chanter: large holes or small

Uilleann Pipes
1

I was just looking at two different sets of pipes at Davey Stephensons’ website and suddenly noticed what seemed like a big difference in the size of the chanter holes… quite small and larger. I’ve not noticed this before, nor even considered it, and wonder if there would there be any benefit or specific reason for chosing one over the other.

Can one even choose one size over another when ordering a chanter/set? I’m puzzled here.

Small finger holes:

http://www.bagpipeworks.com/this_month’s_special.htm

Or the large holes, here:

http://www.bagpipeworks.com/more_2.htm

Which would be considered the normal?

2

Elbogo,the differnce in the size of the holes indicates the difference in the pitch.Small holes flat set in this case B large holes Concert Pitch D.I’m afraid you cannot mix n match so to speak.
Slan go foill
Liam

3

Liam,
Not to confuse the issue but, there is one exception. It may be more correct to relate the size of the finger holes to the width of the bore.
While flat pitched and narrow bore go hand-in-hand. A narrow bore D chanter has small holes and is ‘concert’ pitch.
Have a look at a narrow bore D and a wide bore D in a side-by-side comparison.
http://www.bagpipeworks.com/DSCN0020.JPG
The chanters are the same length and the hole spacings are the same. It’s not ‘flat pitched’ yet it’s narrow bore.


Thanks to Bagpipeworks for having so many great examples to refer to.

4

Tony I have a narrow bore D and the holes are smaller but the narrow bore is betwixt flat and concert.(Probably verging more to flat!)I didnt want to confuse the issue but thanks for pointing it out.
Slan go foill

5

I have seen flat set chanter with fierce big holes [they weren’t very nice], it is to an extend a design issue.

Hole size is important though, smaller holes give you much larger control over the harmonic content of the note, i.e. you gain flexibility and expression. Unfortunately the wide bore design brings with it the need of a fairly strong reed which tends want a bigger hole size t ovent all the turbulence it produces. It is very much worth looking at when you buy a chanter.
There are other factors too to take into consideration. For example if you find a huge F hole, it could give you an indication the tuning of that note moves towards the equal temperament, a lot of chanters come with a small second hole from the bottom, this alleviates some problems in the Rowsome design but it will often make it impossible to play E off the knee with the little finger down.

[edited for clarity]

[ This Message was edited by: Peter Laban on 2002-09-13 12:43 ]

6

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7

I missed the description: “New Super Deluxe Half set in B” on the Stephenson pipes, and in my late night browsing, I thought, O Boy, something I missed here!

Thanks. I also didn’t know that one could get a narrow bore concert D. I’m assuming that the wide bore D is the most common(?). How many of you play a narrow bore D?

8

On th e subject of narrow bore d; I meet with some pipers whom have narrow bore D’s. They have a softer tone and are less raucus than some wide bores can be. I belive the idea behind the narrow bore D was to acheive a mellower flat set cound.

Cheers,
Liam