Happy Whistler - New Dixon Trad D

Years ago I bought one of the first Dixon soprano D whistles with the brass tuning slide. It was the black plastic model before he started making the ones with a brass and aluminum barrel.

I loved everything about the whistle…Tone, playability, the soft feel of the black plastic that was never cold to the touch. Unfortunately the upper two notes were horribly out of tune. I was not looking for perfection but as you went up the register the notes would gradually go sharp until you hit the top two which went horribly flat almost to another note.

Anyway, I figured I just got a bad whistle. I sent it back to the whistle shop hoping to get a replacement for my beloved Dixon that I loved so well. I got another one back that had the same problem. I contacted Tony and he sent a special whistle for me to the whistle shop. It was sealed in plastic with a slip of paper inside saying that it was for me. I joyfully ripped open the plastic and found that it was even more out of tune than the first two. I payed for all the shipping costs and spent lots of time detailing the problem to the whistle shop and to Tony in e-mails. Out of frustration I finally asked the Whistle Shop for a full refund.
Tony has great customer service and will send you as many out of tune whistles as you like but as far as I know he has never fixed the problem.

To this day I would love to see the problem resolved. Hey Tony, why not just shamelessly copy the hole pattern on an Overton? I bet Collin would gladly help you with the measurments if you just asked.

Like I said, I loved my Dixon with the brass tuning slide except for the tuning issue.

Cheers!

Nate

Huh?

Feadoggie,

It is a hypothetical question to Tony Dixon who will probably never read it. I merely used Overton as an example because it has a similar bore and wall thickness as a Dixon black tube.

My point is that if you can’t make a whistle that plays in tune at least copy someone else’s hole pattern or ask for help, but do something!!

I added the “Blue Sticky Tack” tweak to my brass Dixon Trad and I feel it has given a more mellow pleasing sound to an already great sounding whistle.

Tony Dixon makes a very wide spectrum of whistles and I believe some designs are just plainly better than others and two great designs are the Dixon Trad and the Aluminum DX006.