Jerry Freeman wrote:[...] perhaps having fewer distractions, a less helter skelter pace of life, less of a consumerist, "throwaway" culture, and perhaps also a certain character of national temperament, maybe with a greater ability to accept a certain amount of adversity in pursuing a goal.
Jerry, I love your work, but if playing an un-tweaked Gen gives you all that and tweaking is an easy way to avoid such "work" then I'll never buy a tweaked whistle again.
pkev wrote:Just for a comparison, I recorded a jig "Banish Misfortune" and posted on clips and snips a few weeks back using a `Bb Generation`. Just to give folks an idea of the sound if interested. I personally didn't think there was anything wrong with the sound.
Cheers
pkev
I was referring to the Generation D whistles specifically. I don't have a problem with the G, F, or Bb. I love my Bb!
And the F as well. In brass, or mine is. Such a sweet sounding whistle, though the middle F is a bit weak sounding, the rest of the notes are beautiful. If I could have a Generation D that sounds like that, I'll take it. It's funny though, how such a key as F, sounds so good, yet I rarely, Rarely play it...
Well, I just got my Generation D in brass from the Whistle Shop. I must say, I do like it's playability. Very responsive, and also has that chiff like the Feadogs I have.
However, I haven't tweaked it yet, and it is a little raspy in the second register. And the bell note does buzz a little. Although looking through the fipple, I can see it needs a clean up job a bit. Though I'm no expert in making whistles go from okay to marvelous, I usually just clear out the windway and such, and do the sticky tack treatment. Basic tweak. So, we'll see how it goes.
But I really like the playability of it. Very nice. Thats something I could get used to. If I could just make the raspiness go away!
Well so far, the only thing I've done to my Generation, was pull out a string of plastic about the diameter of a dime, and fill in the cavity under the windway. Seems to have helped the raspiness some, but hasn't remedied it. Of the notes that do sound pleasing, I enjoy it. Especially as I said the playability in it. Although I can't lean into the bell note on it like I can a Feadog, or Clarke.
Although I favor Generations myself I'll admit they can be a bit tricky to play at times, especially the nickle plated ones. Sweetone's are easier to produce a solid tone on at first but do not go into upper octaves nearly as well as Generations.
Jason Paul wrote:To me, the Meg and Sweetone sound pretty much the same. The tone is very breathy compared to the Generation. Many people like it though. It's an easy whistle to play, but it can sound a little toy-like in the lower register.
I'd only disagree with the "a little" in the last sentence. SweeTones sound toy-like in the lower register, period.
Specifically, what bothers me is the unfocused pitch of the notes in that register...not as in "you need careful breath control to keep this whistle in tune," but as in "it produces a range of tones somewhere around the desired note, but never manages to focus on the note itself."
MacNeil wrote:Specifically, what bothers me is the unfocused pitch of the notes in that register...not as in "you need careful breath control to keep this whistle in tune," but as in "it produces a range of tones somewhere around the desired note, but never manages to focus on the note itself."
What? My SweeTones are the only whistles (of the many that I own)
that don't need careful breath control to keep in tune!
It's almost like the dynamics you get between Mac and PC people (just before the knives come out).
I no longer have a Gen D .. well I do, but I've tweaked it to death. I have access to an enormous quantity of them, but...
I have 3 whistles I like to play, mainly because I own them, a syn C/D set and a feadog with minimal tweaknesses and a meg. Here's something that I've noticed.
With the Feadog (very much of the Gen school of whistlery) when playing at sessions, it seems kind of quiet, but when people tune-in and stop chatting, noodling and general rhubarbing there's a kind of whoosh as the notes reach the back-wall. There's something in the character of the sound that makes a space for itself. The gen was the same before I killed it. My meg can't do that. The syn crushes all resistance anyway - so it don't count.
I like the Clare's, to my (untrained) ears they have the same sweet sound as the Generations, and I always found them easier to play in both octaves and are in tune (it could also just be that I have been lucky with the Clare's).
As for the Clarke, I never really liked the sound nor did my hands like the shape...
PS. I accidentaly sat on my Gen D the other day, and didn't shed a tear... Only now I'm afraid of doing the same to my beloved Clare...
PPS. Though, the Clare's are a bit more expensive (I think it is double that of a Gen) than the Generations/Sweetones/Feadogs, so I dunno if they count here
It's funny though, how such a key as F, sounds so good, yet I rarely, Rarely play it...
The clarke originals are nicer after they've been tweaked.