guitarman wrote:
Fancypiper, I have a dead sounding Gen C and a Feadog D I'd like to get a couple of his heads for, but I'm confused about what the difference is between his white and black heads etc. (Not very clear on his site) If you know, what is the difference?
It's hard to explain. I have owned two Generation C brass tubes, one with a blacktop (lost) and the other a whitecap. The blacktop was my favorite C whistle.
The blacktop seemed to have a bit more of a husky sound than the whitetop. The whitetop seems to have a more "pure" tone.
Another interesting whistle is the Every Whistle by Park Whistles, but I have only tried the D whistle. I'm not positive that he makes a Bb, though.
I see you have come down with a severe case of WHOA!!!!! They will be calling you guitar and whistle man soon!!!
Enjoy...(ps...I just got a Jerry Freeman tweaked Bb Generation last night---joined to the collection!!) WHOA is something you do not recover!!!! Just to let you know!
I can't wait to try it out on some Xmas music...I'll bet O Holy Night rocks with that whistle! Just waiting for work to be done..and on to whistle practice!!!!
B flat is one of my very favorite keys of whistle. I have a Burke and a Reyburn as well as a couple Generations. For the money, the Generations whistles are really quite good. Of the three, I like the way the Generation plays the best actually - as far as backpressure goes anyway. I like the tone of the Burke best. The Reyburn is the loudest. It's LOUD for a B flat whistle. It has very, very low backpressure though, so I tend to take breaths a little more frequently. ETA: The Reyburn is also the chiffiest of the bunch and has some very sort of "gravelly" tonal qualities.
Double-secret-ninja ETA: I should also mention that of the three, the Burke is easily the most "stable" of the three. It just does whatever you want it to do when you want it to do it. The Reyburn I find I have to stay more on top of with regard to things like octave changes & such. The Generations can be a bit finicky like that too.
That is a really cool comparission video of the Bb's you did Buckeye! Just listening, it sounds like the Generation sounds the best. But I know what you mean about the Burkes- I have 2 already and just ordered a brass Bb yesterday.I know I will like it. But I'm also willing to bet the John Sindt Bb may be a little sharper and louder in tone- so that it may be able to "cut through the mix" a little bit better. I really don't have any way of knowing this, but I hope so, because I ordered John's A/Bb set- arriving in May.
You're a lucky duck, Nancy! You already have your Generation Bb! How does it sound? Did you get the Freeman tweaked one?
Yes, I think you nailed it- I must have Whistle Acquisition Obsession Addiction (Is that what you call it- WAOA?) From a musical perspective though, it only makes sense when you hear a truly wonderful combination, like my style of acoustic guitar with the Irish whistle. (I went through a very similar phase a long time ago when I found out I could learn to play the harmonica with my guitar- another great combination. I now have a bunch of those little things around here- in many different keys.)
From what you said Fancypiper, do you mean that the huskier Black heads have more of the raspy, chiffy sound, but the White heads have more pure tone with less volume? If this is true, I may get some white heads for my dead whistles from Mack Hoover- who emailed me today. I asked him too but I'm still not clear on it. I guess I like tone more than rasp etc. Thanks for elaborating!
It would really be neat to get my hands on a Water Weasel, but It looks like they're not being made anymore and right now a Glen Schultz D w/case is going for $525 on ebay- wow!
