Generations have long been considered the standard whistle for Irish traditional music. However, they are inexpensively mass produced, and there are issues both with variability from one to the next, and with details that are compromised due to injection molding's limitations. Further, in the early 1980's, Generation replaced their old injection molding tooling, and the voicing changed somewhat. The vintage, pre-1980's voicing is considered superior, and existing examples of good pre-1980's Generations are sought after and prized. It's been the habit of devoted players to routinely try every Generation whistle in every music store they visit hoping to find that once-in-decades "perfect" Generation. Similarly, there has been a long tradition of tweaking to correct the shortcomings and optimize the voicing and handling. Freeman tweaked Generations are expertly adjusted to produce a remarkably clean playing, beautiful sounding, well in tune instrument that's well balanced throughout both registers. Freeman tweaked Generations are fully tunable, with the whistlehead moveable on the tonebody to raise or lower the pitch as needed. To make a bluebird, Freeman tweaks a Nickel Generation to sound more like a Blackbird: sweet, pure, and birdlike. The whistle still retains the playability of a Generation, though, which makes it more forgiving when it comes to breath-control. For this reason, it is an ideal instrument for a beginner still learning breath control who prefers the pure tone of a Blackbird over the warmer, fuller Generation tone.
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