I love the timbre of my Dixon high D Duo through both octaves, but find the intonation suffers tremedously – so much so that I can hardly tolerate playing it anymore. Did I just get a lemon? Does anyone else notice this? Are the Dixons with brass tuning slides any better?
Please help!
I have a low D (gutless), and a Bb, and both aren’t worth playing in public.
JP
It’s never popular to speak out with negative comments about the works of a whistle maker here which is why I suspect a lot of people don’t say a lot of things a lot of the time (but don’t be paranoid, now, you don’t want that. Look out -it’s gonna get you!!)… um, with that said, the first Dixon I got wouldn’t play above the second E. Not wasn’t worthy of playing, it simply wouldn’t play past E without blowing extremely hard. Then the second Dixon I got as a replacement worked fine. I have a Dixon Low D which I love.
Hmm, I learned on a Dixon low… oops… regular / high … D, and for that it was great, but lately I’ve been trying to do some recording, and I have to admit that it was pretty out when I actually put it side by side with some other instruments. That said, I still think they’re a good value overall for a very playable learner’s whistle.
[edited to correct… I certainly didn’t learn on a low whistle.. just out of it tonight]
[yeah… edited to correct typo in correction]
To my ear, most low Ds I’ve listened to are not in tune.
Trying to fit low Ds onto smaller hands=much more improper intonation for ensemble
I agree with what Chris Abell said on C&F interview(which most of us might know).
‘The acoustical problems in producing a Low D in the style of
whistle that I make - cylindrical bore with relatively correct bore to
length ratio, can only be corrected with some type of keywork. The
tonehole spacing and size are prohibitive for correct intonation with
normal hands and impossible with small hands (the toneholes are too far
apart and too large to cover with the fingers). There is some leeway in
the spacing and size of the toneholes and in the bore to length ratio,
but the more one moves from the ideal, the more the instrument suffers.
My solution would be to add keywork,’
ack, this main theme was about Dixon high D!! 
FWIW, my Dixon Bb has tuning that is spot on throughout. It’s a great whistle.
Have you contacted Tony about a fix? Sounds like it might be worth your while.
Jef
I have a high D dixon (two actually). One isn’t too bad, althouth it’s not “spot on” by any means. The other is very out of tune on some notes. I really love the sound of both of them, and if they were tuned a bit better they’d probably be the best deal for the money that I’ve played.
-Brett
I haev had a couple of problems with Dixon,However, if you contact him he will correct what ever the problem is. He has even sent me a replacement whistle due to bad intonation. Tony will make right any troubles you find with his whistles. Contact him directly and he’ll take care of you.
Thanks to all! I’ll send an email to Tony tonight. Right now I’m off to a gig in the Santa Cruz mountains…
LimuHead (a.k.a. Aldon)
You’re right, and I’ve debated whether to post my experience with Dixons or not. I have had two Dixon low D’s - the first was barely playable and had obvious mechanical defects with the mouthpiece. Dixon never returned my e-mails but Thom at The Whistle Shop was kind enough to replace it, unfortunately the replacement is only marginally better - at this point I decided Dixons and I were just not to be. Caveat emptor.
Tony Dixon is super nice and very friendly. But there are nice friendly people who sometimes turn out not so nice products (Not just whistles, mind you. It could be anything.) I know through private messages a lot of people get whistles they aren’t happy with from different makers and they don’t say anything on the board, which really bothers me because they should. You’re not saying this maker is bad or that maker is bad, you’re saying you’re unhappy with a whistle. It’s not life shattering to say that. There are ways to say ‘This whistle is crap’ without saying ‘This whistle is crap’ (and yes, I have been enlightened on the McHaffie affair) without starting a flame-fest.
At one point I was thinking about buying a Dixon Bb, but if it was bad like my D was, I’d feel really picky emailing Mr. Dixon again to say a whistle was bad, so I didn’t buy one at all. Just my 1 1/2 cents. I don’t even have 2 anymore.
I find my dixon tunable D to be extremely sensitive to breath pressure, finger position over the holes, and how far away the fingers are from the uncovered holes, in terms of intonation. Having been playing a superb whistle from Paul Busman for a month or two now, returning to my Dixon has ben an enlightening experience…it’s more out than I though it was pre-Busman, especially if I play along with the Virtual Session or some other sound file. However, it does have a nice tone, and it’s not so out that I won’t play it. It will still be in the bag, and it makes a good wood-whistle substitute if I find I am going someplace where I don’t want to risk the health of my wooden whistle. It’s probably not for group playing, however.
Robin
Just as there are people who refrain from posting bad things about the products of popular makers (Dixon), I suspect that there are some who are reluctant to post good things about the products of unpopular makers(Susato).
Funny you should mention that - I like my Susato very much!
Ridseard wrote:
Just as there are people who refrain from posting bad things about the products of popular makers (Dixon), I suspect that there are some who are reluctant to post good things about the products of unpopular makers(Susato).Funny you should mention that - I like my Susato very much!
I like my Susato very much (Bb), too. 
Well, that’s the first batch of negative comments about Dixons I’ve seen here. For what it’s worth, I love Dixon whistles. I think they’ve got a great sound.
I play IrTrad almost exclusively, so I’m much more concerned with rhythm and phrasing than I am with playing precisely in tune, but I also play other kinds of music, and I’m pretty sure I’d notice if the Dixons were badly out of tune. Actually, I think they’re pretty well in tune, and nicely tunable. At least the couple dozen of them I’ve played are. A smidge sharp with the slide all the way in, which I think is a good thing.
(I’m talking about the 2-piece whistle, without the brass slide).
And Cranberry, you don’t know what you’re missing by not having a Dixon B flat. It’s a gem! If they started taking all my whistles away, one by one, when I was down to the last two, one of them would be my Dixon B flat. And (cue Charlton Heston voice) they’d get that when they pried it from my cold, dead fingers. Soylent Green is people! IT’S PEOPLE!
There has been prior talk of the overall quality of Dixon whistles. In general, conclusions have been that Dixons, when good, are really nice whistles. Unfortunately however, there seems to be a lot of less-good Dixons going around, which leads one to believe that Tony often releases inferior products from his workshop. On the positive side, when he gets a customer complaint, he’s an absolute gem at replacing the defective instruments, but of course having to replace bad whistles shouldn’t be necessary in the first place…
Personally I own Dixon whistles that are really good, and almost perfectly in tune. I have also owned and tried Dixons that were seriously out of tune, and a single one that had problems getting the second octave to sound at all. 
Jens
I play Susato exclusively on stage (D/C/Bb set), but have high hopes for the Burke composite that should be here mid-June!
Just a few more questions about the Dixon whistle:
–So what is the best way to get in contact with Tony? Should I go through the website?
–Would it be best to work with Thom at the Whistle Shop instead, since that’s where I bought the whistle from?
Thanks in advance…
I did both. First I returned it to the Whistle Shop and he sent me another that also had issues but different ones. So then I decided to email Tony. He responded promptly and I got a new whistle in about a week. I even traded a few friendly emails with Tony after the transaction. So my recommendation is to email and explain your situation.
Mike
Tony’s email address is on his site (www.tonydixonmusic.co.uk). It might take a day or two for him to get back to you (it did to me).
Since you’re in the US, I’d contact the Whistle Shop first, just to see what they say…let us know what happens. We’re nosey.