Your experiences with Tony Dixon ABS whistles.

[fatmac]

Last week, I acquired a one piece Tony Dixon ABS low D whistle from Ebay, & I really enjoy its tone & ease of play.

I also have a Tony Dixon high D ABS whistle that I like the tone of too.

So I'm starting this thread to hear what others think of the ABS whistles they have, any & all comments appreciated.

[JackJ]

I'm a huge fan of the one piece high D polymer Dixon's--I own two and both are superb. Right behind is my two piece (tunable) high D polymer--it's tone is very slightly "breathier", which isn't a bad thing, but in this case it sounds just a bit plain. All three are on the quite side, and that's absolutely a plus for me. They're also all three not demanding when it comes to breath control, with a good bell note and no major push needed for the the upper notes in the second octave.

I also own a tunable Bb polymer that's no longer in the Dixon lineup. I haven't played it all that much, and would have to spend more time with it before sharing an opinion. But at this point I prefer my Freeman tweaked Generation Bb.

No low D's yet, but I'll get there eventually.

[fatmac]

That's interesting to note that the tunable high D seems breathier to play, than the one piece, thanks for that.

[JackJ]

That's interesting to note that the tunable high D seems breathier to play, than the one piece, thanks for that.

I do want to emphasize that the tone difference is slight--my examples of both the tunable and one piece versions are both on the "clean/pure" side of the whistle tonal spectrum. In comparison, I'd put my brass Dixon Trad high d model on the "raspy/breathy" side. I like the Trad, too, but not as much as the polymers.

[fatmac]

Understood - only very slightly more breathy - I like my Trad brass Dixons too.

[Sedi]

I got the one piece low D ABS and the DX001, too. Both play very nicely. I also have the one piece ABS flute -- also not bad but for a flute the material could be a bit thicker -- but it is very cheap at around 40€ -- even cheaper than the low D whistle. The non-plastic models are also all rather good -- especially the high Ds. The only one that is not as good as the rest is the alloy alto A (maybe mine is a lemon, I don't know). The tuning between the octaces is very uneven. The G is fine though -- got the trad and alloy version. Oh, almost forgot -- I also have the insanely heavy brass trad low D. A bit finicky to play -- very different from the ABS even though the head looks exactly the same. BTW -- as mentioned elsewhere on the forum -- the head of trad and DX001 is slightly different. Therefore the sweeter tone.

[fatmac]

I also had a bit of problem with my TD aluminium 'A', I had to twist the mouthpiece a little to get the second octave.
I have just bought a flute head for it, & that seems to work OK on it, so maybe the fipple needs some attention, but not sure what.

Also, I have their one piece ABS flute, took a while to be able to play it, but it has a lovely tone, equal of their low 'D' whistle.
(Just acquired a pre used 3 piece flute, its much heavier.)