I’m not trying to be boastful, but I’m getting pretty darn good at tweaking Generations.
That being said, I was wondering if there might be a market for pre-tweaked Generations.
I know most of us tweak our own, but wouldn’t it be nice to have someone else go through the trouble?
What I had in mind was maybe offering a pre-tweaked full set of 6 Generations with an oak stand.
Nothing fancy like an O’Briain… just the usual glue removal, Blu-Tac in the fipple, and some file work to clean up the rough edges.
I’m just tossing the idea around in my head right now, but I would appreciate a little feedback from some of you.
Do you think there would be a market for such a thing, and what price range do you think would be reasonable?
I would be interested in such a thing, but I have little money so price would be a definite issue. I would be willing to discuss it further though. Let me know if you decide to do this project.
It would be something that I would consider…I don’t really know what to do when I tweak it…
Brent
When I was an absolute beginner, I would have been interested in such a service, especially when I heard how much better a properly tweaked Generation sounds compared to one of those bad ones. Hence there is a small market for this, and I would think its limited to those who do not want to, or are afraid of tweaking their whistles themselves.
Presently, having learnt how to make average Generations more playable by tweaking myself, I don’t think such a service would have much use to me. That is, unless you manage to tweak Generations in such unique a way that gives it an edge over “normal” home-tweaked Generations.
Raindog,
Nice idea,but no amount of fipple tweaking can ever compensate for the intonation problems that Gen’s are infamous for as even the famous mythical good one owned by Paddy Maloney was revealed in a C & F interview to haveing been extensively tweaked by Mary Bergin.I do think your Oak stand has merit.Cheers 
Mike
[ This Message was edited by: mike.r on 2001-09-29 03:00 ]
[ This Message was edited by: mike.r on 2001-09-29 05:02 ]
[ This Message was edited by: mike.r on 2001-09-30 18:53 ]
On 2001-09-29 02:55, mike.r wrote:
… even the famous mythical good one owned by Paddy Maloney was revealed in a C & F interview to haveing been extensively tweaked by Mary Bergin.
Mike, this is what Paddy M said in the interview with Dale about the Generation he plays:
It was given to me 22 years ago by Mary Bergin... I have been trying to get back to her since. She can always get me a good one.
If you think that is evidence of “extensive tweaking by Mary Bergin”, all I can say is, don’t go into the legal profession.
Getting back to Raindog’s idea: good Generations are great whistles and they’ll always be sought after by serious players who appreciate them.
However I don’t know anyone who’s ever gone out and bought a set of six Generations. The biggest need is for good Ds sold individually, I’d say. After that, Cs, Bbs and Ebs, and the occasional F. Forget about Gs!
If you were to going to build up any business at all, you’d have to sell only very good consistent models. If you can do that, you could charge maybe double the store price. Maybe a serious Generation freak such as myself would pay three times the store price, but I’d only do that if I could try the whistle first and it was perfect.
At twice the price I’m not sure it’s a very attractive business proposition for you. Cillian O Briain is charging about 3 times the store price of a Generation for his “improved” model, but for a more radical alteration than what you are describing.
What are you going to do with the models that remain substandard in spite of your tweaking efforts? Maybe you could buy mouthpieces in bulk from Generation. I wonder whether whether this is what C O’B does, since he apparently grafts Generation heads onto Feadog bodies. Perhaps Steve Power could tell us whether he does buy the components separately from the manufacturers. (Otherwise, what does he do with all the Feadog heads and Generation bodies?)
Come to think of it, wouldn’t mind getting a box of Generation D heads myself… Steve, can you oblige?
Paddy did mention something in the interview about needing to “reduce the aperture a bit so it takes less wind”.
Other than the whistle “muffler” I’ve seen mentioned before, I have no idea how you could accomplish this.
Anybody care to share any insights they may have concerning this procedure?
How does Cillian accomplish this… or does he?
I’ve never seen one of his “improved” whistles, so I have no idea.
How does Cillian accomplish this… or does he?
He does. On his latest models he overlays the ramp with a layer of clear plastic - apparently melted CD jewel case - which projects back into the window, covering a few millimetres of it. Azalin brought one back from Ireland a week ago. I tried it, but we were in a noisy pub, so I couldn’t form much of an impression except that it takes very little air and is very quiet. Both these things put me off, but this is hardly a fair assessment. If I get the chance to try it at length I’ll report back with how it compares with a couple of my own trusty Generations.
Another friend in Toronto has an earlier Cillian-tweaked model, a Feadog. The clear plastic is in the form of an ugly little blob deposited on the ramp. Presumably he has refined his technique since those days…