I’ve been playing a Dixon Trad (brass body, Delrin head) for around a year. In that time, it seems like the tone’s gotten huskier and shriller. It still sounds okay, but I’d rather have a more pure, focused tone. How can I take it that direction?
The whistle has already been tweaked by filling under the windway with beeswax. There’s some minor scratches/divots on the blade, and maybe a bit of debris in the corners of the windway. Are these what’s causing the problem? How do I remove them? Any other tweaks I could try?
Thanks in advance!
[THREAD REVIVAL - MOD]
For some reason your post buried itself on the 600th something page of the forum, so I’m bumping this back to the front page in order to generate some responses. Weird how that happened.
In my limited knowledge, one of the first things you could try would be to clean out the tube to possibly remove buildup. But as I said, my knowledge is limited. Hopefully someone else is a bit more insightful
Dixon supply the Trad head in packs of two as spare item.
If you nicked the blade, there isn’t a great deal you can do to restore it to exactly how it was, but I would say that could certainly contribute to the issue. Also, a whistle will start doing this if it needs the windway cleaned out (which you should also avoid scratching). If there is visible buildup, then I’d remove that first and foremost, as even buildup that is not readily visible can change the tone and playability.
… because it was over a year old.
Ah, the time does just fly by when whistling…
Best wishes.
Steve
Oh man! I was cruising through the forum and misread it as 2016, not '15! My bad. Newbie alert 
That’s answers why it was so far back! Haha.
It’s a fine line though Mike; as a long time browser I’ve often seen posters rebuked for starting a new thread, then strongly advised to use the ‘Search’ function where they will find numerous threads on the subject in hand. Or someone bumps an old thread like you’ve done and .. well you know the rest from here.
I wonder why this thread didn’t evoke any response a year ago, I would have thought someone would have had some input?
Any chance you could send a closeup picture of the scratches and divots on the blade? It doesn’t take much in that area to significantly change the character and tone of a whistle. Debris in the windway could certainly have an effect. I’d try soaking the Delrin head in warm soapy water for a few yours and then try to push out the schmutz with a piece of thin cardboard eg a slice of a business card.
Very much, I’ve posted another thread (‘Adjusting The Blade’) about an iffy blade on a Kerry Pro low D, I sanded out a couple of chips on the blade and smoothed out the scratches .. wow totally different whistle.
As I’ve posted further up the page, Dixon sell the Trad head as a spare item so is it worth the effort of trying to sort out a damaged one? I know I’ve put some work into improving my Kerry, but that’s an expensive hand made instrument and changing the head isn’t an option.