Generation whistle heads are sometimes difficult to remove, as was the case with my F and Bb. After much hot water, huffing and puffing, pulling and twisting, I thought a think might be in order. So I sat and thunk, and this is what I came up with. It worked for me, YMMV. The tools used were a washer and a ring spanner. I placed a suitable sized washer on the whistle so that it rested on the plastic mouthpiece and gently tapped it with the ring spanner threaded over the body, after dunking the head into a container of hot water. This worked well for the F whistle, but the Bb needed no assistance from the spanner, the weight of the large washer I used was enough to cause the head to slip off easily. I held the whistles by the bell end so that it was vertical and made sure to keep the face of the spanner parallel to the washer so that the force was even around the plastic part.
The order of the components.
The tools used. The smaller washer was for the F, the larger for the Bb.
A few days ago I watched Mike De Smidt use a pair of channel-lock pliers to twist the head off of a Bb Generation, no water, heat or gentle persuasion employed, just brute force. He wanted to modify the tube to make it into a B whistle to match his B uilleann pipe chanter. A disc sander made quick work of the shortening part, and we were playing in B in about three minutes.
(And for those inclined to make such a whistle, dimensions posted by pipemaker Bill Haneman can be found here).
I do not endorse or recommend Mike’s technique, just sayin’ that it worked for him.
I watched (with dismay) as Joanie Madden beheaded Generations and Sweetones by sliding them forcefully into the bottom end of one of her Burkes. Top popped off, and she poured the tube out of her whistle. Said that’s how she always did it.
Yep! I too attended a whistle class years ago conducted by Joanie Madden - always a lot of fun. There were more than 30 people in this class with all manner of whistles at hand. Some were non-tunable models. Tuning the whistles in the room was a real bear as you could imagine. Joanie took things into her own hands in an effort to get a couple whistles in tune. I gasped and nearly passed out as she took a Gen and slipped the metal tube inside the body of her own O’Riordan concert D and basically used it as a slide hammer to knock the plastic head loose. It worked! She must have done it before.
I’m trying to visualize the Madden Method, and not succeeding. The Gen D fits nicely inside a Burke C (or Gen C, etc.). And then … what? How do you secure the D tube? Or does just dropping it in vertically in free-fall produce enough force on the head?
Not just dropping it but launching it forcefully into the receiving tube. The end of the receiving tube functions like the washers Wiz uses and pops the head off.
Of course, she’s a professional and folks shouldn’t necessarily try this at home…
It’s been a few years since I witnessed this. I’ve been to quite a few more Madden workshops in the interim but participants have used tunable tooters (or purchased Burkes right there). Here’s what I remember. The Gen tube (as example) fits neatly inside the O’Riordan/Burke tube. I do not recall if the head was separated from the body of the O’Riordan to do this. So I can’t say for sure if Joanie had a hold on the bottom of the Gen tube or just threw the Gen into the O’Riordan whistle body. Wack, wack, wack and the Gen head pops off. Joanie was quite confident and apparently had done this frequently. She does do a lot of workshops. I still cringe thinking about it. I am sure this is a coincidence but that’s the last time I saw that concert D at a workshop. A well loved O’Riordan traveler D has been in her hands every time I have seen her since then.
I see Steve has described his experience just now too.
I’ve succeeded (the single time i tried) in removing the head of a stubborn (as expected) Generation C without using acetone or splitting the head. After trying the hot water + gloves & twisting and failing (as expected), I took an exacto knife and inserted the very tip in between the head and the tube (with the blade tangent, “flat” if you will, not perpendicular to body or head). I applied a very, very slight twisting motion, in order to create some space between them, but I really mean it when I say “the very tip” and “very slight”. I repeated the procedure all around the tube, and did the hot water + twisting routine again. Presto!
I worked under the belief that some of the plastic was creating a seal that prevented the water from reaching the glue, and tried what seemed the least-disruptive action that would solve that. Of course, it might have been sheer luck… Hypotheses non fingo
And you’re using it percussively to knock the head off the tube, with the washer as a collar. Gotcha.
He wanted to modify the tube to make it into a B whistle to match his B uilleann pipe chanter. A disc sander made quick work of the shortening part, and we were playing in B in about three minutes.