Greetings fellow whistlers. I’m still darn new to this scene, but I love it here, you guys are really great, have got great fun reading your posts.
Now then…I’ve got a generationD which I managed to tune successfully (but I actually only play my Clarke-Diamond-D). I’ve got 3 C-Whistles, a susato (which I don’t like to much, has got a sound which just doesn’t sound like a tinwhistle should sound, forgive the pun, but it sounds like plastic), an indian bamboo C that is in tune, and a Generation C that isn’t in tune at all. I tried putting it in near boiling water to loosen the fipple, but it just will not budge a mm. Is there anything else I can do to try to tune it? Solvent that’ll eat the glue?
Thanks for all your help!
Amar.
Hi Amar,
I had the same problems in removing the head of my Waltons whistles. You should try to get the water a little bit more hot. Remember, boiling water will immediatly destroy the Head! Then let your whistle rest for 45 Seconds in it. This should at least be enough for turning the head. Once the seal is broken, repeat the procedure and the head will come off. Good Luck!!
By the way, do not use solvents to crack the seal. Most likely they will dissolve the head too.
Greetings,
Hellmi
With an inexpensive whistle, you may want to try some of the tweaking methods shown elsewhere on this Website. If it is completely out of tune, you probably won’t make it any worse, and the tweaking might fix it right up.
I guess there are “lemons” and “honeys” in every line of whistles, because my Generation C is actually my BEST whistle!
Hellmi, I’ll try, but I’ll tell you, if I make the water any hoter, the whole thing will melt, and I did keep the whistle in the water for about 5min, if not longer, nothing budged…
thanks again.
Well, I must admit, I don´t have any experience in tweaking Generations whistles. I´ve never seen one in a music store. In fact, I´ve never seen a Pennywhistle in an instrument store in Germany at all. As I´m suffering from WhOA I would have bought them all! Perhaps those Generations are sealed with a contact glue or an epoxy glue which would not be loosened by heat. In that case you indeed might want to try some chemistry. You could try acetone (nail-varnish remover)but BE CAREFUL. I´m pretty sure that it will disolve the low-tech plastic of the head. You first should applicate a VERY small amount with a Q-Tip to the head. If you recognize that it is not shiny any more or even becomes sticky you can´t use it without completly ruining the whistle. Perhaps you could try turning off the head when it´s hot with a pair of pliers. You can use a piece of thick leather as protection for the head. But I would only risc both methods (violence and chemistry) when the whistle is completly out of tune.
Hellmi, none in any german music shop? Du armes Schwein grin. I’m sure you already know this link, but just in case you don’t, check this out: http://www.tinwhistle.de/
About tweaking, I did manage to tweak my GenerationD using the hot water method, maybe I just have to try a few more times, take it easy, cheers, Amar.
“Perhaps you could try turning off the head when it´s hot with a pair of pliers.”
Bad idea, been there,done that. One good Acorn gone.
I managed to loosen my Generation D head by keeping it in hot water (as hot as it came from the tap) for quite some time and then wrenching it loose with the help of some towels (not to slip). Good luck!
For some reason, the fipple on the GenC is jammed on a lot tighter than on the other keys. I ripped apart my D, C, and Bb this morning actually. I had no problems with the Bb and D, but the C is a beast.
The trick is to stick it in boiling water for about 20 seconds, pull for about 10 or 15 seconds, then dunk it back in for 20, and so on till you’ve finally wrenched the stupid thing off. You just have to get really uppity with it, if you know what I mean…
Of course, getting it back on is another problem. I still haven’t been able to jam the thing back on mine all the way, so it’s not exactly in the key of C anymore. It is in tune with itself now, at least, and it doesn’t sound buzzy anymore now that I’ve scraped out all the extra plastic bits and glue, but I’ll be damned if I know what key it is now, though it’s probably just a really flat C. shrugs
I should start a celt-rock band and name it “Gen-C SuperGlue.” Bwahahah…
[ This Message was edited by: TelegramSam on 2002-02-13 11:09 ]
It worked! I just had to make the water hotter, as you said, I got the fipple back on well to, the pitch is correct now, but but the sound is still kinda of unpure, flakey, generationey…
cheers, amar.
Well if you could tell me how you managed to get the stupid thing back on all the way, I’d be very grateful, cause even after I put the end of the whistle down on the floor and put all my weight against it, it still would only go back on about halfway… 
my gen c had a nasty burr around the outside edge of the fipple end of the tube that I had to file down before it would slide back on. Still pretty stiff to slide, but workable. - Joel
well the problem is now I can’t get it back off. I honestly don’t know how they got it on to start with. sheesh!
telegram sam, strange, I managed to push it on quite easily, it’s tight and firm, but slipped well. Maybe this might help: Put the whistle shaft into the freezer, and the fipple in hot water fo ra while, then try to shove them onto eachother, physics might do the trick.
Guid luck…
damn, I got so angry with the annoying sound my genC made, really annoyed, and I couldn’t do anything about it either…I cracked the damn thing in two.
If you ever buy a generation, be sure to test it in the shop, check if you can play the upper octave, it must sound smooth, not not, how should I describe, JUST HORRIBLE! and check if you can got from 1st to 2nd octave smoothly. If not, don’t buy it.
I feel better now.
Eh, don’t feel bad. I got so mad at mine trying to get that fipple back on (or back off, I haven’t managed either) that yesterday I had this weird urge to take an acetyline (sp?) torch to it and melt it into a bubbling puddle of brass. Grrrr 
Yay, I finally got the stupid mouthpeice back on my C all the way!
rubs blisters on hands
glad for you, I still got the broken whistle half with the fipple still on it. I’ll do some experimenting, I’ll throw the whole thing in boiling water and see if it’ll really melt, tell you later.
amar.
Ok, I put the fipple in boiling hot water for 25 seconds. nothing happend to it at all, kept its shape. However I wouldn’t recomend doing this with any fipple smaller than C, you never know what might happen with the smaller ones.
I bought a new GenC today, check through their whole stock! Got the only one they had sounded ok in the 2nd octave, but, as you may expect, it wasn’t in tune, frequency was way too high, you wouldn’t believe it, but i loosed the fipple with boiling water and had to shove it approx 5 (FIVE!) millimeters up the shaft, alas, now I have a C whistle in tune.
happy whislin.
Had to find out for myself. Bought a nickel C. And, yes, this is by far the NASTIEST whistle I have ever owned. The head doesn’t move a cent of a millimeter. The sound is hoarse, off and… not worth bothering with. This might well be the first whistle I am going to throw away…
Christian