I’m looking for advice on how get the lower notes on my baritone and bass regulators to sound the correct note consistently. The D of the baritone is good most of the time but does squeak randomly, while the G on the bass will squeak more often than not. Any remedies?
Opening the lowest regulator keys quickly and fully tends to cut down on squeeks and jumps.
If the keys are set too low, so that the pads do not lift well clear of the tone holes, then notes can jump and squeel.
Using a soft cane for the reeds helps alieviate these problems.
Try adding masking tape to the scrape faces of the reeds, this adds bulk and softens the tone, dulls the upper harmonics so they are less likely to lock-in and cause octave jumps.
Other muting devices like ‘staple rushes’ can help by changing the scaling or overall pitch of a regulator, which may allow significant adjustments to the overal rushing needed for tuning which might rid you of the lower note jumps and squeeks.
Ronan Brown’s Harrington set has more blue tac on the reg reeds than the drones
RORY
There’s even a picture of the gunk on his reeds you can check out here:
I’d seen the reg reeds in some other photo, but that photo is a much better one, I’m surprised how wide the reg reeds are for a B set, they look like shovels.
RORY
Ps good one Tom.
I think you will find that Ronan’s ‘B’ set has a ‘C’ body … or at least that is the way he ran it a few years ago… So, in trying to bring the C regulators down to B to match the chanter he wanted to use, there were all sorts of strokes pulled to achieve this.
Regarding the OP’s topic;
to my mind it all starts and ends with the chanter reed. I see people using such a powerfull chanter reed that they hardly have the strength to blow the set and end up using the bellows like a compressor and the stretch in the bag to create the force needed. This is all wrong ! Remember Leo Rowsome’s comments in his tutor " it should be possible to play a tune through with the bellows detached". My own set is playable with just the pressure of my little finger on the bag… I have played Leo’s set and it was lighter than mine.
Now I am not saying we should, or could, all play that lightly and I certainly do not hand out a new Pipes set up as light as that but every customer finds that my new sets are lighter to blow than what they are used to. Reeds need to play-in etc., but when one gets problems like regulators overblowing too easily it might be worth reviewing the chanter reed adjustment first.
Did not know this. Interesting. It’s a great sounding set, at least in the recordings I’ve heard. I haven’t heard him play it live.
I will certainly defer to you, but my understanding was that he was trying to run his B set as a Bb set. I was hanging out with Bill Haneman briefly in 2007 when he had nearly finished a new B chanter for Ronan, and I recall him mentioning that. But again, I think you would know more than me!
Oh it could be you are correct but there are two Harrington sets that Ronan has been working with over the years… each in slightly different pitches… my memory of this goes back nearly 20 years before 2007 so it could be the other set or my memory fading .
The other set I’ve seen listed as a C 3/4 set, and there are photos of both up on NPUs site, I believe. As well as on Ronan’s website. So I guess probably you’re conflating the two things… No big deal either way, and I could still be wrong!
Editing to add that I think you are correct as the set he’s been calling the C set or his brass Harrington, he was playing in B and Bb:
http://www.ronanbrowne.com/ronanbrownebio/Ronan_Browne_Bio/Instruments.html (fourth set down, not second)
But the set Tom_S posted about is the B set (second one down above).
That’s a strange one from Ronan’s website. Why would all those Irish promoting organisations pay half the money for a set of pipes made in Japan.
RORY
Would it suggest that the grant funding was given for the Art of playing the Pipes as opposed to the Art of making the Pipes?
Possibly, the way it’s worded though implies the grant was for the pipes themselves. It’s not important but just seems a bit odd, but typically Irish when I think about it.
RORY
Yes , that’s true but would a less well known piper have been given such a grant ?
Jeez Geoff you’re opening a whole different can of worms there.
But at the end of the day the question is, is it important that uilleann/union pipes are considered Irish or will they out grow the Irish label.
RORY
Rory, would have questioned the grant if it had been used to buy a Froment set ? 
Or a Wooff or a Rogge, Kohler, Quinn etc?
I mean, that particular train left the station decades ago.
No big deal but why not an O’brien or Preshaw. Granted that some of the best makers are non-irish living outside Ireland. To my way of thinking an Irish promoting organisation might have been concerned that the money would go to an Irish maker, but obviously not.
I think its indicative of the way the pipes could go. The instrument will lose its irishness and become a stand alone musical instrument like any other.
Is this a good thing? Would it be something NPU are concerned about. Which is more important, the pipes or their Irishness?
Only time will tell.
RORY
why not an O’brien or Preshaw.
The artist applies for the grant. I am sure Ronan had his reasons to go for one of Makoto"s and laid that out in his application. You’d have to ask him.
The Arts Council facilitates a wide spectrum of cultural development in Ireland.
I’m not really bothered either way, just an observation
RORY
The Taylor Brothers were driving that train as it left the station 140 years ago.