I read a fairly recent post, in which a piper mentioned a narrow bore D chanter as having the great advantage of the wonderful old pipes sound, plus being able to be used in sessions since you’re in tune with the other musicians.
Could someone elaborate on this? Are there any drawbacks to a narrow bore chanter? How does the volume compare with that of a flat set? And what makers build narrow bore chanters?
thanks,
Baen
Search the archives for “narrow bore” and you’ll be drowning in commentary on the accursed things.
Kevin, given a choice… does this mean you favor wide bore D chanters over the narrow bore D’s??
What do you think of Brad’s narrow bore D compared to ones of other makers?
I would really suggest that people interested in narrow bore/flat sets give them a try before taking the plunge. The advantages of a small bore set are not simply that the volume is lower, but that they require very little pressure to play compared to a concert D set, and the tone holes are much smaller, making them easier to cover, and the ornaments that much crisper. But the tone is much different than a concert D set; more nasal, and much sweeter.
As some people have correctly pointed out, you can tone down the volume of a Concert D with rushes and reed adjustments, but you will not necessarily get the same tone as from a small bore or flat set. The difference may be an acquired taste. Certainly the small bore does not have that “edge” to it that a concert D has.
Try to hear/play one and judge for yourself. Don’t just go by someone else’s tastes and preferences. These are definitely different. Make up your own mind first.
djm
I’ll have to investigate that further. My Wooff seems to need about the same amount of ‘pressure’ though it may use less ‘air’ than my wide bore D’s.
I’m more for narrow D, unless there’s lots of car traffic, Paolo Sopraninis. Loud pipes have their place, too.
I’ve played a Rogge narrow D set, that’s about all I know of other makers. Very easy to play and very bright tone.
I know Dionys likes the Angus narrow bore chanters. I’ve known Steve, the owner of Artichoke Music, for years (and also Bill the previous owner) and Steve told me all about this guy who was just starting to get on to Brads work back about then. Dionys knows Brad by his full name, which must be pretty well considering all the good things he’s said 
Artichoke also often have sitars for sale, this being the legacy of the followers of the Baghwan Shree Rashneesh [sp?] in the 1980s, who also bought their idol some 80 Rolls Royces.
Yes, and a good red herring there, also some African thumb harps, and marimbas with nice mallots–good for knocking some knucklehead…well, you know what I mean.
I’d LOVE to have an Indian Sitar.
The same place that sells those ethnic instruments on eBay has them… Left handed, just what I need. But I would be wary of the quality.
Shark in the Morning has hundreds of ethnic instuments from all over the world. Their catalogue is enormous. I doubt quality is an issue, but for all the wrong reasons. 
djm
Anyone here who can suggest me a pipes album played with narrow bore
D instrument?
thks be4hand
Michel
Jimmy O’Brien Moran’s CD, “Sean Reid’s Favorite” contains some very lovely piping on a narrow set that plays somewhere just north of D.
The majority of the album is recorded with an old narrowbore B full set by Colgan, made of some kind domestic hardwood, maybe pear. Nothing on earth sounds like that old Colgan 
Well, except maybe an old Kenna
I did get a chance to hear a brand new Rogge narrowbore D in recent weeks and thought it pretty sweet sounding; of course it was in Noel Carberry’s expert hands, too, so that had a bit to do with my impression. As for the chanter, it was louder than I expected, but still softer than a wide D and everything was in tune. I did not get a chance to play it myself. Noel seemed to like it quite well when I asked him about it.
That’s an old set by Robert Reid, better known for his Northumbrian pipes, with a chanter made in Delaware by two makers - O’Doyle and Someone, I think - their names are stamped on the C natural key. It’s a Taylor copy, not precisely narrow bore. Jimmy still has the original Reid chanter, of course, it’s pictured on the back of the CD - too bad he hasn’t gotten it reeded (Reided?) up proper, or perhaps he has. Craig Fischer told me it was a really great chanter, too.
Do anyone own one set with 1 narrow bore and 1 wide bore chanter? What do you have to adjust if you want to play the one or the other? (I mean drones or regs)
Philippe
phc, there is nothing to adjust. If the two chanters are from different makers, there may be some differences in the size of the chanter stock to be dealt with (where the chanter plugs into the bag), as there are no standard sizes.
