Okay, I know I'm at it again.... But what can you expect with W.H.O.A.D?

I am now interested in buying a Generation whistle.

Has anyone had any experiance with these? If so, how would you rate them?

I have also heard that with Generation whistles the nickel whistles are louder then the brass ones. Is this true?

All suggestions will be extremely appreciated. Thanks again!

You're pullin' our collective chain, right?

Generations are pretty much the standard of the industry for traditional Irish repertoire. Most players start on one. Many will play nothing but. We are all obligated to own a shoe box of them over time. Some swear by them; some swear at them. YMMV.

I'd say this is part of the Gen mythology. Believe what you will.

Feadoggie

Yah Corgi, search the board for Generation or Gen. Or just go buy a few stock Gens, or the whole set of six (around $50).


No. Or maybe yes. I mean ... no.

Pat D'Arcy is selling Gen D blue-tops for $10 locally. If you pick it up in person, he'll give you a whistle lesson. Which will ruin your playing for life. Don't say I didn't warn you ...

viewtopic.php?f=35&t=83010

You could search through all the many threads here about Generations... hours of reading, much of it very interesting.

Bottom line, Generations vary quite a bit from whistle to whistle, so to get one that you know will play well, get a Jerry Freeman "tweaked" one.

I've had Gens in all keys made for a good number of years, but my purchases are from quite a while ago; all positive especially terrific Bflats with both red and blue caps.

Saw a set of Gens in a whistle shop up here in Hudson - think they were $11 each, but I think the set may have had more than 6, I'll check it out.

Philo

Well, actually, that's not the bottom line. The bottom line is pretty much what's in dispute.

Bottom line, Generations vary quite a bit from whistler to whistler, so get to know one that you know will play well...

But for a new whistler who may not be sure whether he/she or the whistle is the issue, getting a tweaked one from Jerry does remove that (potential) aspect of the issue. Of course then there is no one to blame but the whistler....

I think that's the line of the year, honestly.


Close second.

my 2 votes:
-spend the extra $$ on a Freeman Tweaked Gen (no matter what key or material)
-i've owned both, and i personally prefer the brass

I was playing at an Irish session in a music store a couple of weeks ago, and a fiddler said
she wanted to learn whistle, so I took her to the whistles and we picked up a Gen D brass
and I played it. It was perfectly lovely, no squawking, gorgeous interesting
tone. She bought it. I went home and wept.

Way back in the day, somewhere around 2000 or 2001, I bought a box of generations and put them all up against my tuner. Many of them had big tuning deviations, using my most steady breath at the time. Some were way scratchy, some squawky, some lovely.

Of course, I'm just a guy, not a machine. And I only had been playing about 5 years at that time, so take that for what it's worth. Many older players have stories about the effort spent picking a "good un" (or tweaking, or getting one gifted to them), so I tend to believe that, at least at one point, there were rare gems to be found among a sea of non-impressive Generations.

That said, while I haven't had the luxury of buying a box of them lately, I've had a more favorable impression of the Generations that I've picked up in recent years. Has Generation quality control gotten better? Hard to say. Have I improved as a whistler in that time? Indubitoubly.

It's not as cut and dried an issue as I would prefer

When everything else in life seems chaotic and scary, I can always come back here and know this discussion will be going on.

Gens are great. Play 'em. If they seem bad, tweak 'em. If you mess 'em up, ditch 'em and buy more. Store the mangled carcasses in shoe boxes. Or buy one from Jerry. Gens are great.

How in the world does this question keep coming up? I'm one of the newer members and it seems I've seen this at least once a month. Although, maybe I should take the positive approach; it must mean that more people are taking up the whistle!

By now you've heard everything there is to know.
Let me sum up:

They are inconsistent. They are inexpensive. You can therefore, take a chance on "tweaking" one yourself using instructions on this site. And Jerry Freeman makes them sing better than you ever will if you're not technically inclined or don't want to bother. Just get a few and be sure to get at least one from Jerry. His Bb Gen is legendary IMO.

ecohawk

What I don't understand is this... I can buy a Gen whistle for under 10 bucks and a whole set of useful keys for under $50. And I should be satisfied, I should be set for life... But I'm not. I still want to buy very expensive whistles... Bob.