I just got back from Spruce Pine, North Carolina where I picked up a beautiful 1/2 set of pipes that Patrick Sky made for me. On the perchance I had tossed my Eugene Lambe chanter which was [for me a novice] very difficult to play and a Benson chanter which was really easy to play but wouldn’t go up all the way up in the 2nd Octave. I chose Pat because he came recommended to me by another piper and because his lead-time was short. Pat played the new set and it sounded great and then I showed him the two chanters. He straight away made a reed for each of the chanters using the same techniques as for his own pipe sets and with a bit of adjusting in and out of the reed in the chanter to balance the octaves both chanters played equally easy as his own set did. Granted they were tuned to themselves, but even so what I knew of reeds to this point, gained from reading books and the forums, had led me to believe that each reed would have to be made and scraped and diddled with endlessly specific to the chanter to make it work. Of course, like the Finbar Furey videos, Pat makes reed-making look simple and I suppose it is when you have been doing it for forty years, but it was still amazing to see how well the reeds worked in both chanters. We pulled a rush out of the Benson before we put the reed in and it sounded fine without it. I have no reticence in recommending Pat SKy’s reeds and sure would try them in whatever chanter I had before doing any adjusting of anything. I am just learning but I have been listening to the pipes for 40 years myself and all three chanters sounded fine to me. He gave me a lot of information and I am going to give reed-making a shot myself but it is good to know that a drive to Spruce Pine will solve any problem if I get stuck.
Mike Ruddy
Do you have any sound clips of you playing your new set ?
Mike, please check your private messages.
Podge
I am not ready to inflict punishment on anyone with the squeaks and squawks I am producing at the present moment. To paraphrase Kenny Rodgers: “There’ll be time enough for piping when the practicing is done” My post was just a happy one as a result of acquiring some reeds and finding out how I should be holding and fingering the bag, bellows and chanter and having a beautiful drive through the North Carolina mountains.
Mike