I know that many players prefer Boxwood for chanters to hopefully get “that” sweet thicker tone, but many times it bends, which doesn’t effect tone luckily, but does the look. But with Regs and drones this bending can make some problems I gues. Am I right? Which? Still many great makers use it a lot (Bill Haneman for C#, C and B sets, Michael Hubbert for B sets) ect. Why? How this drones and regs sound comparing to ebony? Are there many things tonaly. Some players don’t advice to buy boxwood pipes in B or Bb just becouse of above mentioned problems, especialy since in these keys, pieces of wood are longer.
Anyway, whatever I heard D or B chanters, boxwood always sounded special - like a more complex and refined tone with more character. But everybody’s ears are different.
I just heard this numerous times and saw few photos of chanter moustly. I love to believe that by carefull seasoning before making and good care of player (avoiding H&T extremes) this can be avoided.
Anyway, i am talking about French or English Boxwood. How about Turkish - is it more stable or less? Thanks, AA
I can say that castella boxwood seems to change colour depending on the humidity.
Not a true Buxus. Good looking wood tho’.
Interesting discussion on the Sean Reid Society page about the provenance of the boxwood R. L. Mealy used. Wilbert Garvin speculated that he was able to source boxwood from the bobbins in the linen mills. . .which were apparently made from boxwood brought in from all over the world as dunnnage. . .and might have not been all true boxwood at all.
Unless someone wants to offer up a sacrificial sliver from one of these Mealy sets for microscopic examination, we may never know.
This one comes into my mind: http://www.moloneymusic.com/product-listing.php?cat=2&sid=22&ssid=53&sssid=0#nav22WhistlesWoodenFlutesPipes (the Rowsome chanter)
The book “Les cornemuses de George Sand” has some photos of french bagpipe chanters, warped to a much higher degree. I’m quite sure that in the web you can find many pictures of warped boxwood instruments.
I have two spanish gaitas made from boxwood, one is perfectly straight in all parts, the other one has a warped drone.
Judging from the instruments that I have seen I would say that more often than not, boxwood will warp at least to a certain extent, the thinner the parts are, the more prone to warping; this means, a chanter, drone or regulator will more likely warp than a flute.
for microscopic examination, we may never know.