Just received a new reed from Patrick Sky. The staple was unhemped, so I hemped it approximately like the knackered cane ones that came with the pipes (I used waxed hemp; former owner used a lot of Teflon tape; is this common with uilleanns? I only use tape on tuning slides myself). The D and back D balance at 459 hz on a Korg CA-30 with the reed at just less than 8 cm. Other than hemping the staple I haven’t finagled the reed at all.
Been stretching my right fingers and can finger the chanter easier, but my right thumb really cramps rather quickly.
Some people use teflon, but I think most use some form of hemp; waxed for what you don’t want to move, unwaxed for things that should, like drones. Even that little bit can be controversial. There are few hard and fast rules, and many who will argue you into the ground just for the sake of arguing.
The sore thumb results from what I call the “death grip”. It’s an easy habit to fall into, and something you must train yourself out of. One exercise you can try is to take a large plastic drinking straw, mark out the holes per your chanter, and practise fingering on that. If you’re crushing the straw you’re squeezing too hard.
Another exercise is to practise holding the chanter with the bottom hand to play the top hand notes, and then practise holding the chanter with the top hand to play the bottom hand notes.
Sounds dumb, I know, but what you want to do is develop the correct body habits so that these little details become natural so you won’t have to think of them anymore.
Doesn’t look Middle Eastern…
If ye want to ues a tuner this is areference for ye
Back D - even 0.00
C# - minus 11.73
C Nat. - minus 3.91
B - minus 15.64
A - plus 1.96
G - minus 1.96
F# - minus 13.69
E - plus 3.91
Bottom D - even 0.00
hemp; waxed for what you don’t want to move, unwaxed for things that should, like drones. Even that little bit can be controversial. There are few hard and fast rules, and many who will argue you into the ground just for the sake of arguing.
A-HAH! A COMMONALITY WITH THE GREAT HIGHLAND PIPE! (not the hemp; the proclivity to argue vociferously over some bit of arcana as if it were the grail itself)
Doesn’t look Middle Eastern…
If ye want to ues a tuner this is areference for ye
Back D - even 0.00
C# - minus 11.73
C Nat. - minus 3.91
B - minus 15.64
A - plus 1.96
G - minus 1.96
F# - minus 13.69
E - plus 3.91
Bottom D - even 0.00
Thanks. So like my other pipes, it is in tune when the tonic notes are in balance (D), regardless of the frequency. I’m trying to avoid a fault I often see with GHB newbies; they’re trained extensively on a practice chanter that sounds like a plastic kazoo with scant attention paid to training their ear or teaching to properly tune chanter or drones. I want to learn on an in-tune instrument (I rather suspect that everyone within earshot shares the sentiment).
A=440 is pretty standard for modern sets. There were other standards in the past, and sets by previous makers are speculated to have aimed for those tunings, but most anything made in the last 20-30 years is usually designed for A=440 (minus the difference for equal temperment, as Uilliam noted).
