I will forward my photo and comments to Dixon. Doubt that they would change their production tools and process as a result. Practically, there are many whistles out there to try. So if my old Dixon Trad D gets lost or damaged I will not replace it with another one.

Yeah, I can see your point in that. But I really think it's a worthwhile endeavor. Because I told you that woman wrote me and was emphatic there been no change, but your photos are evidence that there is.

Actually, I was going to order a Trad, based on a lot of other recommendations, but now maybe not. I don't know.

So now you now think...what, that they have slipped in quality to the where they are just like some of the other inexpensive offerings from other makers and so not worth the little premium bump in price?

And personally I'd wait till like January 5th or something to mail it to them. Email or otherwise. That way it's not as lost in all the holiday volume of mail

My conclusion is that the newer Dixon Trad D still has fewer issues than the off the shelf Feadogs, Waltons and others I have & that you get for $10. (Opinion!) So it is still a step up from them. However the disappointment derives from the older model being better -- in my perception. For price similar to the new Dixon Trad D, I like my Jerry Freeman Blackbird much better.

Interesting observation - my one piece DX001 has the "old" head design with the shorter blade and my trad nickel has the new design. The DX001 plays much sweeter and I always thought that was due to the material. Now I think it might be the difference in the geometry of the head.

I got an email reply from Tony Dixon which I paste in below. Nice that they are interested in what their customers think.
"Thank you for your email and for your comments. We always welcome any feedback.
If my memory serves me correctly, In the very early days of the Trad whistle you are quite right the head used initially and before it got its own designated head the Trad head was a shortened version of that used on our DX001D and DX004D. There were only a very few made like this until the designated tooling was finished. I have been trying to wrack my brains over this since your first enquiry but now you’ve shown us the pictures I can compare and confirm that the head was from these models.
However, If you could let us know your address. I would be happy to send you what I think is the original whistle head for you to compare and resolve this conundrum. If this proves to be the correct, unfortunately we cannot revert back to the older head on the Trad’s but you are very welcome to keep hold of the head we are about to send you. I think we thought at the time by making the change to the new style of head we were making the bottom end more solid.
I hope this would be suitable for you and I look forward to hearing from you again soon.
Best wishes, Tony Dixon

Last week I received two sample heads from Tony Dixon to compare vs. the two Trad D whistles I own. I have done some tests, summarized my observations, and emailed them to Tony for any comment he might wish to make. I will post here the results after I get his comments. It is great he takes a personal interest in a production item whose tooling is established and will likely not get modified as a result of the discussion.

Thank you very much for your efforts on nailing this down.

That seems like a typical experience of interacting with Tony (or any of his family/company). Courteous, generous, and always keen to help.

_________________
Phill

Press any key to continue, any other key to exit.......

Although not extremely helpful in the email I got from Yasmine Dixon (which I refer to in this thread on December 17th) on this subject saying in effect, Nope, nada, nothing, no changes, all good.

Let me explain the results of my tests on the two sample heads sent by Tony Dixon to compare vs. the two Trad D whistles I own; first a summary then details.
Summary: The early Dixon Trad D had a head different from the later production models as Tony has stated in the email quoted earlier. Tony sent me two old style heads to test. I fit one to the later of my 2 Trad Ds, which then sounded much like the older of my Trad Ds. The old style head appears to have been cut from a polymer non-tunable D, DX001. In the middle of this email exchange I had actually bought my own DX001. This is the one I now recommend to beginner whistlers as best "bang for the buck," if tuning is not an issue.
The Gory Details: I received two D whistle heads from Tony Dixon in response to questions about the change in design of the Trad D whistle head. See link to photo of my Dixon head collection.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=13Lz5ot7OufzLZ4DLaj-kdxhziLD5tr9S
Left to right:
Head 1 - Dixon Trad D (Brass ) purchased maybe 2010-11. I call this Old Trad D.
Head 2 - Dixon Trad D (Nickel) purchased December 2013. I call this New Trad D.
Head 3 - One of the two heads Tony sent me.
Head 4- Another of the two Tony sent me.
Head 5 - A Dixon DX001 polymer, which I just bought recently.
Without an micrometer to provide measurements, the test heads 3 & 4, seem identical.
My Dixon DX001 polymer head area seems identical to the 3 &4 heads , as if they were cut off from the DX001 body. Even the Dixon logo seems the same size and location. DX001 plays similarly to the the Old Trad D #1 in my opinion.
Neither of the test heads sent, 3 &4, fit properly on the body of either Trad D. I can force one of those onto the Trad D body but it is very hard to get on and extremely hard to get off. I have good hand strength and had to resort to a technique Bill Ochs once used to remove whistle heads.
The head of the Old Trad D [#1] that I prefer appears to be similar in dimensions to the heads sent, although the logo is placed differently.
To allow the sent heads to fit, I sanded (with #400 paper) the top of the tube of my nickel Trad D and also slightly the inside of the #4 head sent me. It still was a snug fit but manageable.
My Nickel body using the #4 head Tony sent now sounds similar to my old brass Trad D, which was my preferred whistle. These are all good whistles. Note that on Chiff and Fipple a member called "Sedi" compared his Trad D Nickel to his DX001 and arrived at the same opinion that I did.
Hope this makes sense.

Very cool, and a lot of work, makes perfect sense, thanks for all your effort

This is interesting, thanks for the follow-up! I have a DX004 bought on a lark a while ago that has become a constant companion (I keep it in my pocket). I would probably pick up my Killarney in a session, but the DX004 has been growing on me for a while. I may end up having to get a trad just to compare the two!

We have to thank Tony Dixon for taking the time and effort to provide the sample whistle heads that allowed resolution of this issue. Many other company owners would have ignored us. Thank you, Tony.

So the DX 004 is just the tunable version of the 001, yes?

I think so. On pics the head looks the same.