i’ve been following some recent discussions with interest. as some of you may know, i’m utterly enamored with my new sweetheart D ‘professional’ ($135), made from a high quality laminate. however, i’d be interested in a medium priced good sounding whistle as a knockaround. theoretically, i would expect this laminate to be not too different from plastic for care purposes, but i’m babying it. it seems the most likely choices are dixon and susato, and i’ve never played a dixon, so i’m soliciting opinions.
fyi, i started (and stayed) with generations ( i’ve got my D in excellent pitch) and in the last few years have come to like sweetones–but the sweetheart has me totally spoiled for cheaper whistles now. i have a susato that i’m not crazy about because of the high wind requirement and shrillness in the top range. i like my son’s plastic weasel, but have the same objection, as well as lack of flexibility re C natural–but i like it better than the wood weasels i’ve tried. i know those are more expensive, but i offer my opinion so any posters will have an idea of my tastes.
go for the dixon, sounds sweeter…on the other hand I’ve heard good things 'bout the vsb (very small bore) susato.
good luck 
There are probably 20 threads that address this topic. The best thing to do is search with that little button up in the right hand corner that says Search. You may have to put a few different combinations of keywords to get a good match but it doesn’t take long and there are literally hundreds of posts on this matter. Literally.
Good luck.
Or, if you have a fast connection, you can just page through the boards and look at the subject lines. Most of the threads about this have the words Dixon and Sausato in the subject line.
I have a Dixon, but no experience w/ Susatos. It is definitely not shrill, although it is what I consider penetrating in the high upper register. I have a Generation F which I do consider to be shrill–I should wear earplugs when playing it, as protection!
I really like the Dixon, although I prefer the Sweetone or Meg for faster tunes. The Dixon plays them fine, but it is more suited the more soulful, melodic stuff, airs and so on. Someone here said they didn’t like the intonation across the registers. I think it can be blown sharp or flat if you don’t really concentrate on what you are doing in this area. The Cnat OXXOOO is a little muffled sounding, I’ve played around with some cross fingerings and 0XX00X seems best in tune on my particular whistle. Middle D can be played either OXXXXX or XXXXXX, with only a little difference in tone; this is really convenient for me.
The whistle has a high-quality feel to it, and the body resonates nicely when it’s warmed up, if you know what I mean. It feels very intimate to play.
Nuff said?
Robin
I don’t have a Susato VSB…just a standard Dublin. It’s a nice whistle if you don’t mind the volume (especially in the upper register…yow!). It does take more breath to get that upper register too…more than any other whistle I own. That said, however, it has a pure tone, is well in tune, is unusually easy to half-hole, and definitely is assertive enough to make itself heard in most situations.
That said, I much prefer my recently acquired Dixon (with the brass tuning slide). It’s not as loud as the Susato, but it’s got more volume to offer than just about any other whistle in my “stable.” It really has a pretty voice too (which is why its nickname is “Blackbird”). It’s an easy playing whistle (takes a lot less concentration and effort to maintain that upper register, for example), and I find the mouthpiece a bit more comfortable than the one on the Dublin.
Redwolf
On a scale of 1-10, Dixon 8, Susato VSB 7, Oak or Acorn 6.
Why people spend a fortune on a tuneable Dixon is beyond me. The “untunable” is in tune and is $16. How many out-of-tune people do you play with?
The Oak/Acorn is very cheap and not shrill. Great for the glove box.
thanks for the opinions–they were all helpful. sorry about the thoughtlessness in neglecting the search function. just not thinking.
On 2003-03-01 13:25, elliott wrote:
On a scale of 1-10, Dixon 8, Susato VSB 7, Oak or Acorn 6.Why people spend a fortune on a tuneable Dixon is beyond me. The “untunable” is in tune and is $16. How many out-of-tune people do you play with?
The Oak/Acorn is very cheap and not shrill. Great for the glove box.
You don’t have to spend a fortune to get a tuneable Dixon. The standard tuneable (without the brass slide) is only $26, if I recall correctly…hardly a fortune, and a nice option to have.
I play with singers occasionally (children), so tuneability is a nice option for me.
Redwolf
I’ll join the chorus about the Dixon, which I far and away prefer over the Susatos I have. The tone is superlative.
~Larry
sorry, no cool avatar. my new dixon tunable should come tomorrow–sounds like what i’m looking for in a backup. i got an interesting email from ralph sweet yesterday. he confirmed that the new pro D was developed with the hope that it would require no oil and would be impervious to humidity and other moisture. the wood laminate material is essentially a plastic. kinda cool. thanks to all for the advice.
I heard a Dixon this past weekend and I have to say it sounded wonderful. I think I’d pick it over my Sausato.
I’m going to be getting a Dixon High D ‘Duo’ sometime within this week or the beginning of the next, and as I already have a Susato (Kildare Tuneable Sop. D in Black), how about I give you a review??
i just tried my new dixon D tuneable. i certainly agree with everyone that, for the money, the tone is superlative. i also find it very agreeable to play, in general–but it has a few quirks. one is the C natural. i find that the only acceptably in tune version i can play is oxoooo, or oxxooo. i’m used to using oxxxox alot, because it gives me good grace notes, trills, etc. so this one is something like a weasel. the other odd thing about this whistle is that, measured on my electronic tuner, it’s significantly sharp in the second octave–actually beginning at b and getting really sharp the higher you go. odd. to say the least, i wasn’t expecting that. i thought it’d be slightly flight like a generation, if there were to be any tuning problem. that’s a shame for such a pleasant playing and sounding whistle.
Try trading with Geek4music. His whistle is flat in the second octave.
bloomfield, can whistles be crossbred? or hybridized? reminds me of an old gag in punch. a photograph of two automobiles up to their windows in water, captioned: two autos mating in a pond. if we could cross mine with geek4music’s we’d have one hell of a whistle. seriously, though, this does point to a quality control problem. my tuner isn’t wrong, and i compared it at some length with my other whistles, using the tuner as a control–same results every time. and as i say, the tone is outstanding. oh well.
Maybe they could just trade bodie, and see what happens! 
R.
Lots, especially if you play along with recordings, or other people with non-tunable instruments – pianos, boxes, concertinas and so forth.
Just going from a cold whistle at the beginning of a session to a warm one at the end will change the bell note a bit.
It’s also nice to be able to pull it apart to clean out the mung.
- -Rich
Ah, you’ve asked the right guy. I lock myself in my dark tower at night and cross-breed whistles in the most unholy manner.
That’s a Generation/Sindt hybrid. More info here.
As for your Dixon: I’ve never played one, but I’ve heard one that was so out of tune it wasn’t even funny. Happens with Susatos, too, sometimes, even though people will tell you how wonderfully in tune they are supposed to be (and generally are, too). Consider getting in touch with Tony Dixon about it.