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FAQs

HOW TO CLEAN WHISTLES?
It’s a good idea to keep your whistle wind way clean to keep it playing at its best. Generally speaking blowing it through before and after playing should achieve this. However sometimes over time dirt can build up in the mouth piece and impede its performance. To clean this out we suggest you use thin stiff card (business card thickness) to push small bits of dirt out and then rinse with warm water until its clean.

It is important that you use nothing harder than the plastic head material itself as this can score the windway and cause turbulence that affects the tone.

Tonal differences
This is a very subjective topic but generally speaking for our products, the plastic bodies produce a softer more mellow tone. Whilst the metal bodies produce a stronger harder note which will cut through better when playing with a larger number of musicians.

What whistle is best to play in the key of?
All our 6 hole whistles will play comfortably in major two keys, they first of which being all holes covered and secondly starting from the 3rd hole up. On a D whistle this would be regarded as a standard D and G fingering

What is the shortest possible finger spacing for a low D whistle?
In short there isn’t one, the holes are placed specifically to keep the instrument in tune. And so whistle playing in the lower D octave will all have a fairly standard spacing. We do find however that our tapered bore range can feel slightly more comfortable to reach due to the smaller diameter of body at the lower holes.

How to order replacement parts?
We stock a wide range of replacement parts for our flutes and whistles so please use our contact page to assure you get the right part for your instrument. Due to the size of our range and tweaks over the years some of the older replacement parts for flutes and whistles may take a little longer as they are made to order.

How to deal with condensation in whistle mouth pieces? Whistles when picked up and played cold are all susceptible to condensation which will affect playability. The thicker walled bodies and metal instruments more so than the plastic. To combat this it is always best to warm up a whistle before playing. We recommend covering the airway and blowing hard down it a couple of times. This helps raise the whistle to body temperature where it is happiest playing, it also helps clear any dirt and dust that may be lurking in the airway.

Where do we ship to?
EVERYWHERE

I can’t reach the holes
Panic not! It is a relatively common problem to find it a hard reach on the bottom holes of a low whistle. The answer is to use the “Pipers Grip”. This involves using the pad of the middle joint of your index finger on the top hole and the pad on the end of your ring finger on the third hole down. This will appear to straighten your fingers and point them slightly towards the ground. There is a lot of help out there on the internet but in short it is best to use whatever you find most comfortable.

Are all the whistle parts interchangeable?
No. A lot of our heads are made and tweaked specifically for specific keys to get the best out of the whistle. This is also the reason we do not supply multiple bodied/head packs. Most tenor heads will however be interchangeable on the current models.

Do we sell whistles/Flutes in the key of F?
No. We have two sizes of lower whistle head neither of which we feel are really the perfect size for a Whistle in the key of F. So for currently we are not making them.

Shipping, how long will my order take to arrive?
We endeavour to ship the day we receive your order subject to time of day and product availability. Subject to the postal/courier service in your area you can expect: UK = Next working day EU = within 3-5 working days Worldwide: within 5-7 working days.

What if I am having problems with my whistle?
Contact us. We are a small company and pride ourselves on good customer service and will always strive to solve and issues a customer might have with an instrument.

Wishing all our customers Season's Greetings

Wishing all our customers Seasons Greetings
Tony Dixon Manufacturing is closing
20 December 2024, re-opening 7 January 2025.

Any orders not received and fully paid for by 19 December 2024 will not be processed until the new year.

Recommended last posting dates:

UK – Friday 20 December 2024
Western Europe – Friday 13 December 2024
Rest of World – Saturday 7 December 2024