Uh, OK so it’s just after lunch, and I’m still hungry!
I’ve heard several general schools of thought on the design of a bore. Can anyone offer a brief and/or lay description of the types of bores used by modern makers and the tonal differences?
In whistles, I understand the general differences between conical and straight bores for example, but what goes in in the uilleann universe is something quite foreign to me.
I’ve heard of straight tapers, multi-step tapers (like an old collapsing telesope), bores with different angles at different tone holes etc. Is there any generally accepted “norm” for a bore? Do wide and narrow require a completely different approach when one looks at their internal structures??
A straight bore with no change of taper is the norm these days, unfortunately. They DON’T WORK as well. Rowsome was said to have three changes of taper in the reamers he made, which is what Quinn uses, I’m told. Having a smaller throat will help tremendously in the production and sustaining of the hard D. Pipemakers who tell you this doesn’t matter are just too lazy to make a reamer and try it for themselves, which is appaling considering what we pay for these things.
It is also common knowledge that putting a tube of paper in the top of bore will help bring on the hard D, same result. You see, it’s like a slip of paper made out of WOOD…
Old flat chanters have even more complex bores, signs of wood being removed in the area of one or two holes for instance, which is a way of tuning a flat regulator note or first octave chanter note (and leaving the second octave note mostly alone). The ideal is a chanter that plays its notes with minimal pressure on the bag. Such a chanter will respond well to using a stiffer reed, too, but it isin’t essential, and shouldn’t be.
Geoff Wooff wrote very detailed articles on this topic in NPU’s Ceol Na Eireann books 1 and 2, Craig Fischer’s “Flat Pipes: Viva La Difference!” (available online) and “Phrenology” apppeared in the American Pipers’ Club journal. Three tapers should be the norm now, trying to make a “dunce cap” bore, as one person termed it, is just asking for pain from all involved. Read Craig’s posts to the Uilleann pipe mailing list, too.
Kevin, I’m afraid I’m not familiar with some of your references: Craig Fischer, American Piper’s Club. Could you provide some URLs? Also, when you refer to the Uilleann Pipe mailing list, are you referring to this board?
This is the website of the American Pipers’ Club. I figured calling it the IPC would lead to confusion…
This site has an article by Craig Fischer, an Australian instrument builder who has researched the acoustics of pipes pretty thoroughly. The other article he wrote is in one of the back issues of the Pipers’ Review the IPC publishes quarterly.
