The mystery chanter thread got me thinking - are there any makers out there whose chanters are distinctive both in look and sound and are immediately recognisable or do they all make copies such as ‘Fergmauns’ posting
Pat Stones Luton England > www.patstones.com > also makes D narrow bore chanters.
This narrow bore chanters is a copy from Geoff Wooff D chanters and Wide bore D copy is Cillian O’Briain’s chanters.
So if one goes for a Pat Stones chanter would I just buying a Wooff or O’Briain clone ?
What’s funny and odd is that so many pipemakers do not mark/sign their work. That, in turn, helps the easy entry point for Pakistani makers (who choose not to sign their work, too).
People tend not too but hardly a general rule as there is enough opportunity to make a tweak to call it your own. There is no legal design or manufacturing barrier to looking over someone’s work product, craft your own tools, and ending up with something close or even exact.
If someone works out the ‘perfect’ chanter, no one else can use that? Or is forced to find another path to that elusive perfection? If so, how much variance is needed?
No one is ever going to develope the perfect chanter. As seen on here people can’t get remotely close to agreement on what good is, much less perfect. So, there will always be someone who says bad things about something you think is great.
As to outright copying, I don’t think my ego would allow me to completely copy something without making my own adjustments(either due to preference,working style or lack of skill).
Frankly, it’s probably easier to pinpoint chanters closer to perfection (whatever the hell that is!) than those that are “good”. Better than good - as close to perfection as we have reference from today’s late models - would include chanters from Wooff, Froment, Koehler and Quinn, Rogge and Williams (RIP). All different, all wonderful - what’s perfect? Certainly to copy any one of these enormously skilled makers would be a lifetime pursuit on its own (or should be since it has taken lifetimes to develop the skills required). But of course it’s not just the chanter it’s the whole package that claims the fame - the blend of carefully crafted delicate sounds. And Lord help us to accept criticism if we’re not perfect players for this perfect gear.
This is all perfectly arguable.
“They say that nobody is perfect. Then they tell you practice makes perfect. I wish they’d make up their minds.”
I dont think any living makers would mind having thier work copied by an amature. As if you could get very close anyway. But, I seriously doubt any pipemaker would approve of having their work copied -and sold-
Imitation is the highest form of flattery? On the other hand, I’ve been told by those who know that one should start with a historical model, and go from there.
There is a constant exchange of ideas among pipemakers. I know Geoff has given detailed drawings of chanters to a few makers. Does that mean they will be making Wooff chanters? No ofcourse not, measurements are a starting point, what sets a chanter really apart is how it’s final voicing and tuning is done. Closest to a Wooff chanter Ihave seen wa the C chanter made by Caoimhin, Geoff told him what to do evey next step (and he had a pretty good idea what he wanted as an end result).
The whole ‘copy of a..Coyne, Rowsome etc etc’ business is usually more a marketing tool than anything else, it’s usually an illusion you’ll get anything very close the original. It ca nbe a good starting point though, I remember one pipemaker turning up at a tionol during the 80s with a set of pipes that was ‘a copy of a Ginzberg’. Ah, the slagging…
David Quinn has had his older Rowsome copied as the penny chanter. Seth Gallagher copied his C chanter, which is David’s own design. At least one other maker copied the older Rowsome, with David’s permission.
I recently had the amazing opportunity to play with Pat Broderick (Galway piper, Shaskeen) a few weekends ago. It was amazing. My point is; he has a left handed Dave Williams set. Not only is the set completely beautiful, but it sounds amazing. It truely is about the whole package. But, there is something amazing about his chanter. It was so clear, in tune, with an amazing bright sound. And when he played the whole set That set was miles ahead of nearly any set that i had heard up to that point. People should try to copy that craftsmanship, and the sound that the great makers have been able to acheive however they try to go about it.
I’ve been told that Pat Broderick is a simply fantastic reedmaker, with a basement room full of reed stuff, and a table with hundreds of new reeds on pegs.
I’d suggest that ones amazing sound is the direct result of making ones own reeds, learning to match your own playing style with your particular instrument, and learning to play your own reeds.
IE, if you make a truckload of reeds for one chanter, one is hopefully bound to get very good at it.
On the other hand there are pipers who simply “dont need to make reeds” because they have super-reeds, 50 years old and perfectly stable, or who are hotshot enough players to manipulate reedmakers into supporting them…
Seeing that they (Faden and dunne ) are so obviously Cillian O,Briain copies I wonder do they have to pay some kind of royalties too Cillian ??
In conclusion it seems Cillian O’Briain has a mind of his own but Faden, Dunne and Stones do not if they go to the extreme of copying external detail as well
So which other makers are clever enough to be able to turn out distinctive work and not have to resort to slavishly copying
