I do not want to get into the quagmire of the waxed/unwaxed/teflon tape debate, but I have a question of how tight should my connections be?
I am a GHB player, so I have previous experience with hemping. I have a half set by L.Dunne with a bass reg bar (look at the pictures thread) I just want to know how tight the hemping should be on my drones and mainstock cup and the bar itself. I have redone the drones to what I perceive is satisfactory, but I still have a few questions…
also about the chanter cap. It comes off quite easy if I use two hands, I’m almost uncomfortable with the heming on it… I prolly will change it when I get around to it…
I am no expert, and I would be interested to see how players with more confidence will respond, but my thinking is that hemping uilleann pipes is much simpler than GHB, because the moisture content of the hemp should stay relatively stable (since you are not blowing moisture into it). So… it should be a relatively straightforward process of the getting the joints tight enough so that they don’t move on their own, but loose enough so that you can move them if you need to (to remove the stock, or tune, or whatever). The chanter cap should be tight enough so that it doesn’t shoot across the room. Happened to me once at a college graduation. Luckily, the band I was playing with was just warming up, so no harm done. Needless to say, I put a bit more hemp on the cap!
Don’t get things too tight as you don’t want them to seize up when the humidity comes back. The mainstock is a good example, I like to be able to twist it without too much effort, but have it tight enough that it doesn’t start coming out when playing. With our weather, you’ll be adding or subtracting a bit of thread and hemp throughout the year. Speaking of thread, you’ll want to be using cotton thread on most connections except for some of the larger things like the mainstock. It will take longer, but it offers more control. You can run the start and finish of the thread through a block of beeswax to give it some initial stick, but don’t used waxed hemp or thread.
The past few weeks have been crazy in the midwest for instruments - everything is shrinking so there has been a lot of rewrapping, putting rubber bands on reg keys and strategically placing pillows on the floor.
Also, I hope you are making plans for the third weekend in May for the GNIPC tionól in St. Paul. It’s gonna be a big one and you’re not that far away.
It does not matter whether you use hemp cotton or waxed thread. What matters is the there must be just enough binding to make the slides air tight; too loose and the drones will leak and be unstable. The slides must move easily so that tuning is easy and can be done with one hand. You’ll be surprised to learn that the slides can seem quite loose and still be air tight.
I was just pondering this myself; I’ve added thread several times already this winter but lately my drones are even loose at the stock, and the slides are so easy I’ve been wondering if things need a little more wrapping. At the same time, I’ve been worrying about overdoing it and cracking/jamming something when the humidity goes back up.
So since my drones seem to be staying steady and in tune – their volume might be reduced a bit, though at this stage of my playing maybe that’s not a bad thing – I guess I’ll just leave them unless something changes dramatically.