Mary Bergin and Gen whistles, dude.

[AlonE]

Is obviously that Mary Bergin loved Generation whistles, but, she play a "Tweaked Generation" or normal generation?

[anniemcu]

The only reasonable conclusion to the question of the worth of a whistle is that in the hands of a great player, even the lowliest of whistles will sound great, and in the hands of the least capable player, even the best whistle in the world will sound pretty bad. Better to work on the playing than to argue the worth of a whistle.

[s1m0n]

Neither; I suspect Mary was doing what everyone did back then: gleaning the one great gen out of a stack of so-so and more or less unplayable generation.

[pancelticpiper]

I would add one extra step: yes, pick out that rare top-notch Generation from all the poor and mediocre ones, but next, do whatever it takes to make it perfect. Carve a hole or two, pack the head. I don't know if she did these things, but most people I know did back then.

[free-feet]

Or maybe she just had the old style gens which were better whistles than the new ones. Just like the MK1 Feadog head is far superior to the ones that followed it (MK1 tubes were crap but the heads come of easily and fit most standard tubes - i have mine on a Gen Eb tube and it's a delightful whistle without any tweaking on the head). I also have an old style Gen Eb, and it's much nicer than any contemporary Gen i've played - and i've played a few.

[emtor]

I've got an old bluetop D and an all-metal vintage D, lovely whistles both of them and much better than the present models.

[swizzlestick]

It is my understanding that Mary Bergin plays several brands of whistles these days. I am sure she continues to play Generations. And I am equally sure that all these whistles sound great in her hands.

[jim stone]

I think she's now playing a sindt

[anniemcu]

She certainly became famous, and well earned it, with Generations. As did others.

[Guinness]

[did] she play a "Tweaked Generation" or normal generation?

Yes.

[Bothrops]

[did] she play a "Tweaked Generation" or normal generation?

Yes.

That's just fine, but maybe he wanted to ask: "Does she play a "Tweaked Generation or a normal Generation?". It's another possibility.
By the way, in the title: "Mary Bergin and Gen whistles, dude".. it's not "dude", but "doubt". In spanish doubt = duda. He made a mistake!

Now, answering the main question.. I don't know, but I think that she plays un-tweaked Generations (it's just a supposition).

[s1m0n]

Or maybe she just had the old style gens which were better whistles than the new ones.

I haven't bought any of the new gens, but the old ones were *highly* variable in quality, and I greatly doubt that the new ones are worse.

More likely to my mind is that the forces of musical evolution over the years have kept you from running into many of the really bad old gens; those were thrown out, stuck in a drawer and forgotten, or tweaked into better health or complete destruction. leaving only the better ones and the fixed ones in circulation today.

[MTGuru]

Can someone here ring her and ask? I'm serious. It's not as if she's really past tense, despite the question. Or lives in a cave (well OK, I'm not positive about that).

This 1999 interview from the Irish Times via IRTRAD-L probably goes most of the way to answering the question:

She showed me her own instruments in a little wooden box like a backgammon case: an endearing and unheroic looking jumble of English-made Generation whistles, or whistles made by John Sindt, Pat O'Riordan and Michael Copeland, and one wooden one with three metal keys, found on a dusty shelf in the old nearby gate lodge of Lord Killanin, where she lived for a decade.

The whistles looked injured, with tape pasted over parts of the holes "to bring them into tune with themselves". She laughed. "That's my career in a box, look at the state of it. I'm as bad as Tommy Peoples going round to the Church Street sessions with a fiddle in a brown paper bag at one stage."

So s1m0n and pancelt are basically right. Selected then tweaked - by her. The way it was done then. And still done now.

[AlonE]

Can someone here ring her and ask? I'm serious. It's not as if she's really past tense, despite the question. Or lives in a cave (well OK, I'm not positive about that).

This 1999 interview from the Irish Times via IRTRAD-L probably goes most of the way to answering the question:

She showed me her own instruments in a little wooden box like a backgammon case: an endearing and unheroic looking jumble of English-made Generation whistles, or whistles made by John Sindt, Pat O'Riordan and Michael Copeland, and one wooden one with three metal keys, found on a dusty shelf in the old nearby gate lodge of Lord Killanin, where she lived for a decade.

The whistles looked injured, with tape pasted over parts of the holes "to bring them into tune with themselves". She laughed. "That's my career in a box, look at the state of it. I'm as bad as Tommy Peoples going round to the Church Street sessions with a fiddle in a brown paper bag at one stage."

So s1m0n and pancelt are basically right. Selected then tweaked - by her. The way it was done then. And still done now.

WOW!! MTguru you are my Hero!!!!!!!


Thanks!!

[anniemcu]

... This 1999 interview from the Irish Times via IRTRAD-L probably goes most of the way to answering the question:

She showed me her own instruments in a little wooden box like a backgammon case: an endearing and unheroic looking jumble of English-made Generation whistles, or whistles made by John Sindt, Pat O'Riordan and Michael Copeland, and one wooden one with three metal keys, found on a dusty shelf in the old nearby gate lodge of Lord Killanin, where she lived for a decade.

The whistles looked injured, with tape pasted over parts of the holes "to bring them into tune with themselves". She laughed. "That's my career in a box, look at the state of it. I'm as bad as Tommy Peoples going round to the Church Street sessions with a fiddle in a brown paper bag at one stage."

So s1m0n and pancelt are basically right. Selected then tweaked - by her. The way it was done then. And still done now.

Excellent! Thanks MT!