Chiff and Fipple Forums

I have learned the following about Generation whistles from, as they say, a very reliable source.

1. Barnes and Mullins is no longer making the Generation whistles. They are now being made by what I gather to be a new company, Generation Music. I do not yet have contact information.

2. A well known whistle-maker is working with the new Generation makers on some re-design work. These design changes, about which I do not know details, have been implemented in the Bb instrument.

3. Over the next year or so, their other keys will be evaluated and re-designed.

Forty years ago we put men on the moon. Today? Can't do it.

Sixty years ago we made cheap decent whistles. Today? We need a couple of years of research, engineering and prototyping.

Sheesh, these engineers must know something I don't.

I smell a surge of Bb sales coming on...

crookedtune wrote:Forty years ago we put men on the moon.

I'm not sure that many people believe that anymore!

DreamOgreen wrote:I smell a surge of Bb sales coming on...

Yikes, you're right! I'll get my order in tomorrow.

Well, I'm holding off on my Bb order. I don't know how long they've been making them with the changes and it takes a while, I should think, for these new ones to work their way through the distribution chain.

Ironically, although my personal experience was that the quality control problem was notable in the Ds, I NEVER had a problem with a Bb.

Dale

The Bb's have always been the friendliest Generations to me, with the D/Eb's being the most erratic. I must say that I consider a Generation Bb directly off the shelf to be a wonderful whistle and am very excited to see if this new one can be any better.

No problemo,-Myself and Jerry Freeman will tweak those new Generations into sounding just like the current ones.

Dale wrote:I have learned the following about Generation whistles from, as they say, a very reliable source.

1. Barnes and Mullins is no longer making the Generation whistles. They are now being made by what I gather to be a new company, Generation Music. I do not yet have contact information.

2. A well known whistle-maker is working with the new Generation makers on some re-design work. These design changes, about which I do not know details, have been implemented in the Bb instrument.

3. Over the next year or so, their other keys will be evaluated and re-designed.

See what happens when the board picks on Generation? You big meanies!

emtor wrote:No problemo,-Myself and Jerry Freeman will tweak those new Generations into sounding just like the current ones.

Adrian wrote:

crookedtune wrote:Forty years ago we put men on the moon.

I'm not sure that many people believe that anymore!

[sarcasm]Ummm, right.[/sarcasm]

Here’s hoping that the only change for the D is for the head to not be glued on. Do that for all the whistles, remove the “hiss” from all the ones that have it (Bb and C are the ones of mine that do this, don’t know about keys Eb-G) and it’ll be all good.

crookedtune wrote:Forty years ago we put men on the moon. Today? Can't do it.

Sixty years ago we made cheap decent whistles. Today? We need a couple of years of research, engineering and prototyping.

Sheesh, these engineers must know something I don't.

For all we know, they might simply be working on a return to the old design and on ways of ensuring more consistency without individual attention to each whistle. Presumably Generation know that they have a product which inspires brand loyalty and wouldn't want to lose that. Presumably, whoever is making suggestions and doing measurements for them also has a regular job. (Michael Copeland worked on the Sweetone.)

If I owned the company, I'd want to improve consistency but not at the cost of losing my regular customers. So I wouldn't be making any binding decisions in a great hurry.

Yeah, but how could WHATEVER they're doing require a year of research? They're whistles! Personally, I like the Gens (with a tweak). I hope they don't do something weird to 'em.

Uh oh. I'd better go out and buy a handful of the current ones in case they change them for the worse. I'll need enough to last me until I die, I guess, just in case.

It doesn't really matter to me because with the exception of my Bb, I don't play them as they come anyway. As long as I'm putting a tweak on all of mine now, I might as well continue doing so.