Jessie, You may be missing the point, which would be; with a little tweaking the $5 underdog whistle plays very very nicely. Sure, most of the Gens draw vacuum right out of the box, but even if you manage to destroy 2 out of 3 whistles while tweaking, you can still have a very inexpensive $15 dollars wrapped up in something that is quite decent.
Or, soon to be, maybe order a pre-tweaked Gen and miss out on all the fun of a do it yourself experience. Even if you want to put the money down on a nice expensive whistle, you are not really guaranteed of a good whistling experience! Some people don’t like Copeland’s for this or that reason, some don’t like Silkstones, some don’t like Sindts etc. etc..
Here’s some nutty things you can do to your cheap whistle, I haven’t tried them myself, I’m just an idea man:
1 - Uniformly dent the outside with a ball peen hammer.
2 - Coat the surfaces with epoxy.
3 - Fill in the holes with dowels, or solder brass sheet in place, then revoice.
4 - Cut a triangular section out of a cylindrical bodied whistle, then bring the edges together and solder - voila, conical bore.
5 - Fill the bottom of the bore with “rushes” (another term from piping) - filler material of whatever kind. See if you can flatten the octaves drastically, and then cut the end off until they are in tune again. Maybe.
6 - Buy some brass tube which will fit your fipples, and make your own cheap whistles. Make a bore so long it doubles back like a bassoon.
7 - Make square section “boxes,” put holes in one side, and find a way to fit a fipple on. Or make a square fipple. Ala the “Squinnter” square bore uilleann pipes chanter - construction of this used to be featured on David Daye’s Bagpipe Page, but the link seems to be dead. A square bore will work as well as a cylindrical or conical bore, believe it or not.
Didn’t mean it like what Deirdre? Actually, I’m the only one so far to admit on this thread to owning quite a lot of high-end whistles. (Jessie does too, but she isn’t owning up here.) That was precisely my point. Although lots of us have WhOA, only a few have invested a lot in trying loads of high-enders. (You know who we are: the usual suspects who emerge whenever there’s a ‘compare Abells, Busmans, Copelands and Overtons’ thread.) What I didn’t realise is that so many people had whole armies of cheapies.
Funny isn’t it. With all my high-enders, what I really most want, apart from a few affordable O’Riordans, is a full fleet of good Generations. Well, with Jerry’s experiments progressing, I might not have much longer to wait. And no, I’m not prepared to swap a Copeland for a good Generation.
In the interest of full disclosure here is a complete lists of high-end whistles I own. High-end is everything more expensive than a Susato, here.
2 Overton Hi D’s (1 Bernard Overton, 1 Colin Goldie)
Overton C
Overton A
Overton low D
Sindog D (Sindt head on Feadog shaft)
Sindt C
Alba Q1
Alba Old-style hi D (mine on loan)
Alba Q1 low F
Alba low D
Burke old-style wide-bore brass
Reyburn D/C set
I still have a Kerry Low D that I am giving away.
I also currently have an Overton low F on trial that I am considering buying. All the Susatos I have left are a VSB E/D set, and a SB D. Then I think I have about 30 or so various cheapos, several of them in one degree of disassembly or another.
Actually, I’m the only one so far to admit on this thread to owning quite a lot of high-end whistles. (Jessie does too, but she isn’t owning up here.) That was precisely my point. Although lots of us have WhOA, only a few have invested a lot in trying loads of high-enders. (You know who we are: the usual suspects who emerge whenever there’s a ‘compare Abells, Busmans, Copelands and Overtons’ thread.) What I didn’t realise is that so many people had whole armies of cheapies.