Suggestions for a travel and practice whistle?

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jiminos
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Re: Suggestions for a travel and practice whistle?

Post by jiminos »

Of the three whistles named in the OP, I have two of them. I have a Dixon Trad and the Susato V series. Both are excellent.

I bought the Trad when they were first offered by Dixon. It is every bit as “sweet” as the rumors would have us believe. Easy blower. Good intonation throughout. Tunable. And inexpensive enough that it won’t break the bank. I still have that one. I’ve bought another three or four and given them away as gifts.

As to the Susato V series Kildare. I have a complete set of Susato whistles from Low D to High D. Generally speaking, those who say the Susato is loud are correct when speaking about the small bore high D. That is the loudest whistle I own. However, the Very Small Bore is easily… EASILY… the quietest whistle I own. It is also among the sweetest. It’s tunable. It’s just about indestructible. Intonation is impeccable. I have taken it overseas several times. I usually carry it disassembled in a shirt pocket. Never any issues. This is a whistle that will always be in my kit.

Best of luck.
Jim

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Sirchronique
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Re: Suggestions for a travel and practice whistle?

Post by Sirchronique »

jiminos wrote: Sat Jan 21, 2023 9:47 am Of the three whistles named in the OP, I have two of them. I have a Dixon Trad and the Susato V series. Both are excellent.

I bought the Trad when they were first offered by Dixon. It is every bit as “sweet” as the rumors would have us believe. Easy blower. Good intonation throughout. Tunable. And inexpensive enough that it won’t break the bank. I still have that one. I’ve bought another three or four and given them away as gifts.

Unfortunately Dixon changed their trad whistles at one point, and I’m not sure if they have gone back to how they previously were. I guess someone at Dixon decided that they were too well-liked and popular, so they needed to change things. :really:

The newer ones aren’t bad by any means, but they increased the distance from windway exit to blade, making the window larger. The newer ones don’t have as much warmth and openness in the lower octave, and the upper octave is less clean and sweet as it used to be. It bothers me that they made changes to an existing model instead of releasing the changed version under a different name or model number. It makes it difficult to say anything about their whistles because any words about them might not apply to what someone else has.

They are still worth checking out, but the ones they sell now aren’t like the one you bought. I also see they aren’t offering brass tubes anymore, or selling the trad with a longer C tube like they used to.

For a short period, they sold the “trad” model in many other keys, as well. The alto A and low D was really good, especially for the price. They abruptly discontinued them after barely offering them for a short time. I don’t quite understand the reasoning of that company over the past 7 or 8 years or so. They must have hired someone who worked for Generation in the 1980s.
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CoastWinds
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Re: Suggestions for a travel and practice whistle?

Post by CoastWinds »

Well, either the Royal Post or the USPS lost the Dixon Trad that was shipped to me by a distributor in the UK. :(

I can't find another vendor that has it in stock so I might look for something else.

Thanks again all for your suggestions. I now have to go back to shopping on the web.
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stiofan
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Re: Suggestions for a travel and practice whistle?

Post by stiofan »

Is this the model you're looking for? Looks like Hobgoblin (in MN) has it in stock.
http://www.hobgoblin-usa.com/local/sale ... le-nickel/
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stiofan
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Re: Suggestions for a travel and practice whistle?

Post by stiofan »

CoastWinds wrote: Sun Jan 29, 2023 4:22 pm Well, either the Royal Post or the USPS lost the Dixon Trad that was shipped to me by a distributor in the UK. :(
Maybe it's possible that your lost parcel was a casualty of the mail disruption in the UK a couple of weeks ago.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... r-incident
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CoastWinds
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Re: Suggestions for a travel and practice whistle?

Post by CoastWinds »

stiofan wrote: Sun Jan 29, 2023 8:53 pm Maybe it's possible that your lost parcel was a casualty of the mail disruption in the UK a couple of weeks ago.
Yes, the vendor and I cordially exchanged messages about the troubles with our postal services. But It was shipped back in mid-December and I had given it until yesterday to arrive.

My local post office has lost a number of my neighbors' packages as well so it's likely that the fault was on this side of the pond.
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stiofan
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Re: Suggestions for a travel and practice whistle?

Post by stiofan »

stiofan wrote: Sun Jan 29, 2023 8:41 pm Is this the model you're looking for? Looks like Hobgoblin (in MN) has it in stock.
http://www.hobgoblin-usa.com/local/sale ... le-nickel/
By the way, the Irish Flute Store has both the Dixon Trad and the 'Modern' model in stock in case you're still looking.
https://www.irishflutestore.com/collect ... s/the-trad
https://www.irishflutestore.com/collect ... num-high-d
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