If the rest of the set (drones & regs) is adjusted to play loud with the wide bore chanter, you just wouldn’t use it when playing the narrow bore chanter. If the rest of the set is adjusted to play quietly with the narrow bore, then the wide bore will just dance over the top of it.
djm
I own one narrow bore D half set and two wide bore D full sets.
These are matched sets using the same maker for both chanter and drones.
If I understand your question correctly, you can unplug one chanter and play it with another set. You may find slight variations in the tubing diameter that can be adjusted with the hemp wrapping where the chanter plugs into the stock of the bag. The air feed of my narrow bore D chanter is a ‘swan neck’ that feeds from the top making it harder to play when connecting it to the bag of the wide bore D sets. Both wide bore D sets have side fed chanter tubes that are lower (and shorter bag neck) than the other style.
In a previous post, I measured the loudness of several chanters using a DB meter and found about 10 DB, which is a significant difference, from a narrow bore to a wide bore. I think another BIG DIFFERENCE isn’t so much the overall volume but the fullness of the sound produced. If I were to use a spectrum analizer I could confirm what my ear percieves as the narrow bore instrument produces less bass (deep) tones than the wide bore giving it a thinner sound.
I reviewed my narrow bore D chanter before and said it feels (to me) that it’s capable of cleaner or has a better sonic ability to play staccato style than my wide bore D chanters… certainly faster than my hands will make it go!
If I play a wide bore D chanter with the narrow bore D drones the chanter is fuller sounding than the drones and slightly louder… but not a big difference.
However, when I put the narrow bore D against the wide bore D drones the first octave of the chanter was below the volume of the drones. A few ‘toots’ on the regulators completely covered up the sound of the chanter.
These were my findings… someone else my have different results. I actually preffered the wide bore D chanter with the narrow bore drones.
I’ve mentioned the idea of playing a flat set, or a narrow D set, and having a louder D chanter for big sessions. Plenty of people aren’t pipes fans in the first place, and drones will really grate on them: guitar players, etc. The regulators are worse in this sense, no one knows what the hell those things are. I went busking with just a practice set once, this fiddler who’s been playing for years said “Oh, you just brought the drones, eh?”
I have seen this statement made before on this board and it’s certainly not my experience. I few month ago when I was in Ireland for my annual music ‘fix’ I paid special attention to both verbal and body language ‘signs’ from musicians or punters not liking the pipes. But unless I was completely daft at the time my impression was that they loved them, especially older people. On several occasions when I walked into pub with a ‘musicians welcome’ sign behind the window I was almost forced to play when they found out there was a set of pipes in the case.
As I understand it they don’t see/hear pipes that much though. On one occasion in McIntyre’s (Dunkineely, County Donegal) I was almost adopted by two 70+ ‘sean nos’ singers. They got tears in their eyes every time I played a slow air and kept telling me it was really a VERY long time ago since they heard the pipes. And that the pipes were made for playing airs and feck all that fancy fast stuff. They were very drunk of course, but nevertheless…
What I did notice however that as soon as you join a session and ‘blow up’ everybody gets ready to tune to the pipes and are surprised to say the least if the pipes seems to be in tune with them. If you really want to shock people, ask the box player for an ‘A’ and pull out your chanter reed and tune it to match his or her ‘A’. Judging the general reaction of disbelieve one must come to the conclusion that this is not common practice among pipers. So maybe if every piper learns how to tune his or her instrument they would be more welcomed. And don’t give me that crap about just intonation versus equal that’s just an pity excuse to justify ones unability to tune his or her instrument. A chanter with a good reed is able to play ‘just’ and ‘equal’, as long as the reed is not to stiff it’s all a matter of pressure control.
Evertjan
The pipes are not common in Ireland.
Most folk in the north have no idea what uilleann pipes are, and quite a few in the south too. Neither my Donegal relatives [including my mother] nor my Dublin relatives, had heard of uilleann pipes before…so it’s not just us Northerners up in our cultural wasteland!!
There are isolated pockets of activity..Armagh, Belfast, one or two folks in Derry [who I never met even once in my several years living and working there]…but even in the south they are rare enough.
A got a t-shirt made for me in Portrush [Co Antrim seaside resort near where I’m from] and got the words
“and on the 8th day God made the uilleann pipes” printed on it…the guy had never heard of uilleann pipes, even though there’s a regular trad session in a nearby pub, the Harbour Bar.
Ah well…the t-shirt was a much-appreciated present for a piping friend
Boyd