hoopy mike wrote:
I like my Dixon polymer low D very much. It's a good price and is easy to play even into the second octave...
For sure the first time I picked up a Dixon one-piece all-plastic conical-bore Low D I was very impressed.
It's got to be the most ergonomic Low D, a result of small and closely-set holes (enabled by the conical bore) incredibly light weight and narrow tube.
It takes very little air, and there's something flutelike in the voicing that I've not encountered on other Low D's. Really a sweet player all around.
For me the deal-killer was the quite flat 2nd octave. Yes it's easy to overcome it with blowing, the trouble is if you have to underblow the low octave and overblow the 2nd octave to keep the octaves in line you accentuate the already-present volume differential between the octaves. In particular you can't blow the low octave to it's full potential regarding volume and tone-quality; if you do, you establish a baseline pitch too high for the 2nd octave to be able to reach no matter how hard to you blow it.
As it is, you have to blow the low octave softly, making the low range too quiet for me. You'd be utterly lost in a session.