Hi all!
I’ve decided to take up the whistle just for kicks, and I’m trying to pick one (I’m sure this is the billionth thread like this). I have a few questions about picking a whistle though. I really don’t want to spend much at all, so…
Thanks
I’m still pretty new, but I do have all three.
To me, the Meg and Sweetone sound pretty much the same. The tone is very breathy compared to the Generation. Many people like it though. It’s an easy whistle to play, but it can sound a little toy-like in the lower register.
The tone of the Generation is more raspy and less breathy. It’s slightly harder to play, but not too bad. They have a reputation on the forum for having poor quality control, but I’ve bought two and they’re both fine.
You can go here:
http://tinwhistletunes.com/clipssnip/index.htm
and look around for tunes played on these two and compare the sounds to see what you like better. Keep in mind that if you see “tweaked”, that means the whistle has been altered in some way and may sound different than box-stock.
You’ll probably want to just look for Generation D or Sweetone D, as D is the most popular key for Irish music.
As for pronouncing Sweetone, I say “Sweet Tone”, but as just one word.
They’re pretty cheap whistles though, you should be able to get them both for around $10. If you can’t find them for that price locally, you can get them for that online, but of course then there’s shipping - which means you’ll need to pick up a few more cheapies to justify the shipping cost, and thus begins the cycle… 
Jason
Well, after listening to some of the samples of the Sweetones, I must say, it sounds much better than I had first thought. I never thought the cheapest whistle I could find would actually sound decent.
Thanks!
You alwready have the cheep whistle. Just pucker and blow. 
Get the sweetone. It is a great whistle. And welcome to the exciting world of whistles and those that play them. 
Is the Meg commonly refered to as the Sweetone just for convenience, seeing in how they’re so similar?
No, two differant whistles.
Get both. They’re cheap.
But if you really only want one, I’d suggest the Meg or Sweetone to start with, as they are a little more forgiving and a little less finnicky, resulting in less squeaking and squawking. If you keep playing, you’ll probably want to try several different cheap whistles before long.
The Meg and Sweetone are two different whistles, but they’re of the same design. The Meg is mass produced cheaply to keep the cost low, and I believe it supposedly uses cheaper material.
However, they look and sound almost, if not completely, identical.
Jason
Depends on what you want.
If you want a whistle that’s good for beginners, that’s got decent tone and is inexpensive and relatively easy to play, and that is most likely free of manufacturer’s defects, go with the Sweetone.
If, however, you want something to stick in your ivy pots to let your pothos climb, go with the Generation.
Sweetones are evil little things that shouldn’t be called musical instruments as far as I am concerned. You won’t do yourself any favour at all in the long run when starting on one of them. Opinions differ obviously, try them yourself and make up your own mind, it’s the sensible thing.
I agree with every word. Even as a newcomer, I never liked a sweetone. I’d get a generation. YMMV.
Get one of each.
QC on Meg’s is not the greatest - I have two and one of them is horrendously out of tune w/itself. The other is only so-so.
A friend has a Sweetone. The bottom D is sharp. Which won’t matter in a session because nobody will hear it anyway.
If you do end up getting a SweeTone/Meg, make sure to get one
in D. The C SweeTones are absolutely horrible, but I love my D’s.
Another thought: Many, if not most, whistles are cylindrical like the
Generation, but the SweeTone is conical (it tapers toward the
bottom end). I found I had an adjustment period when I started
trying cylendrical whistles after a long time playing the SweeTone
exclusively, because the spacing is a bit different on the right hand.
That could just be me, though.
If you are going to buy anything, get it in D. There are only six Irish tunes in C and three of them are Gan Ainm.
Stock Generations are crap. Everyone talks about “finding the rare gems” but a person new to whistling probably couldn’t select a gem out of a lot. I started playing on Clarkes and even though I’ve moved on to bigger and better things, I still play my Megs regularly. I know they’re made cheaper but I’ve never had a bad one and I’ve owned about five of them. I think they sound sweeter than the Sweetones. I’ve had two sweetones and they had too much chiff for my taste; when I recorded myself (especially on the C note) you hear more chiff than whistle. Megs are so cheap too so you can’t really be disappointed… if nothing else, even if you don’t like it as much you can use it for your travel/car whistle
(BTW I don’t think they sound at all like “toys”)
IMHO
Stock Generations are crap
Quite a statement, quite a few top range whislte players use them. Don’t see that happen with Sweetones, ever.
I tried ten Generations in Custy’s last week, all were perfectly serviceable whistles.
Retaliation, perhaps?
I would go for a Clarke original. The sweetones…I don’t like them. Generations can be good, but for a first whistle I think they can be way too frustrating. My opinion, of course.
Probably, the only difference is I offered a contrary (but founded) opinion on purpose to emphasise that your man was better off making up his own mind.
In fairness, ALL beginning whistleplayers I see (and I see a lot of them) start on Generation (type) whistles without any problem whatsoever and I hear beautiful music played on them al lthe time. The forum’s thing about Generation whistles became old quite some time ago.
That’s why I specified “stock.” Top range whistlers may use tweaked Generations or vintage Generations, not straight from the store stock ones… not that I’ve ever heard of anyways. If I am incorrect then excuse my mistake. Also, a newbie wouldn’t know how to “service” (if by service you meant tweak) a whistle. I was under the impression that this person had little to no knowledge of whistles and wanted something to play out of the box.
No, this wasn’t retaliation… I hadn’t even read his post prior to mine. I aplologize if it came across as such. I don’t mind one way or the other if people play whistles I don’t like, or if people talk poorly of the whisltes that I like.