Whats the latest new and improved uilleann pipes being made? (expermental or in production) New & better finger positions (natural position of fingers on chanter)? Do the finger holes have to be a certain distance from each other and if so, why? Could a chanter be custom made for someone with small/large hands? Has this been done? By who? Do any of the pro’s have this done? Whats the latest new & exotic wood (or material)being used? Does the type of wood being used make that much difference? I once, while working on a piece of walnut, drilled a hole thru it, pluged the bottom, and forced epoxy thru the wood by forceing a metal rod thur the holes. Could this be done (useing whatever) to stableize the wood, so that moisture would not effect the chanter? If bigger bellows make the UP’s easier to play, why doesn’t the makers offer them? Why can’t the reads be broken in by having air blown thru for say 24 hours? (air compressor) Just stuff for discussion…
All stuff that has been discussed before. Learn to use the Search function. If you really want to know all this stuff, start buying books, also previously discussed to death. Get the Sean Reid Society CDs from NPU. Look for back issues of NPU and Seattle Piper’s Club bulletins. Lots of stuff available.
djm
In order…
1)Probably Brian Howard. He’s been ‘cutting edge’ for a number of years now.
2)Gallagher has moved the bottom hand tone holes slightly on his C chanters.
3)Yes
4)The scale we play isn’t exact steps needing equal spaces. Check whistles from Indian, Slovic or Asian countries to see a difference.
5)I’m sure it can, however it would cost a small fortune to do a custom chanter with no guarantee it actually plays.
6)probably.
7)Anyone who had a bad set of plans or thought they could re-invent the wheel.
8)I doubt it
9)Mopane, everyone is talking about it. Well not everyone…
10)Somewhat
11)It’s called pressure treating. Sure it could be done. The downside is the epoxy has a different expansion rate to wood and may actually induce cracks over a long period of time.
12)Bigger isn’t necessarily better (at least that’s what I’ve told my girlfriend) at some point larger bellows would become a hinderance if your arm couldn’t open it enough to pump comfortably.
13)It’s been brought up several times. You need a way to control the air pressure or you’ll damage the reed. Possibly $50-75 for a painters air regulator.
I agree with Tony about Brian Howard.He’s currently developing a new regulator in order to do without the bass bar.Not another Taylor but something fiendishly ingenious.If some of the non-pipemaking critics and their personal bandwagons out there have their way I wouldn’t blame him for keeping the details to himself and resorting to what industry would call ‘commercially sensitive information’. He has always freely shown me anything I need to know.And , before Motormodem can start again , he will still supply the standard regulator ( for those who like the looks) and is bringing out the new idea for those who, like me, find it either uncomfortable or difficult to reach the lower keys easily. All this and without a waiting list! He’s off to Australia and Tasmania this Spring and is working like mad to stock up www.howardmusic.co.uk. All of us know that pipemakers don’t do it just for the money and I, for one, feel we should all support them and their steadfast efforts.
Oh.. Tony was being serious?
Yeah, Brian Howard has had the innovative bug for a while it seems. Other makers that have flirted with danger include Andreas Rogge (tweaking chanter key layout/back D tuning screw/regulator tuning slides) and Cillian O Briain (funky “neo Taylor-style” regulators).
The type of wood used does make some difference, but it really is pretty slight overall. The design of the reed has a much bigger impact on the overall sound. Most people, it seems, choose the wood for their pipes based more on aesthetic reasons than a strong desire for a particular sound that they believe that wood is capable of producing. For example, I play a Cillian O Briain boxwood chanter and I really can’t hear much difference between it and his blackwood sticks. The tone and volume are about the same.
Scottish pipemaker Hamish Moore has an interesting article on his website (www.hamishmoore.musicscotland.com) about using a “microwaving” process to stabilize boxwood.
From an engineering perspective, a full set costs way too much. I can see cast resin chanters, drones and regulators.Tooling would be a big issue but not impossible. I would dearly love to see a synthetic reed that would be 98% of a, say, a BK reed. Something that most of us could use on a day to day basis. Don’t get me wrong, I would love to own the Bee Hive set or a B Woof, but gosh, I can get bizzare military connectors in less than 16 weeks. Well,ok, 20 or so.
Any one want to do a design for manufacturability study?? Sorry- work intrudes. Thanks for letting me ramble, its been an iffy week.
In a conversation with Cillian O Briain that I had a few years back, he mentioned that he “wouldn’t be terribly surprised” if some Japanese instrument manufacturer (i.e. Yamaha) got into the uilleann pipe-making business at some point in the future (this was, mind you, while the post-Riverdance and Lord of the Hip Replacement-boom was still going on).
Not a very likely possibility, considering the profitability margins that would probably be necessary, but still kinda fun to imagine anyways. I’m sure they could churn out clean, decent-sounding sets at prices that could be considered relatively reasonable. Making sets out of polimers/cast resin would probably be more their bag as well.
