I recently bought a Generation Nickel D whistle off Amazon, which I'm considering sending back. (I've read they're really variable in quality, which is why I got it off Amazon in the first place). I had been playing my boyfriend's Clarke Meg D whistle, but wanted another one as the Clarke was about half a tone flat of concert pitch and was out of tune with itself in the high octave. The Generation whistle seems perfectly in tune and has a nice sound, but often (it seems to be variable and change its mind quite a lot about whether it wants to be played or not!) the higher notes seem to require a lot of breath, and I find it difficult to hit them and get them to sound good and not raspy/squeaky/overly metallic.
I'm at a loss as to whether this is to do with the whistle or my lack of skill. I've been playing the tin whistle for about 10 years and the D whistle I've used before is a brass Generation belonging to my family, which I don't experience the same difficulty with. I also have a low G Dixon whistle which I actually find easier to play than the nickel Generation. I can get a nice tone out of my new whistle in the high register, but I have to really work at it/it's hit and miss. The high G particularly is difficult to hit out of nowhere, and the high D to a lesser extent – they often seem to come through as weird inbetween notes that have a bit of the low and high octave in them (not sure how else to explain it). I've tried things like readjusting my fingers and pursing my lips more/less, but it seems hard to just pick it up and play it without hitting a wrong note.
One thing I've noticed is that the nickel whistle has a very loud and powerful tone (which is really useful in some situations) and I think this is probably linked to it being hard to play (the Clarke is a lot quieter and also a lot easier to play). I found this page from searching and my whistle usually sounds somewhere inbetween the two versions on the clip. But it definitely doesn't fit the criteria of "a whistle without much resistance [that] plays easily into the third octave".
I'm wondering what everyone else's experiences are with the Generation D Nickel whistles – if you find they usually require really hard blowing in comparison to the brass ones? Basically, if I know that it's just the price you pay for the loud and powerful tone, I'm happy to work at it since I like the sound of the whistle when it plays right (and I'd like to improve my whistle breathing technique anyway) but the fact that it's more difficult to play than most other whistles I've played makes me wonder if it's silly to persevere. XD
Sorry for the long and convoluted post, and thanks in advance for any replies!
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