Chiff and Fipple Forums

I have a Dixon Trad being delivered today, just in time for our Tuesday acoustic ballad session. I have a few Tony Dixon whistles already - A plastic low G, and a couple of D and C alloy bodied whistles with tuning slides. On the whole I like them, although a nice C nat can be elusive on the alloy D...

Those of you who have had Trads for a while, how do you find them? Do you play them much compared to your other whistles? The sound clips I have heard seem quite promising...

Also, how does volume compare to others? I don't need it to be particularly loud, as the session isn't a full-on dance music session with heaps of competing melody instruments, but it'd be nice if it were loud enough to work with a voice, a couple of guitars and the odd fiddle or mandolin. I'm expecting it to be a little quieter than my Feadog nickel D. What do you reckon?

the dixon trad is may 'main axe' at the moment

volume wise the trad should be fine if your just working with voice, others have described it as a quiet instrument, but i prefer my whistles medium / quiet anyway, so i cant really comment on this, suffices i suppose to say it still cuts through the other instruments in the higer octave as one would expect of a whistle.

My experience is that it is quite a subtle breather - you can actually take your lips off the mouth piece and shout at it and it will stll play, this encourcages a very subtle pattern of breathing but sometimes, in the heat of the session i wish i could abuse it a little bit more.

The tuning head can be a bit stiff... im going to cork grease mine tonight i think.

Thanks Chris.

Hmm, got some Susato grease somewhere... I'll have to dig it out just in case.

I think they play pretty well.

I like mine. It was one of my first whistles, and used to be my session whistle, but that title was taken from it by the Mellow Dog. I found that, in a session, as I got further into the playing zone (and further in into the beers) I couldn't maintain the breath control to avoid sliding up to the 2nd octave. As was just too into it, and wanted to cut loose in a way the MD is more fogiving of. My Dixon Trad has become my backpack whistle, lately. It goes where I go.

Thanks guys. All very useful.

@Buckeye67: Sounds fine mate. Nice one!

@Thomaston: I've been using a MellowDog, a Feadog nickel and a Susato. The Trad may work out quite nicely, as I have the opposite prob to you! I'm a lazy blower and the MellowDog and the Susato both drop out of 2nd occasionally if my concentration wanders!

So far, the plain old Feadog nickel is my perfect whistle. Funnily enough, I've ended up back where I started. My first ever whistle was a Feadog, and despite all the others that have come and gone it's been a consistent favourite.

Cheers.

for the love of any named entity dont grease it!

behed it yes;
clean all the glue gunk out, if you want;
but DONT grease it... ive turned my penny whistle into a swanney whistle... looks like ill have to clean all the crud off now

The Dixon Trad has become my main everyday whistle. It's the one I keep on my desktop and around the house for a quick tune, or toss in my bag for going out. It can be played as quiet as or quieter than a Gen, while maintaining its chiff. So it's a good whistle for working up tunes without blasting. It's one of the first whistles I recommend to new players, because it shares the essential Gen/Feadóg character, the quality control seems consistent, the intonation is good, and the head is more easily tunable. It's a bit underpowered for sessions, IMO, but does very nicely in smaller settings. It's a modern classic at a very appropriate price.

Any suggestions on where to get a Dixon Trad in the US?

Best wishes

Steve

I've only been playing a few weeks, but I can't imagine a better whistle, especially for playing at home. It sounds great and is easy to play. I can't believe it's not available in C, and I'd likely buy one in Bb if that were an option.

Tried it tonight. Mostly on slower stuff: Boolavogue, Green Shamrock Shore, Carrickfergus etc, but also on a couple of hornpipes and reels.

Works for me! I'm very pleased. Doesn't have quite as much poke as my tweaked Feadog and it won't replace my MellowDog, but it makes a great team mate for both of them. I really like it. Second octave is lovely and sweet and clear.

Steve Bliven wrote:Any suggestions on where to get a Dixon Trad in the US?

Best wishes

Steve

Best place I know is www.whistleanddrum.com. They're great to work with and have them at a good price.

I bought my brass Dixon Trad on-line at Hobgoblin music... got it in 3 days.

Anyone else recently played a newer Dixon trad against an older one? I posted a few months ago about accidentally crushing my "old" trad, which I bought about 1 1/2 years ago. I got a new Dixon trad last week, and it plays quite differently from its ancestor. I noticed the cylinder is much smaller in diameter than the old one, and it's got tons more chiff. It's not a bad sound, but it seems quite different from how they used to sound.

Anyone else notice this, or am I just seeing/hearing/sensing things?

I have two older Trads (~2 1/2 years old) and both have 17/32" (0.531") OD tubes (0.014" wall). You can get S&K tubing this size at a lot of US hobby shops. The moral: if you crush your Trad's tube, but the head is OK, just make a new tube.

What is the OD of the newer ones?

BTW - very good choice (just my opinion)!