Hi All…Well, I’m back in OZ now after my two and a half years in Indonesia…When I went I left my concert pitch half set in storage in one of the big storage companies which you hope don’t leak or get too hot inside.
To Jakarta I took my McLaren C# chanter with reed and as of this day it still continues to sing. The inside of the reed it quite filthy from all the Jakarta grime but it sure is good to have my concert set out of storage.
Plugged the chanter in and it sang so sweetly, no reed adjustment necessary. What’s more, it even seems to be far easier to play than before being relegated to the storage shed.
Tied my drones in last night - I had a new bag made for me prior to leaving for Jakarta but never tied in the drones because I didn’t want to take drones with me - had to run the brass stock under hot water because it had become completely stuck fast to the mainstock during storage. It came off and I measured the hole to be cut in my bag…this would be only the second time in my life I’ve tied in a stock.
First attempt they leaked very badly; second attempt - airtight as can be. Started them up for the first time in 2 and a half years and they sprang to life…once again, no adjustment necessary bar a little tuning of the drones. Nice…
The washing machine was a different story…it had been stored next to the pipes which had been stored next to everything else. Got it home, turned it on, started the wash cycle and come time to empty and go into the rinse cycle, nothing happened. Called Amanda…Amanda Fix Me Machine and he stuck a screw drive inside a little hole behind the dial and turned it about 60 degrees, turned on the machine and packed up. All fixed in 20 seconds..cost me $75!!
Got Broadband connected the other day, heard about a certain Finbar Furey reedmaking video…watched it and went to bed…dreamt of mandrels and cobblers wax…
I trust your time spent up there was, if anything, educational… no pun intended. How did the local environment treat your chanter reed?
Was it too hot or humid for it, or was it the ideal place for piping? I can imaginee that the rainy season might have been a pain in the neck.
actually, the reed held up very well…I guess being made in the sub-tropical humidity of Brisbane which actually gets much hotter and stickier than Jakarta meant that it wasn’t subject to much environmental change at all. Even in the air conditioning it still sing beautifully…if anything, all it ever needed was the occasional tiny move of the bridle up or down a finger nails thickness to either open or close it a tiny bit, but never any major difficulties…
Yup…it was a great experience, one I would recommend to anybody…Jakarta is a great town..they even have a Highland Gathering there every year…been about 31 years now…
It is good to hear from you again. The time went by fast.
The C# as a practice set was probably a good choice. Narrow bore is a bit more pleasing to the ear.
Were the drones that you tied in for C or D? I recall having some discussion before you left, and you were going to use drones either a half step down or up. I am curious as to how that worked out.
Hi Douglas…nice to ‘meet’ you again ..Yup, C# was good since we lived in an apartment. The drones are concert drones and too loud for the C# even if I could tune them down. One day I’ll get around to making some C#drones though.
How did the local environment treat your chanter reed?