I bought Wilber Garvins book a number of years ago and it is a wonderful introduction to the instrument. I keep reading on forums that the measurements are off in his book and you can’t produce a proper chanter but I’ve never seen anyone offer corrections.
1)Can any of you help with chanter bore, hole diameter and placement corrections to his design? -or-
2)Have any of you followed his directions and produced a good product.?
I am ready to grind a chanter reamer, I have been aging some cocobolo but given the expense and work involved I do not want to waste good materials. -or-
3) Scrap his plans and buy ______'s plans/instructions/DVD from ______ (fill in the blanks on what you have proven really works)
Thanks in advance
Bruce
ps there are not any sets in my neighborhood in Florida to measure or I would
Wilbert’s plans have lots of useful information in them. For the bores I would advise comparing with other available info.
In concert pitch, the best data currently available would be the chanter bore published in Iris na bPiobairi (Summer 1999 I think) in the Craig Fischer article “Phrenology”, plus the dimensions suggested by David Quinn in his Taylor-style drone articles. These are on his Pipes and Pipemaking CD-ROM, which also contains two sets of Leo Rowsome baritone and tenor regulator measurements. I suggest using DMQ’s suggested drone dimensions rather than the Taylor originals, since the Taylor drones appear to have been originally pitched flat of concert pitch and may have been intended for elder quills (hard to say). Also Chris Bayley has published a diagram showing dimensions for a Leo Rowsome set of concert pitch drones (much larger bores than the Quinn model, FYI). From all the above you should be able to put together a reasonable plan for a concert pitch 3/4 set.
Measuring a set you like is a nice option but it takes a lot of gear, much of which cannot be bought but must be made, to make a thorough bore measurement. While people have successfully made chanters using only “bell and throat” measurements and straight tapered reamers, these original chanters are definitely not straight-sided cones inside; if you want to faithfully copy the original tonehole dimensions and approach the original tone you will need to make similarly shaped reamers.
Hi fiddle, have you any experience with useing a lathe or woodturning?
have you got a low veriable speed of around 200-250rpm on a your lathe,
for a concert D, a 18mm-19mm throat length, a throat diameter 5.1mm-5.3mm over the length of the taper bore to a 13.10mm -13.20mm bell, that should work nicely for a concert D chanter, I used holly blanks for my first dozen test chanters, chris bayley has some free wrosome drone measurements on his web site. all the best, and take care with them sharp tools.
WG - Chanter is a bit on the short side (14") at least in the first edition (Based on McFadden ?). Have seen any subsiquent editions / reprinting so do know if anything has changed.
Drawings for a set of drones by Rowsome are available for free on my website
I do also have a full set of plans for a Rowsome set and am working on drawings for sets by Brennan, Egan and if you are feeling adventurous a barrel set by MacGregor
cheer’s Chris, thanks for the great info , not as easy as some piper’s may think, it took me two years to train as a wood turner and to aquire all gear & tooling needed for pipe making, every pipemaker has his own style & way of making his pipes,but the reamers seem to be the main secret of the pipemaker and can be exspected, and that comes with lots of experience, every pipemaker uses his talent in making there own individual sound & style of chanter,I know I have, but some pipemakers just copy other makers pipes & styles they found works for them, everyone to there own. all the best.
I also have the Garvin book, 1978 edition. I made my half set (excepting the chanter, I had no ways or means to make my own) mostly from Garvin in 1983; my bass drone has somewhat different bores based on info from John Pedersen, who made my chanter.
I’ve recently built a baritone regulator body in Honduras mahogany based on Garvin, using Craig Fischer’s square construction technique:
I too have been wondering about Garvin’s various dimensions, and I will probably build another test piece in something like pine for the Bass regulator, before committing the only piece of mahogany available for it.
I’m also curious if anyone knows what pipes Garvin used for his dimensions?
Frank McFadden, he was very sought after as a reedmaker. Ennis never sounded quite the same after McFadden died, or so some people say. Martin Rochford had a big box of McFadden reeds which he much preferred over his Rowsome ones and in fairness, they were much sweeter.
that should work nicely for a concert D chanter, I used holly blanks for my first dozen test chanters, 
chris bayley has some free wrosome drone measurements on his web site. all the best, and take care with them sharp tools. 
, not as easy as some piper’s may think, 
it took me two years to train as a wood turner and to aquire all gear & tooling needed for pipe making, every pipemaker has his own style & way of making his pipes,but the reamers seem to be the main secret of the pipemaker and can be exspected, and that comes with lots of experience, every pipemaker uses his talent in making there own individual sound & style of chanter,I know I have, 
but some pipemakers just copy other makers pipes & styles they found works for them, everyone to there own. 
all the best.
