I know it’s no big deal, but I’m so delighted, I thought I let you know: This Saturday I went to my local music store to see if they had filled up their whistle supplies(Gens + Sweetones). Still searching for the one-not-so-crappy-sounding-cheapo, I tried several Generations from the display. And I really found two gems: a nickel D and a brass Bb. Both very well in tune, stable sound, good 2nd octave and with that light, breathy, folky sound. Mind you, they did not even need any tweaking! In fact, I did the wax treatment, but found the sound getting a bit too “heavy” for my taste. I played them the whole weekend long (and felt really guilty for my Silkstone and Overton whistles remaining untouched). By the way, I was almost relieved when I also tried a nickel C and a nickel Eb. They were really lousy!
Christian
Christian,
Glad to hear you found some great Generations. This shows how important it is to try before you buy wherever possible. It also goes to prove that there are good Generations out there that compare well to the “expensive/handmade” ones for one tenth the price! I have found many more good Generations than bad in my experience!
Have fun with your new instruments!
I may have said this before, but can’t remember..so apologies for the deja vu you may experience after reading below…
Here in Ireland, the standard whistles of choice for schools and other places of whistle-teaching are: D ‘Red tops’ and ‘blue tops’. These are the names by which the brass and nickel Generation whistles have been known by several generations (pun intended) of novice Irish whistlers!
I have no idea why this should be (the Gen. is, of course, an English - not Irish - made whistle) - but woe betide any whistle vendor who tries to pass off a Walton or Feadog onto the would-be whistle student. ‘My teacher said Blue or Red top and that is what you will vend to me good sir!’ (or words to that effect, may be expected!).
Steve 
[ This Message was edited by: StevePower on 2001-10-01 16:05 ]