Chiff and Fipple Forums

Been lurkin around for a while but just wanted to put my penny-worth in.Have played many high end whistles and waited months on waiting lists for them to arrive but nothing is more satisfying than a tweaked freeman whistle in the post.Have now played many of his whistles at various sessions in the British Isles,just trying them out and all were great so went for the Mellowdog.
I am now hooked and the Blackbird is next!If your thinking about a Freeman whistle,just buy one,its the best purchase you will ever make!

Hi, Willy.

Thanks for the kind words, and welcome to Chiff&Fipple.

If you've been lurking awhile, you know these are nice folks around here.

Best wishes,
Jerry

Hey... new to the forums. I found this thread and just wanted to say that I just ordered my first Freeman tweaked! A brass Generation in Bb. It's on the way... I'll let you know what I think. I've been playing all susatos, high and low, thus far. Time to go metal.

Big thumbs up here too. Recently had the pleasure of playing one of Jerry's Blackbirds for a few tunes. Lovely. Very little pressure to get into the 2nd 8ve. Sings sweetly.

Right. Great whistles.

I'll add that my Mellow Dog is a great session whistle. Nice brassy traditional sound and just the right volume. I've worn the laquer off around the holes, but the sound is pure as ever.

Got my tweaked Gen Bb. Great whistle! I like it a lot more than my susato. I tweaked a bit to get it just right, pulled out the head a bit and enlarged the top 5 holes to bring everything into Susato-esque tune, but with true whistle TONE. I really love it; it's quite an addictive whistle to play. Hm, so does the Mellow Dog only come in D? I'll have to get that and a Tweaked Generation in C, I guess. Is the mellow dog more like a generation than a blackbird?

A Mellow Dog only comes in D. A Mellow Dog D/C set is a Mellow Dog whistlehead with two bodies, D and C. A Mellow Dog whistlehead on a C body is essentially the same whistle as a C Blackbird. Blackbirds come in Eb, D and C. You could get a tweaked C Generation or a key of C Blackbird.

Mellow Dogs and Blackbirds are both in the Generation family of voicing and handling, but there are differences. My intention has not been to make Generation substitutes, but rather, to make the best whistles I can devise according to my own tastes and those of the people who try them out and tell me what they like and don't like. That ends up being different in some respects to Generations, but in my opinion, true to the Generation tradition. Beyond that, I think you'll have to try them and make the comparison yourself.

Best wishes,
Jerry

Hello All,
Just wanted to join the love fest here, LOL. I recently received a tweaked Gen. in D. I've always wanted to try the Generation whistle, but was put off by the majority of people saying that production quality control can be a bit iffy. So I naturally thought a tweaked whistle was the safest way to go. I must say I do indeed like the sound of the whistle. Even in my novice hands it sounds good! I find myself practicing on this whistle alot more than on my Dixon trad (which is also a very nice whistle). For some reason it seems to be alot more forgiving of my rookie mistakes (which might be a bad thing in the longrun).
Anyway, just wanted to thank Jerry for his outstanding work on this whistle. Probably going to try another tweaked whistle in the future.
Cheers,

Upon the recommendations I saw on this thread, I picked up a Blackbird from Jerry a few days ago. I really dig it.

It requires a subtle breath control on the 1st octave which I am getting used to, but it has such a beautiful tone all up and down it I hardly notice. In fact I am able to play the C natural in the 2nd octave easily whereas I can't seem to hit it on my Burke for some silly reason.

I will probably have to check out his MellowDog next...

Cheers!

Matt

Thanks for the answer, Jerry. I also talked to you about this via email, it's Brendan.

Another question for you: if I find a very good stock generation, should I send that to you? Or do you typically only work with the better stock generations you find? Does the goodness of the stock generation affect the goodness of the tweak, or can you pretty much get them all to the same level? Just wondering, because I think I found a very good stock generation in a store near me. Just to make sure: what do you look for in a stock generation that qualifies it as especially good or bad?

I suppose I am preaching to the choir here but here goes anyway...

I've been using Freeman Tweaked whistles for going on six years now. I keep one in the upstars bathroom, one next to the computer, one in my office, one in my car and one in the dining room. My favorite is still the Gen D which I have concluded I like best because it's particular tone is audible to me in a loud session. It's not the volume per se but the tone, I hear it better and thus I feel I haver better control of my playing. I love the black bird for smaller sessions, practice and recording, but I find I tend to push it harder than it likes to be pushed at loud sessions.

Jerry's contribution to the whistle playing community, IMHO is second to none. His whistles make it afforable for anyone to obtian a solid consitent, reliable (and of course traditional sounding) instrument. I know some decent whistlers, I don't know any that don't have a Freeman Tweaked whistle.

I would also like to add from personal experience that Jerry is a first rate stand up guy too.

P

I was reminded by this thread that I'd still never bought one of Jerry's Mellow Dogs, so a few minutes ago I ordered both a D Mellow Dog and a C Blackbird. And here I thought that my flutes had cured my WhOA. Curse you, Jerry!

usfenderfsdlx wrote:Another question for you: if I find a very good stock generation, should I send that to you? Or do you typically only work with the better stock generations you find? Does the goodness of the stock generation affect the goodness of the tweak, or can you pretty much get them all to the same level? Just wondering, because I think I found a very good stock generation in a store near me. Just to make sure: what do you look for in a stock generation that qualifies it as especially good or bad?

Hi, Brendan.

No, there's no need to send me a good stock Generation. I do these in batches of up to 25 or so at a time, and I find I don't need to sort them beforehand. The tweaking scheme I use produces a very consistent result.

Best wishes,
Jerry

Ok, good to know. Thanks.