I have recently taken up the whistle again (pre-retirement) - 35 years since I’d played before. I have several whistles (3 Generations in D, C and B flat, a D Feadog, a no-name D, 2 Clarke Sweet Tones in D and C) and have just received my Tony Dixon D Trad. I’m finding it very breathy sounding as compared to the gorgeous full tones of my Clarkes. Not at all what I expected. The Clarkes are generally not in tune with themselves though, where the Dixon is much better throughout the range. I was hoping the Dixon would be my go-to D but I’m not so sure now. Has anyone else experienced this and what, if anything might I be doing wrong? Or is it just what it is?
Interesting, I always thought of Clarke Sweetones as being very unusually in tune with themselves, but I personally prefer the tone of something like a Dixon. And while I haven’t played Dixons very much, my impression of them is that their intonation isn’t all that great. So I’d say my experience is pretty much the opposite of yours.
But of course, whether or not a whistle is “in tune” depends a bit on how you play it, since different whistles take different amounts of breath for different notes. So some whistles might be “in-tune” to some players and not to others.
Anyway, you’re probably not doing anything “wrong” on your Dixon, if your only problem with it is the tone quality. There’s very little you can do to affect tone quality on the whistle, since it doesn’t exactly have an embouchure. So maybe you just don’t like the tone of Dixons, or of your particular Dixon. There could also be something wrong with your Dixon, but that’s probably very unlikely.
They are very individual. I’ve got three by the same maker and even one of those has a slightly different tone to the other two.
The only way you can really get the feel of a whistle’s tone, tuning, air demands and responsiveness is to play it. Part of the reason I’ve got three Killarney Ds is that one of them’s not infrequently out on loan to local folk looking for a new whistle. I’ve also got a secondhand David O’Brien Rover in Delrin; it’s lovely, but the price point meant I probably wouldn’t have bought one if someone hadn’t been willing to lend me theirs first. I occasionally see people hand their whistle to another player to try out at sessions for the same reason.
So loans are one way to do it, if you’ve got a session or a Comhaltas group to go to. Some makers and specialist music shops will accept returns if a whistle’s not right for you, but not all do. Obviously there’s a resale value if you make a mistake, but it can be a pain. I like to try them if I can.
Thanks so much, Moof and CyberKnight - I should have realized any instrument would have its own individual characteristics. I really do appreciate your replies!
It looks like you and I have been at this around the same length of time.
I still prefer the Feadog D I bought around 1980 to any High D I’ve tried.
And the Generation C I bought around 1980 is still the best C I’ve ever played, maybe the best whistle I’ve ever played period.
I met Tony Dixon at the NAMM Show quite a few years back. He had around 20 High D whistles, they had metal tubes and plastic tops. I played them all, they varied from whistle to whistle, one was the best of the lot. I intended to make it back to his booth and buy it but I never did.
(It’s hard to see, but I’m holding the prototype all-plastic conical-bore Low D that he debuted at that NAMM Show.)
An old friend I met back in the late 1970s had an amazing-playing Clarke C which he had spent quite a bit of time modifying to get it just right. That’s the thing with the old-school Clarkes (not the new kind with plastic top) you can alter the height and shape of the windway. They’re a very special old-school traditional whistle but for performing I use the Generation C.
Thanks for your info and thoughts! I liked my old Feadog (c. 1985) the best until I played a Clarke Sweet Tone I got off Amazon of all places. Once I filled the cavity in the mouthpiece (the plastic one that does come off with some hot water) it was the sweetest sounding and had the smoothest jump between octaves of anything I’d played. But I wanted to try out some of the “little bit better” whistles so I ordered the Dixon Trad and the DX005 (which I like just fine, it’s not awesome but it’s better than the Trad IMHO). I was/am really disappointed in the Trad although it’s louder and more cutting than the Clarke and perhaps more suited for session play. I keep practicing with it, wanting a more expensive whistle to just perform better dammit! But alas…
The NAMM show reminds me of myself in 11th grade when my parents bought me a Buffet R-13 from Chuck Levin’s Washington Music Center… I must have played 30 different clarinets that day and when I got to this one, it was sheer perfection - tone, balance, ease of play, everything (that big fat round perfect tone got me though). Such a drastic difference from all the others I’d touched that day. So I do get each instrument being different, I’ve just never been anywhere where they have tin whistles in store (such is life on the eastern shore of MD). I wish I’d gone when I lived in CA years back.
I’ve also got a secondhand David O’Brien Rover in Delrin; it’s lovely, but the price point meant I probably wouldn’t have bought one if someone hadn’t been willing to lend me theirs first. I occasionally see people hand their whistle to another player to try out at sessions for the same reason.