I can see where the leather bag & and bellows made in Japan would be no problem. It might take some time to get the proper sound from the chanter, reg’s,etc. (1yr.) but after that I’m positive they could produce a good instrument, and a few years, becoming more accustomed to to the sound and what pipers want, could produce a superior instrument. they’re pretty good at anything they try (cars, violins,pianos, T.V.'s you name it) I don’t see any problems at all.
I think that comment about uilleann pipes being too expensive is a little off kilter.
I understand the point that if plastics and moulding techniques were employed in the manufacture of the things it potentially could be cheaper but then you’re getting a “cheap” instrument in the non-financial sense of the word.
I don’t make the things and have no great intentions to do so but and hand made wind instruments go, Uilleann pipes are probably the cheapest thing out there.
Any decent wooden flute maker will charge $2000 and more for a 6 keyed flute. You can get a 6 keyed chanter for half that!!
I met a guy from Switzerland who makes clarinetes and oboes. his cheapest clarinet was $17,500!!! I know theres a bucket load of extra keys but still. James Beatly or Kieran Crehan will charge at least $4000 for a new fiddle and they take a lot less time to make. I know a fiddle maker here in St. Louis that charges $8500 for his cheapest and he goes to $35000.
If you buy a $6000 or $7000 quality set from Geoff Wooff or Brad Angus or other really good quality makers that use traditional techniques, Joe Kennedy included. You can take a couple o’quid off that straight away for the few days that the maker has to spend tuning and balancing all the reeds. Then you take another few hundred away for materials and stick in the hours it takes to make the pipes, the lads are making $10 or $15 an hour! No annual bonus, no health insurance, no pension plans, etc…
Harrington was charging 50 pounds in the 1830’s. That was a professional salary then. The Taylor cousins charged $500 for their multi-bored regulator set for John Beatty. It was an extra fancy set but still they, as true craftsmen, got paid well for their time on that occassion.
Uilleann pipes are cheap.
Tommy Martin 
…
you crack me up Popejoy. 
Jeff
Besides the R&D costs to develop plastic UPs as previously mentioned, a more significant point is that, for all the well-made plastic instruments now available, no experienced player of those things would not give them up in a minute for the superior sound of a wooden version of the same thing - if they could afford it.
Let’s face it. What is driving people nuts is a). a lack of perception/knowledge on the cost of wooden instruments in general, and b). general frustration at the levels of maintenance required on UPs. I think some very good examples have already been made above on the costs of real wooden instruments. As to the maintenance issues, I would strongly support any UP maker who is coming up with better ways to let us spend our time playing, and less time frigging with windings, reeds, etc. Just because things were done a certain way in the 19th century doesn’t mean that was the best way, or that we can’t apply modern understanding of materials, engineering, and ergonomics to come up with an improved design.
djm
have you played one of those japanese/chinese/korean violin kits? i’ve bought german and czech violins in pieces at antique shops that i had to reassemble and refinish that were far better once I got through with them.
how long has pakistan been at it? and they still haven’t gotten “the sound that pipers want”
not that they couldn’t produce one if they really REALLY wanted to, but there’s just more money in turning a quick buck shipping dubious pipes to beginners who don’t know any better than actually learning how to, tooling up to, and producing a quality instrument. Same reason reed companies don’t want to be bothered even selling pregouged slips for UP…we’re just not a big enough market to warrant the time and effort…
…sigh…
Well there is one company ( not in Japan) which has already done the development work and invested heavily in the tooling-up for pre-gouged slips.They are available now from www.howardmusic.co.uk and because of the relatively low turnover I’ll bet it will take a lot of years to recoup the set-up costs. Brian is just like most of us who use this board – an enthusiast .He just loves the pipes and tries to use his knowledge and expertise to make a contribution.I have used these kits (with great success) and in fact they have helped me, in effect, to learn reed-making backwards! From starting with the ready-tie and producing usable reeds I have worked backwards to gouging my own with a much clearer understanding of dimensions, thicknesses, etc,.
oh, you know…i was browsing his site and i saw that…i thought he made them not that they were a kind of consignment thing…interesting…
Consider this theory:
A businessman who tinkers with highland bagpipes decides there’s a way to make bagpipes for less. He goes to a foreign country where the labor is cheap and seeks out a company already making musicial instruments.
The company agrees to make the pipes and they ‘reverse engineer’ a set given to them. Since they aren’t familiar with bagpipes (regarding intonation, tuning or playing) at best, they can only make visual copies and not true quality musical instruments.
Since the the price is so cheap and they’re making so many, vendors are happy for plenty of affordable pipes to sell.
It takes years for buyers to catch on… the products weren’t all that good and years for the vendors to complain back to the distributors who complain back to the manufacturer for better goods.
During that time small improvments were being made to the product as feedback from players (and not beginners) begins to filter back to the engineers, but they still have problems they can’t overcome. At some point they decide to hire an ‘expert’ pipemaker to show them what needs to be corrected to improve the product.
Some 30+ years have passed and they’ve finally caught on how to make a good set of Highland pipes.
Uilleann pipes are a recent venture… due to their complexity it may take much longer for them to perfect it.