Hey folks,
I just pitched down a recording of “sliabh geal goua” to G, and that sounds really amazing. So I ask myself why I never read anything about flat sets pitched lower than B or Bb…why is it? Just because the tone hole intervals? Or are there acoustical/constructional reasons?
Greetings,
G.
I have seen a G set, as long as a woman’s arm it was. I want to say it was made by Peter Hunter.
Yes, mainly because of tone hole spacing, but I understand from someone who made an A chanter that getting enough air into it to play at a decent volume was also a problem. Going lower would probably make things even worse.
djm
I have seen the one Joseph mentioned. It is quite long. If I was at home or work I could get a picture and a bit of info on it, but I am visiting the inlaws in Texas right now and will be here for a week.
I also would have been able to send Joseph a spool of non waxed yellow hemp, but luckily Seth was able to help out there. In fact he (Seth) is not too far from me, I think. I am in Dallas right now.
I think I saw that chanter on Davy Stephenson’s now defunct website. A very cool looking stick, but I’ll bet it is a bit of a challenge to play. 
No worries about the hemp Douglas, it’s the thought that counts. A few very kind folks have taken me up on a swap. 
With an A chanter you could actually play just about all the tunes in a D session! (Until yer fingers fell off, that is) How cool would that be?
Speed it up, It’s the ‘Garden of Daisies’
tommy
From the waybackmachine.org archives of Davy Stephenson’s old website,
The chanter pictured above belongs to Uilleann piper Mr Ronan Browne, who has kindly loaned me the instrument to take detailed measurements for my own archives. The original drawings of this instrument were given to me by my trainer and Uilleann pipe maker Mr Peter Hunter. The chanter comes in two half’s and joins between the G & A notes, with a flat sliding joint like that found today on any modern Clarinet or Oboe. The overall length is 27 inches including the cap, the tone holes have a slightly wider span than my Bb chanters and are reachable by all but the smallest sets of hands. The sound of the instrument is what I would call Sax like off the knee and wonderfully mellow on. [Davy Stephenson]
That’s the one. Man, what a huge chanter. 
Does it have a hard D? 
Wow. I want taht.
ARe there any makers who (would) make such a set?
A full set in G…ugh. Lunatic. 
Be careful with them in a pub!
Needs some Siccama keys.
I’d thought I’d seen it all with bagpipes… This takes the cake… That looks like the finger spacing of maybe a low C whistle? Crazy pipes… Wonder how long the bass drone must be…
… heh, I’d bet you could launch a good sized rocket with it.
Just got to think of a french pipe by Rogge…
And of course (since we’re not talking uilleann anymore) there’s the Itallian gran zampogna:
Nevertheless I’m still happy about any info about makers of lower-than-low sets… 
I’ve had my Bb chanter halfway to A on occasion. I’ve a tape of Ronan playing that G chanter - some wiseacre turns on a digital pitch pipe, somebody complements him on “Steady on the drones, Ronan! Very steady!” Ronan has a bit of trouble with “the span,” getting the hard D in and so forth. Practical limitations kicked in with pipes, which is why they never went past 18 1/2" = Bb. Denis Brooks mentioned A pipes in his tutor, though, perhaps he came across a lower chanter.
A Siccama key for the Eb hole might make lower pitches feasible. An A chanter would be weird in a session, let’s see, you’d get key of D while playing in G…yeah, you could play G string notes but how are you going to get up to the fiddle’s high A and B? On the chanter that would be high D and E in the third octave.
Colclough’s piping tutor (from the 1840s) shows bass notes on the bass regulator, maybe some innovator type could work some tunes up that way.
Of course keys to get high D and E are not unheard of, they have been used by Ronan on a Bb hunter chanter he has. According to Peter, notes up there are very pure in terms of lack of overtones when fed into an oscilloscope. I came across the G drawing the other day . . . . One day when I’m really bored I might make myself one!
If you want to hear something silly try www.hunterpipes.co.uk in an hour or so.
I swear to God I’m not promoting anything!