Generation D

[sue_w_uk]

Hi all, It's been a whole week now since I bought my very first whistle and it's going well. It is a Clarke original and I love the sound, very flutey. I then found a sweet tone Clarke D so I bought that too and although it's a very different sound, I love this one too. Today, I bought a Generation D to see what kind of sound that makes and it's awful!! Question is, is it the whistle or is it me??? The first octave sounds fine but I can't get a decent note note from the second octave. Am I doing somthing wrong, are these whistles notoriously difficult or have I bought a dud
SUE

[StevieJ]

Question is, is it the whistle or is it me???

It's definitely you, Sue.

Just pulling your leg. A Generation that is working properly should be just as easy to play as a Clarke, so you probably have a dud. Welcome to the world of cheap whistles. In future, I would urge you never to buy any whistle without trying it first, or unless, in the case of mail order, you can return for a full refund no questions asked.

However, this won't help you in your present predicament, you can 1) take your courage in both hands and try fixing ("tweaking", in C&F-speak) the instrument. Lots of tips for doing this on the C&F main site. You might be able to save it, even get a very nice whistle out of it. Actually you have nothing to lose.

Or you can 2) do what everyone on the board will tell you to do and buy a different whistle. Something cheap, or moderately cheap, or moderately expensive, or ridiculously expensive. Just wait for the suggestions, they're on their way.

[AnnaDMartinez]

My first Generaion D tweeking was a total flop, dulled the blade by accident and boy was that bad. Got a second Generation D and ended up pulling the old fipple off the new tube and putting in the old one and stuffing a bit of sticky-tac in the fipple per instructions, and it's lovely! Then I bought a whole set, tweeked most of them, but can't get the fipple off the C or the E flat! LOL! Luckily, Generations are cheap, and if some spit monster destroys the old worn tube, I have another in reserve, if I don't give it to an obnoxious kids with really obnoxious parents. The newer Generation fipples don't have the manufacturing defects of the old ones!

[Eldarion]

Hey Sue, I think you've gotten a dud there. Use a cup of Hot water and remove the head of the whistle. There are some tweaking instructions you might like to follow at:

http://www.chiffandfipple.com/tweak.html

The "stuffing plasticine/putty down the empty space behind the windway" trick is pretty good for making the 2nd octave more playable.

I had this Generation Bb that had the same problem, it sounded very good in the 1st octave, but as it went onto the high notes of the 2nd octave, the whistle just gave these raspy *noises*. Placed some putty at the back of the windway, and problem solved. Hope you manage to salvage your whistle! Generation whistles are very nice sounding when they don't have problems.

And Anna, I've had some trouble with removing my Generation C head as well. You'ce really gotta be patient and let the glue dissolve in the hot water. Then wrap a few loops of rubber band over the mouthpiece and tube for extra grip then twist it a part. The "rubber band" trick has never failed me yet!

[thesackrat]

Just a quick trick to use if all else fails when you try removing fipples:

Hold the whistle over a (lit) 100 watt light bulb. Bring the area where the plastic covers the brass tube quite close to the bulb and rotate constantly. I'm talking around a 1/4 of an inch or so. And did I mention keeping the whistle rotating constantly? I do admit that this sounds a bit drastic but it does work. And did I mention _keeping the whistle rotating CONSTANTLY_?

This is not a joke and I have used this method several times to loosen difficult Generation fipples.