Dixon Trad - minor tuning glitch?

Whistle
1

Hello,

I wonder if I’m the only one who noticed that the Dixon Trad is slightly flat (approx. 15 cents), even when the mouthpiece is pushed all in. Perhaps it’s just mine? Not a big problem, it’s a great whistle anyway.
Anyone?

2

I like the Trad too! It´s addictive and fun to play and looks cool too! It´s true that the whistle is a wee bit flat, but you just pull it out a bit. More troublesome is that the C# is way to flat too. I opened up the C# whole so that is was in tune, but then the oxxooo grip, C natural, didn´t work at all (way too sharp!). I think Dixion are making very good whistles to a very comptetive price, but they are having problem with the intonation! If the people at Dixon could fix this problem they would have a winner.

3

It´s true that the whistle is a wee bit flat, but you just pull it out a bit.

Um… wouldn’t that make it flatter?

4

It´s true that the whistle is a wee bit flat, but you just pull it out a bit.

Um… wouldn’t that make it flatter?

5

Mine is not 15 cents flat when pushed in all the way. I can’t imagine these whistles, which are largely machined, would vary that much.

Any chance your tuner is off?

Eric

6

I have a two dixon trads, in Eb and D both nickel, and a tunable aluminum in D from a few years back.

I can get all of these to play in tune according to A=440 but both of the D models had the too flat C#.

For the aluminum one, I used a dremmel tool (because of the thicker side walls) to widen the C# hole just a tiny bit, about the width of a human hair. For the nickel I thought the dremmel would be overkill since there was so much less metal to remove. A small rat-tail file (available for about a buck in any decen hobby store) fixed the problem here.

The trick of reeming out this C# is to leave it just a bit flat. Go for diatonic tuning. (just intonation) The 7th should be just a bit flat. If you over do it and bring it into tune with a tuner then it will sound terrific on its own but make the crossfingered Cnat sharp and you will prpbably have to use the forked fingering OXXXOX to get it in tune.

Good Luck!