“It took conscous effort on my part to play from the bag, and not the bellows. Getting my blowpipe the correct length made a huge difference by putting the bag in the proper position, now I’m able to get better leverage on the bag.”
Does anyone know of a formula to determine the “correct” length. Buying a longer length of tubing and cutting until it feels right is probably one way but has anyone come across anything like, “Waist in inches/2.8” will give a good fit?
I now make the flexible connecting pipe with a parallel bored stock at each end. The blowpipe has a corresponding parallel section about 40mm long with hemp wrapping just like a drone joint. The bellows outlet is similar and this gives around 30 to 40mm of adjustment which should allow for changes in clothing or the expansion of the stomach as a good pub session progresses !
I mentioned this before… radiator hose is cheap, about $1 a foot for 16mm diameter stuff so you can easily experiment different lengths. You might also consider the stature of the person making your pipes as they probably cut what’s right for them.
Then, there’s the ‘dicky-do’ factor, in which you have to add more hose if your belly sticks out more than your dicky-do.
Don’t take this the wrong way, but: I’ve read some really amazing things on the internet! Maybe it’s time to check some electric guitar forums, there are probably heated discussions about the best way to remove strings. “Wyse!” “Snap-Tight!” “Wyse RUINS the tone!”
(Brands of wire cutters)
Radiator hose is cheap, but it’s also effectively rigid.
Chris’s approach is the way to go, because it allows not only for middle-age spread but also for the piper to adjust his/her posture until the whole setup is comfortable, and it seems to me that it should also afford greater ease of movement when playing the regulators.
The only drawback - assuming that it’s not over-extended to start with - is that the connecting tube may get kinked and block the air supply. In the pre-rubber-hosepipe era, some makers used a leather tube filled with large beads which allowed the air through but prevented the tube from kinking.
Well, I don’t know how you could even keep the thing together that way. Both tenons or all tenons that fit into sockets in the chain of blowpipe section (since there are numerous ways to connect them) should be wedge shaped or at least wrapped wedge shaped so as you push them in they seat tight and stop. Then you should cut a too-long tube, most I know prefer clear vinyl hose for a number of reasons, until it fits just so when you are laying on your bag and bellows, it actually is being forced slightly together. It will then stay together, and wedge tight and not leak.
I don’t see how a constantly sliding tube can either seal, for if it can move at all it must be leaking, or keep you from at some point in a moment of excitement or uncomfortable re-aligning yourself, pulling it apart or sliding in too far, in which case it would take some awkward heaving to move back in the direction it needs to get back to the length your really want it to stay. In and out, in and out, all performance long? How does that work?
Right now I have a mainstock that tends to squirt out of the cup because winter indoor drying has shrunk it up a bit. That’s annoying enough to have to keep dorking back in every few sets. But at least in that case, if it really bugs me I can add some hemp–but at this point a few weeks from now it will probably be swelling itself up again from the spring moisture. I don’t know what I’d do with a blowpipe that kept changing lengths on my while I play.
It is not a “loose” sliding fit - hemping is tight enough to stop free uncontrolled movement which could allow the assembly to come apart. The object is to be able to slide the joints enough to take up any slack caused by taking clothes off or lengthen if putting more clothes on etc.
My problem is that I get the bulk of the bag behind my arm, and then continued squeezing tends to pull the bag away from the bellows, with the result that the two disconnect in mid-honk, as disconcerting for me as my playing is for others. Should I be getting a longer hose, or trying to keep the bag proper under my arm (though this is pretty uncomfortable, I find) or should I just cease worrying, and assume that acquiring a mainstock will keep the bag in place?
As Chris says, cylindrical connections work just fine, provided the binding gives a snug fit - it probably helps if it is waxed. My first (practice) set had a conical blowpipe that was too tapered, and it was quite prone to separating from the connecting tube because of this.
The tube has to be the right length. Horror of horrors, you might need two of them. I’ve a video a guy sent, he’s asking Robbie Hannon about different types of hinges and straps on bellows. Robbie sez: “That’s about as trivial as things get!”
I suppose this can seem trivial to an experienced player, but enough has been made in several posts about fitting/sizing the set to the individual player that I can see a newbie struggling with their first set and wondering if they have the fit wrong. Probably something that could be easily verified by getting in front of an experienced piper/maker in about two seconds.
