Just kidding around a bit. You’ve always championed flat pipes as the superior instrument in every way imaginable and then to say the best (in this one specific sense) you ever played was Leo’s might come off as controversial to some. Maybe. “Quarrelsome Pipers,” you know? It’s also interesting to hear, coming from yourself.
Obviously I’ve never played your pipes but have enjoyed playing a few sets that were hard not to play all over the keyboard on, they were so easy to work. Not my own unfortunately, since for my Bb pipes I’ve always insisted on 5 regulators minimum, with all the attendant extra leaks that entails. So I have to settle for really really easy. Acceptable tradeoff, sez I.
Just listened to D’arcy’s Sí Beag Sí Mór. I had not heard him play before ( I have led a sheltered life). Wow… he is really good. But I have a question. What is the big bass sound that comes in midway through the song. It sounds too low for a drone… is that one of his regulators. It really added a powerful background to the tune.
Now, I did not say that the lightness of the blowing of Leo’s pipes constitutes a ‘best I’ve ever played’. Lightness for lightness sake might not be a totally usefull goal…
I tend to set up each New set to be as hard as I can manage comfortably… Usually when the Customer arrives they find the pressure quite normal or light, depending on what they are used to. So, I work on the Reeds-to-Play-In system… A light Reed is not necessarily a shaved down to wafer thin type… but a Scraped in good places and allowed to Play-In variety.
As to why Five Regs. should cause any more leaks than three or any leaks at all ?? Still you must be some sort of Martyr or masocist to have a Bb with Five honkers, surely ?
Leo’s set is nothing I’d want to listen to all day long - but that’s true of concert pipes in general for me. Never cared for his drones so much, always thought Taylors had a richer sound. Played Mickey Zekley’s Taylor or copy pipes once, they had a very nice buzzy tone.
Love to listen to Leo anyway - big fan. Wonder how he got that chanter to play so easy without the motorboat bottom D and faulty high E problems. Maybe being halfway to Eb helped…I was told he had a rush in the bore - big guill - so there’s that. Craig Fischer told me way back when that he thought Leo was a great reedmaker, and could fix shortcomings and faults with a barrage of reeds, one of which might do the trick.
I play an old Patsy Brown Taylor copy and found out that if you mask the Eb with tape the reed can be light and the high E doesn’t snarl. Maybe Leo incorporated something similar from the start. Another thing I was told about Leo’s work is that the earlier examples are a bit more prized - closer to his Dad’s pipes especially with the chanter which were more faithful to the Taylor he copied to get started. Later Leo is more experimental in nature, and not just the chanter. Tom Creegan’s set for instance has an all brass tube bore at the start of the bass drone. Stuff like that.
Ah, sure with my giant set all those extra pads and screwholes add up eventually to a bit of leakage. I made a jumbo bag myself to compensate a bit for that. I can knock out a tune on the thing, here’s a couple reels if you want to hear them. “Masochist,” well it’s a finicky instrument start to finish so if you want to play and be in tune and use the regs you’re going to have to beat your head against the wall at some point anyway, right? Those pictures of jumbo sets like the big Moloney Brothers or Joe Shannon’s fascinated me from the start, too; what kind of sounds would you get out of pipes like those? The extra effort never put me off, I’ve been making reeds for a long time and actually enjoy “getting under the hood.” The fellow who got me started with the pipes compared them to classy old English cars - really cool, unique, handmade. And constantly breaking down. 'Nuff said.
I always had to have a Bb set - Willie Clancy on that one Pipering LP won me over forever. Never worried about the span, I used to play the bass guitar. Picked up the concert pitch chanter once after it had been gathering dust for a few years, it was hilarious, like trying to play a pencil. When Brad Angus and I first began talking about a big Bb I told him make me the lowest pitch set you can - B, Bb, A. H? M? He did begin work a couple years ago on a low G set, that was…interesting. It could be done but I really think you’d need some mechanical assistance, keywork on the lowest fingerholes maybe, like on one of those old Siccama flutes.
Peter Hunter made a G set at some point - Davy Stephenson’s pipes had pictures of it. A monster indeed. Don’t think I’d like to be strapped into a full set!
Well… I listened to most of the links and artists suggested. Thank you all very much. And in particular I listened more carefully to the tunes to where and how the regs were being applied. A few still sounded like the " honking horn" that someone referenced but with many of the others it sounded really great. In fact I found one of Jerry O’Sullivan doing youghall waltz where he brings them on toward the end of his performance and they are really wonderful.
So if I can handle the air demands of the drones, that I may get someday from brad angus, then in a few years I think a regulator will be on my Christmas list.
I wish I would have gotten serious about the pipes when I was in my 20’s instead of 62. So much to learn and not nearly enough time.
It’s also interesting to hear, coming from yourself.
Those pictures of jumbo sets like the big Moloney Brothers or Joe Shannon’s fascinated me from the start, too; what kind of sounds would you get out of pipes like those? The extra effort never put me off, I’ve been making reeds for a long time and actually enjoy “getting under the hood.” The fellow who got me started with the pipes compared them to classy old English cars - really cool, unique, handmade. And constantly breaking down. 
'Nuff said.