Jerry Freeman wrote:I don't have proof, but I'm fairly certain Generation whistleheads are ABS, not polystyrene.
Bear in mind, ABS plastic is a mixture of acrylonitril, butadiene and styrene monomers, and the proportions vary according to the properties desired in the finished product. I wouldn't be surprised if the plastic Generation uses contains more styrene than the plastics Feadog, Waltons, etc. use. I would guess that styrene is the cheapest of the three resins used in ABS plastic and cheaper plastic will contain more of it.
This is interesting... I measured the density of all of my whistles' heads empirically, and though my volume measurements are not the most accurate, they are reasonably consistent amongst the 7 new Gens I checked, so they can't be that bad. Generations (the new ones) were all 1.01-1.02, Oak and Feadog very very slightly denser at 1.02-1.03, Waltons significantly denser at 1.06-1.07, and Clarke's Meg (I couldn't get the heads off my Sweetones, which are good enough that I don't want to risk breaking them) was denser still, at 1.09. Clarke mentions on their site that they use an ABS-polycarbonate blend, for which my measurement fits. The densities I've seen for polystyrene and ABS vary, especially for ABS (as you point out, it's a blend, the proportions of which can vary), but polystyrene is usually in the 1.01-1.02 range, and ABS slightly higher; the Waltons material is just at the upper limit of that range.
I wasn't able to get a good measurement of my (very nice) pre-1980s Gen, though, as after making its head removable, a certain professional whistle-tweaker had very kindly put a brass ring on it to keep it from splitting. That throws off the mass measurements, but I'm content to live with an unknown in this case...!