I went to a music store today that had about a dozen Feadog whistles (Is that redundant). I noticed that one of them was a Mark II. The others were all Mark IIIs. I looked down the windway on each of them to see how high the blade was above the bottom of the windway. On the Mark II I could not see the blade at all. I expect this one would be practically un-playable. The others were at various heights from just above the bottom of the windway to just below the top of the windway. The one was probably an excellent whistle the others were probably less than great. It pays to look them over closely. No I did not buy the good one but I should have.
Ron
Ron’s on the right track here. My advice to everyone looking for good Generation type whistles: do exactly what he did with those Feadogs. If you can find a whistle with the soundblade about 1/3 of the way up from the windway floor or less (but still with a little daylight showing underneath if it’s lower than that), BUY IT!
If the bottom two notes are a little fragile, scrape about a 1 mm bevel on the exit corner of the windway floor (this would be the “block” in a whistle with a separate fipple block). That might be all it needs. If it still could use a little cleaning up, fill the cavity under the windway with poster putty and adjust the blade edge to strengthen the bottom two notes if they still need it. But I’m betting you’ll be happy with it right out of the box or with just a little bevel and nothing more.
Best wishes,
Jerry