A few nights ago on chat the greentop Generation whistles were being discussed. Jerry had one from Jack (at least I think it was Jack) which he was talking about being phenomenally good, too good to risk tweaking–I also have a very good one, a very fast, fun, and responsive whistle to play.
I don’t know if there is a difference between the greentop and the regular old brass redtop–to the naked eye there doesn’t seem to be–but I definitely enjoy this whistle. I’ve had it long enough the fipple has cracked and been repaired with superglue, and I’ll certainly keep this whistle alive and playable as long as I can.
Here’s something I’ve been working on lately, the extended version of the Mason’s Apron, on this greentop Gen:
Everyone feel welcome to share your experiences with the greentop Gen, or with Gens in general: are they consistently better lately? Is there a difference between greentop and other Gens? Has anyone gotten a bad one?
Rumor has it that Generation introduced the “Folk Whistle” line using better quality control than on their “Flageolet” line. I am sure this is probably just speculation.
MurphyStout it is. That greentop Generation is a remarkable whistle, now on its way back to him via Priority Mail. Very kind of him to lend it to me for inspection.
I love my greentop, but can’t really tell the difference between it and any of the redtops in my collection. It has just been played a lot more, so it feels right in my hands.
a C, dark blue top, that I bought in the late 80’s. My 1st whistle. This is a good one that needed no tweaking.
a Bb that was not good, way too breathy. This was my 1st attempt at tweaking and I sanded too much off the blade. I ultimately attempted attaching a Susato head and didn’t like the sound. Now it’s history.
a D, light blue top. The sound was scratchy and there was another blade sanding attempt. Another failure. I’ve replaced this top with a Hoover whitecap and now it’s one of my favorite whistles.
a greentop D. I was fairly content with this one straight out of the box but I did the sticky tac tweak anyway and stabilized the sound. This mouthpiece had the lip numbing affect that’s been attributed to the Oak. This whistle was bought over a year ago and the numbing sensation has since subsided. I like this whistle and play it fairly regularly.
Reason I was asking is, he and I were playing our whistles at a park a couple of years ago and he mentioned that his Gen D had died (I think he left it in a hot car and the fipple melted). So I had an extra one in my car and gave it to him. So, the reason I was asking is that if it’s the same green top I gave him, it IS tweaked, by me.
I believe he said someone gave it to him a year or so ago. The only tweaking I saw was some poster putty under the windway. Did you do some other things to it?
Nope, not really. I ran sandpaper thru the windway, but it didn’t really need that either. On 95% of Gen D’s, the sticky tack is all that’s needed. I have bunches of them that I’ve done this to, and they all sound as good as MurphyStout’s. My personal opinion is that you can do lots more stuff to them, but they won’t sound any better beyond a certain point, which is all you can and should ask of a Gen whistle. I have no beef with you doing more to them and selling them for whatever the market will bear, but I’ll bet mine sound just as good (not better, just as good). Again, I’m not trying to rain on your parade, Jerry. To each his own and I’m all for free enterprise.
I compared MurphyStout’s Generation with several others, including both new and pre-1980’s Generations. They didn’t all sound the same, and they didn’t all play the same.
