Spinning off a separate thread from the “Feadóg green” discussion …
I’m wondering when the Generation blue plastic head changed from the dark blue of the “classic” Gens to the lighter blue color of the current production.
My classic Gens date from 1986 or earlier, and are all what I’d call dark or “royal” blue. Even when the head mold changed around 1985 from the older “dimple and crease” to none, the dark blue color continued to be used. So the color change must have occurred after then (the terminus post quem).
Of course, the current Gens are the lighter color with the newer style head.
Does anyone know or remember when the color change took place? Or if we can identify enough dated examples in people’s hands, maybe we can pin down the date.
I just tried a few photographs but the blue sensitivity of the camera rendered the whistle heads in a totally unrealistic colour. No amount of fiddling with the colour balance/exposure settings yielded the required result.
I tried to offset two older blue/nickel Generations against a skyblue/nickel Feadóg but there was hardly a colour difference in the final result.
I favor the blue top nickel Gens. Most of mine are the older dimple and crease style. I only have a couple without the dimple. The older ones are darker blue than the newer ones. Not much help, huh? I was still buying dimple and crease blue tops new in the mid 1990’s. So length of time in stock could be an issue setting dates for color change-over.
Yes, no doubt. In fact, my favorite classic Gen D/Eb top is a good example. A red top found just a few years ago, part of a hoard of Eb whistles buried in a box or drawer in a music shop in Luton, N of London. New-old stock which had likely been sitting there since the 70s or 80s. I think of it as my Sutton Hoo Gen.
Ah, there’s the other Gen dating mystery. I assume the change dates from the “triumph of plastic” in the 50s or 60s, but I’ve never seen a definite date for that, either.
I’ve been thinking about this, and I’m pretty sure he said 1958, something like “around 1958 or thereabouts.” And yes, it was from his personal recollection.
