Tony Dixon tuneable D soprano

mitchlr · Post by **mitchlr** » Mon Feb 03, 2003 3:41 pm

Just got a Tony D. tuneable whistle. The vendor's service was superb. The instrument is lovely, obviously carefully crafted. I love the way it feels in my fingers... But the second octave is FLAT; by the time you get to C# nearly a half tone. Has anyone experienced this with a Tony D. instrument? All the reviews I've read were glowing, which is why I bought it. For now I'm using my Clarke Meg, which is in tune with itself and cost pennies.
-- Rob in Memphis

Bloomfield · Post by **Bloomfield** » Mon Feb 03, 2003 3:48 pm

Are you blowing hard enough? Just a hunch, I don't have a Dixon myself.

mitchlr · Post by **mitchlr** » Mon Feb 03, 2003 3:57 pm

I've been called a blowhard from time to time...
Yes, I can overblow and squeak, but the tone is still low in the upper octave.
-- R

Redwolf · Post by **Redwolf** » Mon Feb 03, 2003 3:59 pm

Check your embouchure as well...I have a Dixon tuneable (the one with the brass tuning slide) that I received last week...it had a buzz in the upper octave until I moved my mouth a bit further down the mouthpiece. I also figured out that I was UNDER blowing the lower octave (I'm used to whistles that are a bit more sensitive to too much breath pressure), which made some of the lower notes go a bit flat.

Redwolf

spittin_in_the_wind · Post by **spittin_in_the_wind** » Mon Feb 03, 2003 4:30 pm

I find I have to be careful to tighten my embouchere in the upper register and open it up in the lower register to stay in tune with my Dixon. It seems to be pretty sensitive to this; I actually like it since I'm used to instruments where you can modulate the intonation by mouth.

Robin

spittin_in_the_wind · Post by **spittin_in_the_wind** » Tue Feb 04, 2003 7:44 pm

I'm sitting here with my Dixon and I was thinking about this post. I tried out my low and high A to compare, and I think actually the opposite is true from what you were mentioning...if I am not careful to open the throat in the lower register, the notes are *sharp* compared to the upper register. So, I think in fact what appears to be flat up top is in fact sharp down below. Try to drop the intonation down in the lower register and see what happens. I know it took me a couple of weeks, now that I think about it, to figure out that I had to work my embouchere this way with this whistle, especially to get the low D, but now that I'm used to it, it's great.

Robin

mitchlr · Post by **mitchlr** » Sat Feb 08, 2003 9:34 pm

I sent an email to the Whistleshop where I bought my Dixon, and Thom offered some helpful advice -- the tuneable D is actually a bit sharp when pushed together all the way and the distance is actually significant in terms of note wavelengths at Soprano D tuning. Thom recommended I slide apart my whistle until it was tuned to D. I used my wife's guitar tuner, and once the whistle was in the proper pitch, the upper octave was relatively correct as well.

It hadn't occured to me that Tony drilled the holes with the whistle slid out to be in tune rather than pushed together. So kudos to Tony for building a whistle that will adjust both ways; most tunable whistles are easy to adjust flatter but are nearly bottomed out on the sharp end.

So it turns out that when the prime tone of the whistle is in tune, the rest are as well. Thanks to Thom for the advice! I also hope that this is vindication for Tony Dixon's whistlesmithing.

Kindest regards,
Rob Mitchell

spittin_in_the_wind · Sat Feb 08, 2003 10:33 pm

Ah, this makes sense...mine is more or less permanently pulled out, to keep it in tune with my Sweetone and some CD or other. This explains the discrepancy. I'm glad you posted about it, it's useful to know this.

Robin