Hi all, Just curious. Does anyone one here have a chanter made from Mopane? There’s been discussion about it on the flute forum. I’m aware of flutemakers using it, but not sure of any pipemakers. I don’t think it’s as ideal as some other woods for flutes, but it sounds like it might be really good for pipes.
Corin
I have a mopane chanter and I am quite happy with it. Pictures of it are at Kirk Lynch’s website (in the photos - chanters setion). www.kirklynch.com Kirk has made a few chanters from it recently and is pleased with the results also I believe.
The wood is a nice reddish brown that has deepened over the past year. It is a dense wood and is slightly heavier than my ebony chanter. The sound from it is full and even. Of course how much of the sound of a chanter is dependent on the reed alone versus the wood of the chanter is unknown (at least to me).
Contact Kirk, he can tell you more.
p.s my drones are from cocobolo and cherry and the mopane chanter while not as reddish as either of these woods does match them nicely.
jeff
Mopane chanter in B. Regs are pearwood, drones boxwood. Maker Koehler & Quinn
(if photo is not showing for you, please let me know)
Edit note: I said Mopane, but the chanter is Ziricote.
You sure Larry? That chanter looks like ebony - is it really that dark or has it been stained?
Jeff
If I can remember correctly..your set Lorenzo use to be Koehler’s personal set. and then it belonged to Tom Kennedy after Koehler. I have played that set, and it plays and sounds excellent!!
Yes, you are right irishpiper. That’s the one. Sorry, I was totally mixed up. the wood is ziricote, according to DQuinn. Guess I’ll leave the pitures anyway!
Hmm, I was just at a session tonight with Tom Kennedy, is this why he doesn’t have any pipes now? Shame to gt rid of such a beautiful set.
Corin
What?!!!Tom doesn’t have ANY pipes now? Wow, that may explain his absence here at the Chiff. Shame, he was/is a good piper and he made me two very nice reeds last year.
Jeff
I haven’t talked to him for a while, but I see he has a B chanter for sale on NPU. Last year, he had a half set of C. Roberts pipes which, as he said, “these drones are so strong…they’re blowing the dust off the floor,” and he was looking for a couple regs. Don’t know what he has now…he’s always coming in contact with other pipes it seems. His web site is still on. It was a shame he had to let those B pipes go, but he loves his kids and he had a lot of stuff/junk going on in his life last year.
I wish he’d show up here again, I thought he was a lot of fun. Maybe he’s lurking…
He had the B chanter with him, as one of our pipers was buying it from him. He played a few tunes on the other piper’s set, and sat in a bit on whistle. He mentioned that he hadn’t even played in a couple months due to a shoulder/arm injury. My first time meeting him actually, even though he’s lived in the area for a while now. I’m not sure if he intends to take them up again. One of the guys there offered to loan him a practice set and he declined. Too bad, even with a couple months off, and playing a very winter affected set, he sounded good, had the regs going and everything.
Corin
Here’s one:
Ah, David, that is a very sweet looking set of pipes, indeed! Can I have them??
Tom was my very first Uilleann Pipe teacher. He is a good player, and a good person. The B chanter he is selling is from Bill Thomas, I had a chance to play it..it sounds real nice. A little bird told me that Tom might have Brad Angus, a good friend of his by the way, make him a narrow bore D chanter..Tom loves quiet sets. Kevin maybe you have more info on this rumor.
Elbogo…if you can’t have them, at least you can save a picture of them
on your computer. That’s what I plan to do, unless of course DQ accepts
my serious offer of $8K…and I’m flexible. I prefer the key of C or B, and
a 3/4 set, but I’d take D.
Brad’s known Tom K. for a long time, they used to hang out and make reeds and the like. Haven’t heard about Brad turning him any new sticks but he has in the past.
I’ve played the Mopane set pictured above, it’s Wally Charm’s. Chanter wasn’t happening, reed not doing it’s thing that day, and the tone seemed rather muted. Tough to get the second octave going, and I noticed some of the holes had a bit of wax in them - but Wally said he’d be soon getting a replacement chanter anyway, gratis, as it was a prototype of sorts. Very lovely regs, beautifully balanced and very soft tone. The drones had brass/wood tongue reeds in them, which gave them a bit overly rattly tone. If you like that sound it would be just the thing, of course. I had my own concert set which has maple and elder reeds in the drones, which to my ear were much more pleasant sounding.
It’s a very showy wood when freshly turned. Looks like a Satanic pinstripe suit or something. Not my thing, personally. Maybe with a nice black paint job.
It’s hard to see in the above pic but the tubing bends of the bass drone are soldered onto discs which are soldered in turn to the ferrules, thus doing away with having the tubing sit inside the wood, which Dave doesn’t like doing due to the potential of the wood splitting.
That’s a nice looking set David.
Well, I should be getting my Mopane half-set pretty darn soon here, with the antique Cherry main stock… and I am getting pretty darn excited! But, actually, I think I have another 5 or 6 months yet.