I got a good Gen D. (And no, nobody can have it.)
I’d tried Gens in other keys in brass and nickel, but not a D. I heard they were patchy at best, so I avoided them.
In my last order from The Whistle Shop, I threw in a Nickel Gen D, just to test my luck.
Wow.
I really really like this whistle. It as ‘playable’ as any Oak/Susato/Dixon/what-have-you, goes up to the second A without qualms, goes further, but you have to push it some (which I regard are slightly normal for whistles).
I’ve been studying the mouthpiece the past couple of days, and it’s all very even, straight, uniform, looks like the Oak or Walton’s mouthpieces, no warbling or cracks or bent places or uneven surfaces. There was a bit of plastic, smaller than a mm, but it fell off.
And the tone. I didn’t realise I really liked chiff so much, but these last few days the Gen is the only one I’ve been playing. It’s a welcome break from the Whitecap/Clare which is whistle that gets the most play from me. The Whitecap/Clare is sort of chirpy, which I also like, but this Gen is just really good in the opposite way.
Speaking of Whitecaps, I have two (mouthpieces). One got chipped and (the outstanding) Mack sent me another one a while ago. The old one is #800 and something and the new one is (I think) 954. They’re made differently. The old one is a single piece of plastic, and the ramp area is close to average Gen/Feadóg/Walton size; the windway is wider, and the and it’s more close to a ‘normal’ volume, I’d heard Whitecaps were quieter, and I hadn’t noticed that on my whistle. The new one has a piece of brass inside it which slips over the whistle, and the windway is much smaller and the blade area is much narrower, which does make it slightly quieter. Do I have a point? No. Just getting out a lot of built-up whistle fever.
In a bought of money madness the other day I was going to order a Silkstone PVC whistle, but thankfully I didn’t have a computer handy…but I do have some questions about them. They’re made of PVC, how similar is the tone to Dixon and Whitecap (with which I’m familiar), and to other whistles in general? How do the finger holes feel? Is it really noticable?
And lastly, does anybody have a Mellow D in nickel they want to sell me? I’ve been wanting one for a long time, I like my brass one but brass is really not my thing if I have a choice. I have a Nickel C Waltons, but I yearn for a Mellow D in nickel. The whistle shop doesn’t have them in stock, and isn’t quite sure if they will soon. Let me know.