Hello there fellow Chiffippleboarders.
I recently placed an order for three Generation whistles, all in brass, in the keys of D, Eb, and F. I know that these whistles tend to be pretty variable but I was just wondering who had experience with these, and if anyone has any recommendations about playing/tweaking them.
Please keep in mind that the sole reason I ordered these was to have something a little more practical than my Abell set to lug around with me during late night walks across the university campus. If I get mugged I would rather have it done with ten dollar whistles, right?
I also just wanted to doodle with the Eb and F keys because as a born trumpet player I play in those all the time.
Indeed you will find that playing all types of whistles can be rewarding since each has it’s strengths and weaknesses. If you do a simple search you will find lots of information about tweaks of these Gens. I’d start by filling in the hole in the plastic head beneath the windway with putty of some sort. Poster putt works as well as anything. Just fill it to the pont that it’s even with or slightly behind the edge of the window. If you notice any extra buzzing or roughness, look for small slivers of plastic (flash) which may dangle in the windway or around the edge of the window and blade. Gently scrape these away with something and be particularly mindful not to damage the edge of the blade.
Good luck,
ecohawk
P.S. thanks to the mods for the quick adjustment. Much appreciated.
I have a non-tweaked nickel Generation F, straight from the shop, no testing/selecting.. and it’s perfect. Kind of like an F version of the Freeman Bluebird. It’s the only Gen. F I’ve tried, so I don’t know if it’s a fluke or if they’re genuinely good out of the box. I suspect the former, but I have no evidence obviously. It’s not at all like the few other Gen.'s I have. And totally different from my brass high G, which is, unlike the F, tricky to play due to the size - this will depend on finger sizes of course. Anyway, the G tend to shriek as I go up the scale, the F doesn’t.
Just as already mentioned, cleaning the windway and putting some wax (or whatever) beneath it does wonders. Did this to a nickel D Gen, with quite amazing results.
megapop
I just picked out two Generation Ds at the local Ren Faire. Both of them played beautifully with no tweaking at all. I only tried the two but they were great.
Would that happen to be from the Maryland Renaissance Festival near Annapolis? Because if so that is where I got my first whistle, I go there every year.
The whistles actually came in yesterday, and although the F gave me some real issues with getting the mouthpiece off I finally managed to tweak them all a bit.
All of them are playing beautifully and I can’t seem to put the F down. Tuning is spot on except for the usual trouble notes, but not anywhere near as bad as I was anticipating. Will try to upload videos/sound bytes for critique soon!
Sorry to chime in late on this thread, but IMO the most important thing to do with a Generation D, unless the factory has miraculously improved its manufacturing process in the several years since I last bought one, is to loosen the head and put it back on in the correct position - further out than where it was glued. This corrects the intonation and believe it or not I have found it improves the sound, taking off a raspy edge. More important than filling the windway cavity, to me anyway. But of course you can do both at the same time.
A good Generation Eb is a fantastic little whistle, one that you won’t want to put down. Maybe the bore size is optimum for that key, slightly better than for the D (which has the same bore tube). Anyway they just fly.
Generation Fs… well, I like listening to Mary Bergin playing one, but I don’t enjoy trying myself.
you could always send all 3 to Jerry Freeman and have them shipped, tweaked, and shipped back for less than $40 i imagine. somewhat of a sting, but a Freeman gen is a nice sounding gen whistle.
I got a bunch of new Gens today (can’t let it be), they just came in half an hour ago. C is really fine, and so is the Bb; D is feckin bad. I’m just putting on the water for some tea.
