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