How to pick out a good Generation type whistle ...

[Jerry_Freeman]

Ron has posted a message I believe is important for everyone to read, so I’ve taken the liberty of starting a new thread and quoting it.

@RonKiley

I went to a music store today that had about a dozen Feadog whistles (Is that redundant). I noticed that one of them was a Mark II. The others were all Mark IIIs. I looked down the windway on each of them to see how high the blade was above the bottom of the windway. On the Mark II I could not see the blade at all. I expect this one would be practically un-playable. The others were at various heights from just above the bottom of the windway to just below the top of the windway. The one was probably an excellent whistle the others were probably less than great. It pays to look them over closely. No I did not buy the good one but I should have.

Ron

@Jerry Freeman

Ron’s on the right track here. My advice to everyone looking for good Generation type whistles: do exactly what he did with those Feadogs. If you can find a whistle with the soundblade about 1/3 of the way up from the windway floor or less (but still with a little daylight showing underneath if it’s lower than that), BUY IT!

If the bottom two notes are a little fragile, scrape about a 1 mm bevel on the exit corner of the windway floor (this would be the “block” in a whistle with a separate fipple block). That might be all it needs. If it still could use a little cleaning up, fill the cavity under the windway with poster putty and adjust the blade edge to strengthen the bottom two notes if they still need it. But I’m betting you’ll be happy with it right out of the box or with just a little bevel and nothing more.

Best wishes,
Jerry

[finkelsj]

Good information. Personally I would buy a Freemanized Generation whistle from Jerry. I have some of his tweaked Sweetones and Shaws, and if I wanted a Generation I would buy it from him. He works magic on whistles.

[RonKiley]

That is one of the reasons I didn’t buy the good one. After the holidays when I may have more money available for WhOA I will probably buy some of these other whistles such as the Freeman Improved, a whitecap, a brassy poly, or an Alba Q1. I will probably buy some more cheap whistles though and I will definitely look them over before I spend money on something that is unplayable.

Ron