The first whistle I ever bought that cost more than $10 was my Dixon aluminum-body D. It is a beautiful whistle, and I love it to this day. But recently, I’ve gone on a WhOA trip, and most of my older whistles have been left to their own devices as the new ones got all the attention. Well, yesterday I pulled out my Dixon and played it, and rediscovered how wonderful it is. I then proceeded to attempt to separate the head from the body–bad idea! The brass tuning slide had seized up (of course), and the ABS broke from the slide. With a little coersion, the slide was pried loose from the body, but the head now has a crack in the thin edge that was previously glued to the tuning slide. And I’m crying.
I don’t think the crack will affect the way it plays–in fact, I’m sure of it, since I’ve been playing it for a bit, now–but I am nonetheless sad that I’ve hurt my whistle! A little superglue will attach it all back together, though, and she’ll still be the same old girl I remember.
MORAL OF THE STORY:
Separate your whistles often. They’ll thank you for it.
There’s a good reason why some whistle makers send there babies off with a bit of lubrication on the slide. And now you know what it is.
Use that super glue sparingly for the repair. Try not to get any protruding on the inside.
And you are so right about the Dixon. It is my work horse. The others have a niche, the Dixon is an all around good whistle. and has the wear marks to prove it.
You are in luck. Tony is expanding his line of aluminum tube whistles.
I have C, D and a low D. I have a low G and F on the way.
I wouldn’t wait to order though. He doesn’t always have the material on hand and it takes a while for him to get it.
In my opion, his work is very under rated. I have a half dozen or so different maker’s whistles, ranging from cheapies to the Lon Dubh. It’s Tony’s aluminum whistles that have the wear marks to show which make I frequently go with.
I have one of the earliest models of that Dixon aluminum D whistle. That top plastic piece is a tad fragile. Mine cracked under the stress of being carted around all over the coutry in a laptop bag, and the crack was bad enough that it was unplayable.
I contacted Tony Dixon asking about a replacememnt head, and he said I could send it back in to him for replacement. So there’s on option for you – contact the factory.
I decided I didn’t want to go to the trouble of mailing it overseas, so I went after it with some super glue. The crack was bad enough that I couldn’t just seal it up, so I had to permanently glue it to the barrel. I slathered super glue on both parts, set the tuning with a meter before it dried, then tightened everything with rubber bands and let it sit overnight.
In the morning, I carved off the rubber bands (too much super glue) and then wrapped the joint in black electrical tape to reinforce it.
Contact the maker and there is a good chance that he will send you a new part. I have had personal experience with this and have seen many other posts by people that have gotten this sort of service even when the problem was caused by their own, eh hem, dumb actions.
Having been in charge of storing many instument for indeterminate amounts of time, here’s a hint for brass, nickel, and plastic: anhydrous lanonin. Sheep grease. The stuff is a great anti-seize lubricant that has no nasty solvents in it, and is safe for most slides except wood and cork. A little jar costs pennies at the pharmacy counter.
The down side: it has a very particular smell, and you can’t use it if you’re allergic to wool.
there was set before me a mighty hill and long days i climbed through rough regions of snow when i had before me the summit view it seemed that my labor had been to see gardens lying at impossible distances; stephen crane morale of the story if it works dont fix it
