Chiff and Fipple Forums

I just the other day bought myself a simple system keyless flute & piccolo, (Tony Dixon's finest cheapies ).

I'm getting the feel of the piccolo, & my mind turned to thinking about trying out a whistle, (or two).

So I just ordered up my first whistles, Generation Nickel in high C & D - anyone like these instruments, are they any good?

fatmac wrote:So I just ordered up my first whistles, Generation Nickel in high C & D - anyone like these instruments, are they any good?

I'm still playing the Generation whistles I bought in the 1970's; have yet to find any I like better. I for one don't think you have to spend a lot of money to get a decent sounding, enjoyable whistle.

People report that the modern ones can be a bit of a crap shoot, whether you get a good one or not.

Thanks for your comments - quality has likely gone downhill since the 70s, but if they are reasonable & playable, at the price, I won't complain.

Let me first say from the start I'm certainly no expert, I've been playing whistle about two and a half years and can only comment on my own experience. I've bought a few Generation whistles since I started and the quality does seem to vary between them. I have a nickel B flat which is a great whistle, but my C also nickel is nowhere near as good. When we first begin I think we sometimes fall into the trap of hearing a good player on YouTube playing a Generation whistle so we buy one only to find we don't sound like that then blame the whistle, when really all that's needed is some serious practice time. To my ears a good Generation whistle sounds wonderful so I think you made a good choice. If after a month or two you find they really don't sound the way you would like them to then maybe think about a Tony Dixon. The Dixon non-tuneable polymer D would cost about the same price as two Generation D whistles so that's probably a better bet that buying a few Generations waiting to get a really good one.

Please take my reply at a discount since I'm a beginner.

I have three different D generations, and they all sound a play differently even though they look identical to casual inspection. I found them frustrating at first because it was hard to tell what was my fault and and was the fault of the whistle. I bought a "tweaked" Feadog from Jerry Freeman and a Killarney whistle, which was about 8 times more expensive than the Generations, and both of those were much much more enjoyable to play--more consistent, more predictable, more in tune and just easier, giving me a much clearer sense of what i was doing wrong.

I've since messed about with the Generations, doing things like back filling the cavity under the "beak" and lightly sanding and smoothing the airway, and that's made a difference, but more important I'm a better player, so if I pick one up now I feel like "oh I can work with that." But I still prefer the Killarney whistles by a lot. It's maybe like any tool: if you have the skills you can make almost any tool work, but some tools are easier and more pleasant to use than others.

I think for me, learning in isolation, it was much easier to remove the variable of the inconsistent Generation whistles. If I was around other players, I might have just stuck with the inexpensive whistle.

Yes, I think it's like any other instrument, once you get the feel of them, you can work with what you've got, I'm not a total newbie to music, but I am to these little whistles, (also my keyless flute & piccolo in another thread), & I just wanted to get a sense of proportion about where they lie in regard to the general consensus.

Thanks for your comments.

One good thing about cheap whistle is that there’s not much of a loss if you destroy it trying to tweak it. I’ve ruined a few, but my most recent tweak is my favorite for home practicing. Quiet, and more pure than any other whistle I have. It has a red 0.50 pick glued where the blade is.

I just wanted to get a sense of proportion about where they lie in regard to the general consensus.

And do you feel that's what you got here?

Yes, I think so - they're cheap but playable, & so not a waste of money.

Well, I got a bit carried away with the prices being what they are - one of my online music shops had a couple of high D whistles, a Feadog & a Generation brass on offer cheap - so I put in an order with them for a set of (6) Generation Nickel Whistles & those other two high D that they had - & they still cost me less than one of my diatonic harmonicas.

They arrived this morning, (along with a book of 'Irish' tunes, actually a bit of a mixture), so I gave them a little blow.........& I quite like them.

So, if there's anyone reading this thread, wondering whether to jump in or not, I'll just say "Go for it!"

Buying sight unseen is really not a way I'd recommend, especially since the injection molding of Generation has deteriorated so much in recent years.

I was in the Traditional music shop in Doolin a few weeks ago to have a chat with the owner. There were five or six Generations left, I tried one and the owner immediately shot at the first note 'that one is hoarse'. It was and so was the rest of them, there wasn't one I'd care to play. Similar for a few of green tops I tried in Custy's recently. Not nice, although if I had tried them all, I may (or may not) have found a decent one.

A Feadóg pro I bought some time ago, online from the Feadóg website, was a bad one too. I have put a different head on it and binned the one it came with. You take your chances when buying without trying, be it cheap or otherwise.

That said, some of my favourite and easiest playing whistles are Generations, hard to beat a nice one for sound and ease of playing.

fatmac wrote:Well, I got a bit carried away with the prices being what they are - one of my online music shops had a couple of high D whistles, a Feadog & a Generation brass on offer cheap - so I put in an order with them for a set of (6) Generation Nickel Whistles & those other two high D that they had - & they still cost me less than one of my diatonic harmonicas.

They arrived this morning, (along with a book of 'Irish' tunes, actually a bit of a mixture), so I gave them a little blow.........& I quite like them.

So, if there's anyone reading this thread, wondering whether to jump in or not, I'll just say "Go for it!"

Good luck and enjoyment to you! One of the great things about whistles is even the most expensive whistles are cheap compared to other instruments, and we have abundant evidence that great music can be made on a ten dollar whistle

Re buying sight unseen - I'm afraid that is my only choice - there just aren't any music shops around where I live, except for one guitar store, with very expensive stock!
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Thanks, PB+J - & yes, good music is more about the player, but a nice instrument makes you feel good too.
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The whistles I received seem to be fairly good to my ear, so just got to get used to where all the notes are.

As I've said before when I started out the only high D whistles available were Generations.

They varied tremendously, from ones that only made harsh squeaking noises to ones that IMHO played better than any whistle made before or since at any price.

So what all of us did was to play every Generation we could get our hands on, and buy the best one we could. It was a never-ending quest for the Ultimate Whistle.

So today in my roll are Generations in A, Bb, B, C, C#, and Eb. (D is held by an old Feadog.) I've tried Sindts and every other modern whistle I can get my hands on but the Generations can't be beat IMHO.

I recently acquired several old Generations from the family of a local musician who passed away. They're very nice. No tweaking has been done, they're excellent as they are.

lo and behold I was rooting in a drawer today down in my daughter's domain (she's 13) and found a very old Generation in D. It has the ridged mouthpiece and round mold mark the the internet tells me marks the pre-1980s generations. As you can see it's suffered at the hands of toothy and sticky children. I have no memory of how it came to be in the house. My oldest child is 27, so it must date from my childhood

As I've been lead to expect, it's quieter than my other whistles, takes very little breath, and has quite a sweet tone. The mouth end of the windway is pretty large, but other end is significantly more narrow.