovely.
I only own a Bb and noticed that it seems Jerry did a little more (or something different?) on the windway to the Bb’s (as opposed to the C and higher whistles). That may not be the case, but I just thought I would check if any further modifications were made that affect the sound.
But carry on! There are few things more fun to watch than the biting wit and sarcasm of a roused group of whistlers!
Got the Gen A some time ago. It has a wonderful expressive sound. The top notes are not shrill, the bottom ones aren’t especially weak, though they do overblow very easily. Overall it’s a quiet whistle. Can’t say about the air requirements because of some time of playing the flute almost exclusively.
Normal grip is manageable though you have to spread out the B3 finger some more. I use normal grip on the top hand, full piper’s grip on the bottom hand in preparation for the smallpipes.
