I would like to know more about Narrow bore Concert D drone designs and makers? Few weeks ago I noticed that David Daye made his Concert D drones based on historical flat pitch Harrington drones. As I remember it was stated that it is the first time an antique drone design has been offered in Concert D format and that they are more complex with richer sound than most wide-bore Concert D drones and directly competitive with the finest Concert drones of other makers.
Can anyone tell me direct experience about this statement? Is this truth? What is the diference in Sound, if you compare them with other Superior Concert drones? I heard that they have amazing bass.
Right now I am making my decision about which maker to choose to get best possible sounding Concert drones. Any suggestions. I realy don’t care that David Daye drones are not as nice&rich onamented as others. If they are realy so amazing sounded Concert drones? then I will ignore that. The only think that I don’t like is that you can only use his metal/plastic reeds. I wanted to be able to make my own reeds someday from Elder to have superior rich, full and sweet sound.
Is there any other makers who are making their Concert D drones in narrower bore design to get superior sound?
I also have in mind few other makers for ordering my Concert drones, but I don’t have absolutly any idea about sound differences…? If anyone have sound samples of some amazing drones it would be great?
The makers I have in my mind are: Martin Preshaw, Hunter pipes, Michael Hubbert, Gordon Galloway and Mickey Dunne. So you can see I have no idea what to order? If you know anyone better with richer - more narrowish bore Concert drone sound please tell me?
I started searching for the best sounding chanter 25 years ago. I haven’t found it yet…and every time I thought I’ve found it, it belonged to someone else.
“Best sounding” is an expression that will probably not bring you much further, as it is subject to personal taste. You might not like the drone sound that I like, and vice versa. While I like a deep roar of the bass drone, many people hate exactly that and prefer a soft buzz from the drones, and so on. It don’t think there is a way to objectively decide, what the best sound is like. All you can do is listen to as many sets of pipes as possible and then make up your mind what comes nearest to your idea of the “best sounding” drones - after all, you will be playing them. Also, it is a good idea to take your own chanter along and ask pipers with good-sounding drones to play your chanter with their drones - not every drone sound blends nicely with every chanter. Another point is - to a great extent, the sound is determined by the reeds.
Unfortunately, sooner or later you will meet the same problem again trying to find the best sounding regulators…
" I started searching for the best sounding chanter 25 years ago. I haven’t found it yet…and every time I thought I’ve found it, it belonged to someone else".
Koehler and Quinn drones are narrower than many concert drones. They do sound great.
The bass in such drones sounds wonderful but realize it is not particularly loud.
There is however very little point in asking these questions of other people in an Internet forum. You have little idea about the tastes and knowledge level of the people answering… besides that, no two people will describe sounds the same way; we don’t have a consistent vocabulary for it. Sound samples are of limited use too, since they depend on mic placement and recording conditions, etc.
The only real way to answer this question is to go to pipers’ gatherings and listen to good sets of pipes, and trust your own ears.
Regarding your statement about the “Harrington derived” Daye drones, I do not believe this is the first time such a thing has been tried.
Good sense of Humour.