Ah, the sixties, those were the days (not to mention the nights, which I really shouldn’t mention). Anyway, let’s try this yet again; instead of just vague recollection, this time I actually just now took all the old Gens out of their respective jars (yes, I pickle my Gens) and laid into the lot - airs, jigs, reels, scales, special attention to that high B, etc. - with the following results.
Both Bflats, a red top brass and a blue top nickel are quite lovely and easy to play in both octaves - no issues.
Both red top Cs were surprisingly very good - really a joy to play and pretty darn close to my legendary Golden Tones.
Three red top Ds and the one blue top (nickel) were also just fine and fun to play in every way.
Even the little blue top nickel high F was a joy with no issues and no dogs came running up on the high B.
So, let’s see: that’s nine Gens in four different keys, both brass and nickel, all randomly purchased throughout the years (mostly in the nineties), and not an issue in the lot with respect to tone, playability or anything else including cosmetics.
As an older woman from that old hamburger ad used to say, where’s the beef? Is it because they’re labelled “British Made”? Did I get, purely by chance, the only nine playable Gens ever made?
I wonder if “good whistle” equates, in some fashion, to “matches my natural breath pattern.” I’m wondering if each of us has a subconscious expectation about what “normal” breath control should feel like. When a whistle matches our natural breathing pattern, we like it and call it good.
I think you are on to some of it. I met a whistler in person from the board once, And after we played some he asked why my whistles had a better voice than his. So I tried his whistles and his eyes rolled and asked how I made his sound like mine. It was very simple. He was not moving enough air through them.
Peter, in my experience, depending on the individual whistle, it sometimes does good, sometimes not, and seldom does harm. I have a couple of Feadóg Pros that were real scratchers, especially high g and above ready to break into harmonic cacaphony at any moment. The blue tack tweak calmed them right down, and strengthed the bottom end a bit, too. Nice playing whistles they are now.
If the blue tack makes no difference in a given whistle, it takes 10 seconds to pull it out again, and nothing’s lost. Or leave it in and nothing’s lost. In either case, there’s no harm in trying it IMHO.
The only whistles I’ve found made positively worse are Clarke Sweetones. The putty ruins both the intonation and characteristic tone.
Is your impression of the tweak by reputation, or have you tried it yourself? Just curious. Slán!
This difference of opinion is eternal. But FWIW, I just tried my own “Karate Kid” experiment with the Gens: tack on…tack off…tack on…tack off…tack on…tack off… I hear a difference for the better in three of the four whistles. In two of them it’s a pronounced difference for the better, at least to my own subjective ear. It worsened only one whistle, my Gen high F, which lost its merry chirp and got bland. It also makes my Walton’s Mello-D better.
I have 4 Nickel Feadog Ds, 3 brass Feadog Ds and a Pro (and a dozen or more Feadog tubes from whistles I broke the heads off by sitting down with them in my back pocket… )
Some have the windway void filled and some don’t. After reading this I just dug them all out and played them. I guessed which ones were filled and which weren’t as I played and put them aside accordingly.
The pile I guessed were filled contained 2 of the brass, 3 of the nickel and the Pro (to be honest, I clearly remembered that the Pro was filled, so I started with that one). The other pile had 1 brass and 1 nickel.
When I looked it turns out that I was right on every one.
Seems to me that there is a detectable difference. A fraction less harshness, and the bell note will take a little bit more of a push before breaking.
If I had not started with one I knew was filled, and if I hadn’t played them one after the other in one go, I suspect the difference would have been too slight for me to have guessed right 100%.
Proves nothing, just took up 20 minutes of a dull morning.
So I bought me a High D Generation Folk (green top brass body). I tried to get a Jerry tweaked but the whistle shop is completely out. I’m going to see how this works out. If a tragedy, I will cry and stick to tweaked. I will get back to this thread when it comes in the mail and have played it a bit.
It’s my third year in the USA and believe me, these Irish Americans can be die hard. Matter of fact Americans tend to hold on to their heritage whatever it may be, its a way of identity. Seems that way anyway. So green goes over well here…if that’s what you meant!
Must be the higher environmental consciousness here. Or maybe our obsession wtih money.
Since we’re back to discussing Generation whistles after an extended hiatus of at least a week, I am curious about one thing. New Generation whistles rarely appear on e-bay. There are dozens of Waltons and Feadogs all the time, but very few Generations. I just checked and a search on “Generation Whistle” produced exactly two, a C and a Bb.
That just makes so much sense. Say a person thinks that Clarkes sound like toys, Susato’s sound like recorders and Gens sound like crap… well, if you play them all as if they were Feadogs then you’re not playing the whistle (and I too have been guilty of this hasty judgement in the past). You really do have to get to know a whistle well before you can judge it. I’d even go a step beyond that and suggest that when someone gets used to a certain voice (i.e. their favored/most played whistle) then other whistles are going to sound off to them. That may mean that they just find it different or it may be not at all to their liking.
When I first got into whistling someone that I knew suggested to buy a Clarke because “all other cheap whistles sounded like crap”. So I played Clarkes for nearly three or four years without trying anything else. Then when I did try my first Gen I did think it sounded awful because it was nothing like the sweet breathy tone of the Clarkes; the bell note buzzed and was raspy and the upper octave was shrill… and they were also much more difficult to play. The Clarkes had helped me develop lazy breathing and intonation because they were too easy to play. It took another year or two before I picked up and seriously played another Generation. Once I started playing them I never went back to the Clarke and now the first whistle I always reach for is either my Gen or my Feadog… usually the Feadog only if I need the volume.
I do love my Gen but I do think sometimes that, just as much as folks are mistaken by the MaGen myth, there is a minor misconception among some that if you are a serious whistler that you must play on a Generation and those folks will use every excuse they can think of to stand up for the Gen as the whistle of whistles, even if they wouldn’t go to that length for, say, a Feadog or Oak or Clare or… you name it.
Visually, I see more consistency and cleanliness in a brand new Feadog, Oak or Waltons whistle than in the Generation head (speaking only visual aesthetics, not playability) but I haven’t had reason to try more than a few of each (in the same key anyways) so it’s nothing I could put into reliable statistics. As far as Gens go, I’ve played some good and some bad but in my personal experience I wouldn’t put that ratio at any better or worse than any other make of whistle.
As this one is I presume laid at my doorstep, it’s the Generations most people here give out about. I usually try to make clear my comments apply to Feadog/Oak/Generation, sometimes I refer to Gen/type/species (I don’t like Clare/Doolin brands and never tried Walton), see also the recent expensive/cheap thread about the tweaking of Feadogs re this.
A lot of what is said is usually parrotting things (the old quality control chestnut) or ‘breath gymnastics’ which was brought up by one but has seen a few repeats by others recently.
Ever noticed a lot of people mutter about tuning issues but gladly recommend tweaked ones (none of the tweaked whistles these days is adjusted for tuning) how much sense is there in that?
My comment was laid at nobody’s doorstep. Just a general observation but if you feel the need to defend then by all means…
I agree about the “tweaked” phenomena. I did try a tweaked Generation (since I’m not out to put down anyone’s craft, I will not say by who) and I did not like it enough to keep it. That was also the only Gen that I’ve had tuning issues with. The F# was so close to Fnat that I could not play along with other instruments and “Blowing it into tune” was not realistic. The only tweak I performed to my Gen was to gently file off a bit of flashing excess on the edge of the blade (not to dull it) and that got rid of it’s tendency to buzz slightly on the bell note and took away some scratchiness in the upper end of the second register. I have not since compared it to another Gen but I don’t feel the need to as I’m happy with the instrument I have.
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