Check out this view of my dining room table this morning:
These are various Gaitas and Gaita projects in progress. 6 are working well, 2 more to finish. From left to right:
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This was the wonderful gaita that my friend Cano gave me, by Xosé Seivane, the father of the two brothers who currently run the company and Susanna’s grandfather. Currently set up in C. This remains my favorite set to play!
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This is a set that I just put together yesterday. I turned the chanter and blowpipe stocks and made my 1st Goretex bag ever. I’ll never use Leather again!. The bag is perfect, though it will feel better once a bag cover is made for it. A local friend is getting this set. He’s a well experienced wind player but newish to the pipes and Galician music and will face a steep learning curve to play with us. But I’ll help him along. He’s planning on sewing the cover himself. Chanter by Lois Mouriño and drones by Oli Hiraldez. This set plays well, and demonstrates my favorite way to make bagpipes - get all the acoustical parts from makers who do this well, including the reeds, so that I don’t have to make them. I’ll happily make flutes for these makers in return - something I know a little something about! We’ve been trading flutes for bagpipe parts.
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This is the set by Oli Hiraldez that I traded with one of my favorite flute clients in Spain. Currently the bag cover is down in California being used as a template and the blowpipe is out in the workshop also being used as a template.
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This is another set by Oli Hiraldez, with a chanter by Xosé Seivane that came with set #1. Pitched in D.
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This is a set by Tio Pinheiro in C in Bubinga, with a chanter by Lois Mouriño in Pau Ferro. This set is turned in sort of an older style and has a lovely rich sound and plays perfectly! A friend in Gig Harbor is getting this set, along with a spare D chanter (the smallest of the loose chanters below) by Mouriño. By changing the drone reeds he can play in both pitches.
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This is my "combo set currently in A, by Oli Hiraldez, chanters by Lois Mouriño, in lovely boxwood. This set is amazing in tone! I have other chanters in G and Bb to use with it (some of the loose ones in the picture), changing the pitch of the drones with different reeds or adjusting the reeds that came with it. This set will be useful in settings besides Galician music - such as when the local Hurdy Gurdies want me to play French music with them. Its louder than my old ebony and ivory Cornemuse, made in the late 80s just after we moved to Seattle, which I’ll get running again someday. Also much easier to play!
Also figured are drones and chanters for two more sets, for two lucky West Coast pipers. I just have to make a few stocks, blowpipes, bags and bag covers for these.
Making a Goretex bag is easy. I simply cut out 2 halves and sew them together outside in with normal thread and a fine pitch to the needle, then trim the extra fabric off at the seam and leave about 1/8" or less. Then I simply fold and iron on Goretex sealing tape over the seam, using medium heat on the iron. Once the seam has cooled I then turn the whole business outside out through the mouth. No seasoning required and stocks are very easy to tie in - since you don’t have a large seam in leather to work around.
This is probably the largest concentration of Galician bagpipes ever in Washington State, unless some Gaita band came through here in the last few centuries!
Casey