Im having a lot of problems getting a C natural on my Dwhistle and also the Ab on my Bb whistle. Both whistles are Generation, Im using the same fingering for both, yet both notes are sounding really bad,very weak with little volume yet a lot of air. Im covering the second and third holes from the top of the whistle. I also own a Clarke D and a Feadog D and haven’t had any problems what so ever. Can anybody please advise me what to do, is it me, or the whistles???
Regards Andy
It’s the whistles. I have found that the Feadog hole size and placement leads to the best OXXOOOO C natural (of course I do not like the Feadog fipple and replace it with a Walton fipple). The newer OAKs and Acorns have similar hole size and placement and thus a good OXXOOO C natural (but again replace the fipple).
Joe
The only way I have found to get a halfway decent flatted 7th on a Generation is to use what some call “forked fingering”. Instead of oxx ooo, try oxx xox. Another alternative, of course, is to half hole the top hole. This issue with the flatted 7th is one of the reasons I am not too keen on these whistles.
On 2001-08-08 08:11, Feadan wrote:
This issue with the flatted 7th is one of the reasons I am not too keen on these whistles.
David, one man’s meat… I always thought that “forked” fingering was the proper way to do it (similar to an uillean piper’s C, BTW), and I find that this fingering gives the best results on most whistles I have or have tried, including Generation, Clarke, Swayne, Burke, Sindt and Chieftain.
It gives bad results (note far too flat) on new-fangled louder whistles such as the Water Weasel and Susato. And this is something I dislike about these whistles.
It’s rather like the problem (or “issue”, in Microsoft-speak) you recently reported with the Silkstone, on which the high B went out of tune if you stopped the sixth hole. This is a change in the normal behaviour of whistles, and I feel the same about whistles that don’t accept forked C-natural fingering.
Regarding the Generation, Andy, you can easily train yourself to use forked fingering wherever the speed of the tune allows. (Note that this fingering lets you move between C-nat and the D above by moving only one finger.) In fast tricky passages, use oxxooo. The intonation difference won’t be an issue - but as someone said in another post, don’t blow too hard.
Thanks for the replies fellow whistlers, its appreciated. I’ll try the OXXXOX fingering for the b7 notes on my D and Bb whistles and see how I go. One question though, why does Generation make whistles that cant play that b7 note with ease (without using a pipers fingering) using OXXOOO,??? My Feadog is great at C nat! Is this a design flaw on the part of Generation or just my bad luck ???
No less than 9 Generation D whistles have passed through my hands… and all of them were poor quality instruments.
I have kept the best one for myself and given away or sold the others.
The one I kept gets very little use because it’s still raspy in the lower octave in spite of being tweaked.
I have a Generation Bb in my junk whistle drawer… it’s so bad I won’t even give it a place on my whistle stand.
I don’t think bad luck is to blame in your situation, just poor quality.
Andy,
Put the Generation next to the Feadog and you can see the difference between the hole sizes which I think makes the difference with the C natural. According to the Shanna Quay web site description of the improved Cillian O’Brien whistles “Later, our improved note-hole design was adopted for the Feadog, which meant that we could use the entire Feadog whistle to produce the 'improved” (but since then the Feadog fipple changed). I have an older Feadog (1982) with hole sizes similar to the Generation with similar C Natural (but the old Feadog has a better fipple than the present ones-that why I put a Walton fipple on them and now Cillian O’Brien uses tweak Generation fipples)
Joe