“TDSW4. Traditional D brass penny whistle by Tony Dixon. Brass body with black plastic head. (Note: this whistle is not to be confused with the heavy Dixon TDSW10 below). $23”
Is this the whistle y’all refer to as the Dixon Trad? or is the TDSW10 what you call the Dixon Trad?
“TDSW10. Tunable high D whistle with a solid brass body (the brass has an antiqued look, but is actually somewhat brighter than the photo). This whistle is considerably heavier than the ones with plastic or aluminum bodies.”
I’m rather new at this and while I have a “cheapie” I’m looking for something that sounds good but within my budget.
The TDSW4 from Harp & Dragon at $23.00 is the Dixon Trad. It’s a very nice whistle at a very good price. It’s easy to play and has a clear sweet but still traditional sound. Very low air and the second octave is easy to hit and not shrill. Harp & Dragon is a good choice to buy from and you’ll like the Trad. It plays and sounds like a Generation should but you don’t have to tweek it to sound good.
I love Tony Dixon whistles, I think they are one of the great values. I have three - the one piece Poly in D (TDSW1A $18.00 at H&D), the two piece Poly in C (TDSW2B $30.00 at H&D) and the Trad. All three are great fun to play. I just wish Tony Dixon would come out with a Bd, now that would be nice!!!
It plays and sounds like a Generation should but you don’t have to tweek it to sound good.
Groan.
You don’t HAVE to tweak any of the Generations, Oaks or Feadogs: they just play, if you can drive them. If you can’t no whistle will save you or make you sound better.
That’s self delusion. You need to learn and play, that’s all there is to it. I know loads of 14 year olds who sound better than the clips posted above who never even contemplated a tweaked whistle or an expensive one. While there’s scores of people playing Burkes, Copelands and you name it who can’t play their way out of a paper bag. If you can’t sound well on one, you will not buy yourself into sounding good, you’ll fool nobody but yourself.
Peter is right, of course, but part of the fun of learning the whistle is experimenting with different instruments. A nice thing about whistles is that you can experiment without spending a lot of money.
A Trad is not all that expensive and has been favorably reviewed by several people on this board. I personally think it’s a great whistle for the price. You may find it easier to play as a beginner or just like the sound better. If it’s more fun to play, then you are likely to practice more.
If you buy a Trad, don’t forget those cheap whistles. It’s amazing how much better they can sound after gathering dust for a while.
The trad is a decent whistle, like other whistles you have to try a few to pick the right one and there’s a bit of an edge to the sound that started to get mildly irritating after a while (to me anyway, but not all the time).
Can’t argue with Peter on this. You don’t buy a different whistle to sound better, you buy it for the specific nuance quality of sound that the particular whistle has.