I know what you mean joseph but I don’t think there’s more pressure invol;ved, true more drones shit more air but that would not make any difference in the overall pressure. A chanterreed should (I know, ideally) notneed a huge increase in pressure for some notes.
It’s already been done - MacGregor, London circa 1820. Double chanter with BOTH bores stopped. Chanter presumably is set up up for permanent staccato playing and the other bore just has keys and so acts as a regulator. The rest of the set comprises two regulators and two drones. Regs have one less key than modern sets. Drones are absent but from the size the the socket in the main stock the bass drone had a barrel section as opposed to an outside loop
Chris
I don´t think the pics of Eugene and Michel show the same “combos” - though Michel once was his “padavan”. The different shapes of the trims - especially chanter top and drone foot - , the keys on Eugene´s and the little stop-switch on Michel´s give it away.
Eugene told me that he got the idea from Matt Kiernan. Although I never saw one by Matt (please post a pic if you come across) the fact that both Lambe and Ginsberg make/made them highlight this cause both were influenced by Matt very much and they belonged to the first of the European generation of younger makers to “pass on the pole”.
Anyway, a chanter-drone was in Eugene´s workshop (in C, it is likely that Michel is photographed with it) and he once let it to me for a day. It played like a dream and you can exchange the reed for the reed in your “set-tenor-drone” - doesn´t make a difference. As said, the drone at the chanter needs an extra air supply. Otherwise you get an interference noise that has about the quality of a loose, rattling bridle but about three times as loud. A littlle flexible hose will do the trick.
Cheers,
Hans
I took the photograph of Michel in 1998/99. It was a C.
Unless there’s something seriously wrong with the air supply, the air pressure at all points inside the bag/stock/drones/chanter should be approximately the same at all times.
Peter, I assume you meant " A chanterreed should (I know, ideally) [NOT] need a huge increase in pressure for some notes."
Perhaps Josephs is thinking about lack of phase-locking stabilization when playing a single drone. I don’t see any reason why a single drone would either increase the pressure requirements of the setup, or require a more stable reed than multiple drones, other than the minor loss of phase-locking stability (which is largely lacking in solid stocks anyhow). In my experience playing with a single drone is fine, and takes less air than multiple drones.
Bill
I have never played a chanter/drone combo, so I am obviously speaking from non-experience. But I have played with only the tenor drone going and noticed it had a tendency to waver while I played in the upper octave (a,b,c,c#,d). This is the obsevation that my first post here was in reference to.