I’ve posted this question on here before, but have never received a satisfactory response. I’m going to try one more time before I snap my f**ing regulators over my knee and throw them into my fireplace.
Ive been playing my full set now for five years and I am trying my best to learn to play the regulators. For them to sound, I need to bang on the keys ala Jerry O’Sullivan. However, by the time they do sound my chanter is somewhere up in the 4th octave and I am emptying my Michael Dow’s bellows in just under one second.
What is wrong? Please do not direct me to my pipemaker. Believe me I’ve been there and done that.
That doesn’t sound normal. You seem to require lots of pressure to get the regs to play. Have you got the reeds balanced? Not just tonally but for pressure?
What about playing one reg at a time? Play just the baritone - turn the tenor 90 degrees to the left and the bass 90 degrees to the right and see if you can play just one reg with the chanter. Then try the same with the tenor on its own and the bass on its own. Any difference?
If you’re not happy with what your pipemaker said/did, you can always ask another pipemaker or reedmaker to have a look at your pipes.
If you’re completely pi$$ed off with regulators, don’t destroy them. As mentioned above, sell them.
For them to sound, I need to bang on the keys ala Jerry O’Sullivan. However, by the time they do sound my chanter is somewhere up in the 4th octave and I am emptying my Michael Dow’s bellows in just under one second.
For a start, bangign the keys hard does nothing but cause damage to the wood and keys.
Sounds like your regulator reeds need more pressure to sound than your chanter reed. So you need softer regulator reeds or a harder chanter reed.
Other things to check would be leaky keys and make sure the reeds aren’t loose in the sockets.
What is wrong? Please do not direct me to my pipemaker. Believe me I’ve been there and done that.
Try a different one then, or at least a good reed maker.
I bet that your reg reeds are bronze. If so, switch to cane. If not, then maybe the balance is off compared to your chanter reed. Are the chanter and reg reeds of the same maker?
To answer your question: Regs are the perfect job to kindle a fire. Remove reed and endcap and blow from the endcap-side. Apart from that - all tropical hardwoods burn very well and leave most beautiful white ashes. In fact there hardly is anything better except - the baritone drone. Seriously though:
There is no way around this except either you are willing to part with the whole set for quite some time (to have it “balanced”) or you are that famous in the piping world that any reedmaker would spill heartsblood to make reeds for you.
You are encountering this problem: The fuller the the set the more complex the process of pressure-balancing the reeds. You might but question the other way round wether your set is O. K. and your chanter isn´t too “fluffy” as it is pretty unlikely that any (non-Pakistan) pipemaker should send you stuff that makes you squeeze your eyes out of your head. A certain pressure is necessary for a good sound. I think I don´t have to go too deep into describing what you do to light a lovely sounding f#rt. The average concert pitch reed plays at ~ 40 or 50 millibars. This is but pretty relative and the pure data won´t tell you too much. The only way is asking any piper you meet to have a go with your set and give you a comment. A big No-no while doing so however is using a bellows that does NOT belong to the set. Every set of pipes is a “closed system” with it´s constant bellows-bag-presure-(size)-ratio. I encountered many times that using a different bellows had a huge difference on playability. The piper used to “pump like a beetle” and with a different bellows it was all of sudden gone completely. The total pressure is relative, cause a perfect set can feel pretty easy to blow though the reeds are “on the heavier side”.
Cheers,
Hans
Who made your regs? That perhaps is part of the problem.
But as people have said, it’s quite an art to balance three regs with a chanter. Obviously everything begins with the chanter- is your chanter playing well, at a good pressure and volume level? If your chanter is playing how you want it to, then that pressure must be your starting point for adjusting your regs. Regs should not take a lot of air, they should not be loud enough to overpower the chanter. You should be able to play two regs together and still hear the chanter clearly.
But anyway it sounds like your reg reeds are too open, or your chanter reed is too weak.
I recently tried a Tim Britton set that only worked at a VERY high pressure. Only when I blew at more than twice the strength of my pipes did all the regs come into tune with the chanter.
I’d say that if you’re willing to take on the regs you have to be aware of sparing some time tuning them once in a while, especially in the northern climate where I am.
I usually do the same as with the drones.
Look for leaks, more hemp?
Put the reeds firmly into the socket.
Find your suitable pressure against the chanter (usually where the back D breaks) and get all the reeds to work at this pressure. (opening lip, moving the bridle and so forth)
This will take some time to get to grips with but hang in there and don’t overdo any changes or do any changes that is not repairable. Try and figure things out or get new reeds…!
Rob