Indeed, djm. Some people don’t realise that their molehill is another person’s mountain, as is the case with the ridiculously hard reeds that are often inflicted on beginners.
I suspect BTW that the thong-type hinge combined with an elbow strap that extends from the area of the hinge to the back of the bellows (as I believe was the W Rowsome approach) gives much more freedom to move around when playing the regulators, and that this combined with a flexible bellows-to-bag connection would make a great difference, particularly for people (like myself) that still haven’t worked out their own salvation as regards the regs.
That’s the point I was trying to make about having a somewhat stiff blowpipe, and getting it just a hair longish feeling, and then of course placing it correctly, so when you’re reefing on the bag and pumping down on the bellows, you’re constantly tending to force it into the socket, tightening it with every stroke.
If your playing posture and setup are such that you’re bolt-upright with shoulders back and the hose miles across your chest, pulling all the time away from itself, you’ll never keep it together no matter what. You have to adjust your posture, bag placement and setup so the action is forward enough to be squeezing this apparatus straight together all the time.
The comment has been made about cylindrical connections, but in truth there aren’t any. If the tenon gets tighter the more you push it in, it’s been wrapped conical, even if you can’t see the shape of a cone it’s still conical. Conical doesn’t mean it’ll look like a traffic cone. Likewise, if your blowpipe is too conical you just wrap it less conical. You build up the end that’s narrower. It’s an easy adjustment.
The question I had was the notion of a truly parallel wrap that slides at will for any good length inside of a bore designed to slide in and out. I previously mentioned the idea of that join constantly sliding out or being pushed in as you move, whatever the tendency might evolve to be. It will and does happen. And, especially with a limp blowhose, like the SSP and NSP I’ve played with leather hoses, the reason they tend to kink is because they’re too long and you can’t push against them at all, they just fold–so most of these hoses are now made with coils of spring inside the length.
But a good, stoutish vinyl hose is just flexible enough to give and be comfortable, not collapse, and take some pushing against to keep the mess inserted.
As far as the clothing goes, I suppose if you’re into a lot of costume changes maybe it’s a factor.
But any time a joint can be taken out at all it’s leaking. If it slides at all, tight or loose, it’s leaking. If it moves enough that you can force it into place and then pull it out again, it’s leaking. I have too much high-pressure background from GHB to risk just flubbering out any amount of air right at the blowpipe, because that’s entirely wasted effort and you never know exactly how much is being lost until you do emergency detective work usually at the most inopportune time. Frankly, most smallpipes are embarassingly leaky and the same is true for most UP I’ve seen others playing, it’s just that the human body has the ability to relatively easily blow half it’s effort out of dry hemped tenons and mainstocks that are oval and stop-valves that hiss like snakes and still have plenty to make a set of UP go fine.
I’ve watched my pipes run at greater volume, full drones, taking one stroke of the bellows for every two or three the other pipers at the session or whatever are taking on half-sets without drones and chanters you can barely hear. I just think it pays off if a setup or approach errs on the side of not leaking like a sponge soaked in neatsfoot oil.
I just wanted to caution beginners in particular the use the same sort of prioritization of the instrument, rather than opt for the ostensibly more “progressive” or sometimes “gadgety” approach. That is, if, as I think you said, this is a design that slides itself way way in and way way out of one or more joints. But there may be people who play in a position where they really don’t put pressure on the pipe one way or the other. Everyone’s setup is unique.
I think I’ve seen quick disconnects come up before, but I’m not sure I understand how all the pieces go together. Is there a way to put the good ideas on this thread together, so that I could put quick disconnects on an expandable flex hose?
Yeah, I’m going to the factory/office today to pickup some things, I’ll take a picture (or two) of the pneumatic air hose connectors.
Kynch O’Kaine is using a similar setup of brass quick connect garden hose connectors and he swears by it. I’d be concerned the connectors would gnaw bits of wood they rubbed against and should be covered in a leather sheath.
I’ve seen a plastic version with O-ring seals in a garden shop. This may be a better way to go. I know pipemaker Bob May was doing something like this about 3-4 years ago… I’m suprised it hasn’t caught on.
hinge combined with an elbow strap that extends from the area of the hinge to the back of the bellows (as I believe was the W Rowsome approach) gives much more freedom to move around when playing the regulators, and that this combined with a flexible bellows-to-bag connection would make a great difference, particularly for people (like myself) that still haven’t worked out their own salvation as regards the regs.