I recently received a Brass D Generation whistle in the mail.
It was practically unplayable, due to instability and a horribly scratchy tone.
So far I have removed the mouthpiece, made sure all of the plastic casting flash was gone, sanded every surface on it that I can, and dulled the sound blade a little.
I look into the fipple with a flashlight and can find no visible problem(s)..
The standard “tweak” seems to be to fill the hollowed-out cavity beneath the windway with poster putty or something similarly pliable enough to fill this gap. You can find a description of the process elsewhere on this site, and Jerry Freeman has written a nice description of his whistle-tweaking process that incorporates this technique. But basically it involves removing the whistle head and forcing a ball of poster putty into the gap with a piece of wooden dowel or the eraser-end of a pencil until the gap is filled.
I don’t understand why Generation doesn’t retool their mouthpiece to eliminate this cavity. It would definitely help to restore the reputation of their whistles and make them more consistently reliable.
If the windway is clear of obstructions and appears to be normal in shape (basically a rectangle) and the blade is even and relatively sharp and free of oddities, then the problem is probably a misalignment between the two.
It’s a complex mould, for those plastic heads, and it’s easy for misalignment to occur.
What you can do is saw the head right in two, through the middle of the winday, so that the head is now in two sections, the lower section having the blade, and the upper section having the windway. With the lower section still on the metal tube body, glue the two sections back together with smelly styrene cement. You have several minutes before the cement starts hardening to experiment with various alignments between the blade and the windway. You can look down inside the windway to see what these various alignments look like and you can play the whistle to hear the sorts of tone and performance these various alignments create. Usually the best focus is when there’s just the tiniest visible sliver of light underneath the blade (when looking down the windway from above). You’ll quickly discover the big difference a tiny change in alignment creates.
I’ve done this modification to a number of my Generations and now they play exactly how I want them to: round full solid low notes, clear sweet easy high notes, and easy transitions between the octaves.
Or, you can go through boxes and boxes of Generations to find one that happens to have this perfect alignment from the factory, or maybe just get lucky. A brand new student a few years ago went down to a local ordinary music shop and bought the first Generation D he happened to see without trying it. It was superb, one of the best Generations I’ve ever come across. For every great one I’ve come across, I’ve tried dozens of mediocre and horrid ones.
It would definitely help to restore the reputation of their whistles
Definitely?
and make them more consistently reliable.
Doubt it. But then I’ve just found mine reliable enough as supplied for 35+ years, and (despite seeing the odd bad one since) really can’t see this tweak sorting the OP’s problem. At all.
As I’ve said before I once got a crack at a straight-from-the-factory unopened box of 24 Generation D’s and tried them all. One was fantastic, one was nearly as good, several were unplayable, the rest mediocre.
Generation could have thrown 22 of the 24 away and sell their whistles for $150 each and be known as one of the best whistles on the planet.
Or they could have thrown 10 of the 24 away and sell their whistles for $80 each and have the reputation of a good mid-priced whistle.
But no, they let everything go out the door, the unplayable squeaker and the superb professional instrument and the mediocre player alike and sell them for $10.
aaronw, welcome to the C&F Whistle Forum. You didn’t say if you’re a beginner or seasoned whistle player. If a beginner, perhaps some of the issue is you, breath control, fingering, coverage, etc., or possible it is the whistle. Buy another one.
Used whistles are a whole another matter…
I don’t understand why people don’t return their new whistle to the music shop purchased from. Maybe this is a customer service issue, or why not complain to Generation itself thru their customer service. Yes, it is only approximately ten dollars but if enough customers complained and returned their whistles then possibly the Gens could rethink output and get enhanced rep.
And, then of course, you could send your whistle to a professional tweaker. Just saying.
Someone on C&F had posted a recording of himself playing a great Generation and a terrible one. The contrast was night and day.
I’ve heard that occasionally people find a modern one that plays well, but I haven’t found a good one in the past 20 years. I have an excellent one I purchased in the seventies, and I have several that have been professionally tweaked, and they sound wonderful.
Don’t buy a Generation whistle you haven’t played.
Don’t buy a Gen by mail if you can possibly avoid it. If you do, you’ll get the dregs.
Don’t buy a Gen from the bottom half of the box. They ship in case lots of 24. If you don’t see at least a dozen on hand in the shop, odds are what you see has already been well picked over. The clerk may try to tell you that you can’t try them out in advance because of some health regulation. If they do, either walk away or say “The quality control on these is awful. If I buy one unheard, can I return if I don’t like the sound?” If the answer is yes, open the package right there in the store and give each whistle a try as soon as you’ve bought it. Exchange all duds. Demand a refund if they’re all bad.
Exactly, it’s indeed that simple. If you ordered one by mail they’ll generally apologise and send you another one (without extra charge of course). Once it turned out that the entire batch was faulty and they sent it back to Generation, which probably wouldn’t have happened if I had not complained.
Oh well, if you prefer to keep a defect instrument and lament instead of just asking for a new one…
Get yourself a Mack Hoover Whitecap, stick that on a Gen Tube and you’ll never look back.
You’ll have a Hoover though, not a Generation.
Last night, prompted by the tea stirring hyperbole bandied out here, I played one of my Generations for a while and was ever so pleased I did as it has that quintessential whistle sound, the ease of playing, the responsiveness and just about everything that ever drew me towards the whistle in the first place. But to be honest, I like my Sindts and Killarneys and they do a fine job but they don’t quite have the je ne sais qoui that a half decent Gen has.
Exactly. And if you bought a particular whistle deliberately, wanting a particular sound, that quintessential whistle sound I mentioned above, replacing it with something else is not necessarily what you want to do.
Yesterday afternoon I was in Limerick, somewhere in the city centre, near the Milkmarket, someone was busking with a cheap whistle. I don’t know what he was playing, Lord of the Rings sort of stuff, but I couldn’t help being struck by how lovely the whistle sounded and how nicely it carried in the open air. Now go stir your tea with that!
Most people buy Gen’s are not looking for a “quintessential whistle sound” they buy them because they are on the shelf of most music shops. If anything the “quintessential whistle sound” would be the Clark whistle with the wooden block?
If I was advocating the OP buy a Goldie, Chieftain, Burke etc I agree the tone and character of all these (excellent) instruments is miles away from the Gen, however the Hoover retains much (if not all) the Gen qualities.
and they sent it back to Generation, which probably wouldn’t have happened if I had not complained.