Well, my set of 6 Generations arrived while I was home for lunch today. Here are my lowly opinions.
First off, I took a look at all of the fipples. They look clean with no extra bits of plastic in the wind way. The G’s fipple has a slight mold misalignment one can see that runs from the blade back to the wind way. It does not protrude out into the airflow.
The fipples themselves are made out of an unremarkable brittle plastic. I would have preferred something of more substance like the plastic used on the acorns.
The brass is the thinnest I have ever seen. I felt like I was going to bend the whistles in half when I picked them up. Light as a feather, even the Bb. Not the best whistle for smacking someone up the side of the head with.
As for being in tune, they are not. The closest in tune was the C. The others are anywhere from not quite to being off by a half step. There is going to be some hot water baths tonight.
As for sound impressions, it goes from the super airy upper octave of the Bb (maybe dull the blade a little?) to the G above the bell note on the G whistle. That note sounded so good that I paused (I hope it still sounds as good after I tune it).
All in all, for 26 bucks, I think I got my money’s worth. Plus I love to tweak things, so it is like having a musical instrument and a toy one in the same.
I wonder if they’ve changed the materials since I got mine (my first Generation is more than 20 years old, my newest is about 10 years old). I have two brass (including the oldest) and one nickel. All three feel pretty substantial, and I can attest to the strength of the plastic mouthpiece, as my daughter (who likes to play the nickel occasionally) is a terrible chewer (the outside of the mouthpiece looks a little like a dog mauled it, but the windway is unaffected, and the whistle still plays in tune).
Does anyone know if there have been formula changes at Generation in recent years? I like mine, and occasionally recommend them, but I’d hate to recommend a whistle that isn’t what it once was.
Redwolf
I have a brass Generation C that I bought about 7 years ago. It’s the old good kind with the ridge running down the bottom of the mouthpiece. It’s a wondeful whistle (makes you sound just like Micho Russell).
Since then I’ve gone through 6 D Generations (one was okay, the rest were awful), 1 Bb, 1 C, 2 F’s, and 2 G’s.
The F’s and G’s are pretty good and the Bb was okay. The D’s seem to be the worst of the lot, which is unfortunate.
I haven’t found any other whistles (cheap or otherwise) that have the same kind of poppy, almost percusive, sound to them.
-Brett
I got one of those brass sets.
The F and Eb were really good. The G has a good tone, but it’s really too small and too high pitched. Good if you need to call your dog though.
The D was blah, the Bb might be saveable if I botherd to tweak it, the C will make a nice doorstop…
I think the F and Eb whistles are the only ones that are consistantly playable, or at least tweakable. They tend to come out better than the other keys anyhow…
Oh, and as far as thin brass goes, the’re not that bad. I have a clare 2 piece that’s a lot thinner (and, unfortunatly, sounds like a garbage disposal. I need to scrap the extra plastic bits out of the mouthpeice, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet)…
[ This Message was edited by: TelegramSam on 2002-06-10 20:22 ]
Before buying a Generation, one should do two things. First, from the C&F website, acquaint yourself with the difference between the old and new Gen fipples. Second, only buy used Generations that have the old fipples. This might be hard to do, but you might look in older music shops (whistles are not a high-turnover item) or on eBay. A year or so ago, I managed to buy a card of six brass and five nickel Gens (all except the nickel C) on eBay from a guy that had bought them at the closeout of a music store. All but two had the ‘old’ fipples. While not in any way equivalent to, say, a modern Hoover or Silkstone or even an old-time all-metal Generation, they were still far better and more consistent than a equal number of new Generations.
Fortunately, the difference is such that it is obvious on any good photo of the fipple. Still, it’s not an easy or short-term project.
On 2002-06-10 17:14, MrTuffPaws wrote:
Not the best whistle for smacking someone up the side of the head with.
\
True, but they do soar nicely at the sound tech when he calls it a piccolo!
On 2002-06-10 21:30, Chuck_Clark wrote:
Before buying a Generation, one should do two things. First, from the C&F website, acquaint yourself with the difference between the old and new Gen fipples. Second, only buy used Generations that have the old fipples.
Chuck,
I searched the Chiff and Fipple web site but couldn’t find the comparison of new and old Gen fipples you mentioned above. Do you have the reference?
Thanks,
Mike
You know what? I used the hot water trick to take off the top of my Gen D this morning and scraped all the extra bits of plastic out (and boy was there a lot of it!), and guess what? That little thing sounds pretty dang good! Not perfect, but it’s not bad either… Now if I could just find some sticky tac…
Mike
I don’t have it handy, although I’m sure others might. Still and all, the difference is easy enough to spot. Seen in profile, the older fipples have a somewhat more pronounced lip relief, sort of like comparing an Overton to a Chieftain. Just ahead of the tone hole, they have a pronounced hump with a sharp summit. Most importantly, they have a clearly seen ridge on the top midline of the fipple from it’s tip to the tonehole. Not only can you feel it clearly with your fingers, but it tends to be visible in most photos taken from above. There’s a similar ridge on he lower side that goes from the fipple tip to a rough oval area where it first starts to curve. This rough oval area looks like it might have been where the plastic was attached to others in the same mold (think of the spot on old-time plastic soldiers where they were broken from the mold “tree”). Most of all, when looking at the whistle from the fipple end, the top and bottom ridges are so pronounced that you appear to be looking at a flattened diamond on it’s side.
I hope that’s a good enough description, but if anyone can improve on it, please do,
Redwolf -
I can’t tell for sure without a micrometer, but looking at three generations, a really old all-metal type, one with the “old” plastic fipple and a newer one (in order, about 70, 20 and 5 years old) the metal on the two older whistles does appear to be a slightly heavier gauge than the newest one. Feels heavier to my hand, though, but that could simply be prejudiced by my expectation that it would be.
Nothing salves a weary soul like a cheap whistle.
[ This Message was edited by: Chuck_Clark on 2002-06-11 12:52 ]
Chuck,
Thanks for your description of the old vs new generation whistles. I’ll double check it when I have the whistles in hand this evening. I have a nickel C and Bb that are about 20 years old and a brass D that I bought last month. I also have a brass one-piece Clare D that is a very nice whistle, especially compared to the Gen.
BTW, does anyone know when plastic mouthpieces were introduced? If I had to guess I’d guess after WWII.
Mike