Other than adjusting the bridle and creating changes in tuning…is there a mute or some device to quiet the pipes a tad or so???
Beginner Piper
It’s been reported you can use some ‘stick-tack’ reusable adhesive product. Roll or stretch it into a length of 3-4" and wrap the reed from the thread wrapping to midway into the scrape, covering the bridal.
Press LIGHTLY when adjusting it’s shape. If you don’t like the results you can easily remove the adhesive and try wrapping it at other locations.
Thanks, i could not find stiki tak tape but i found plumbers tape …tried it …no difference in volume. Any other suggestions…maybe an air conditoned portable glass booth?
Plumbers tape?? I’m not sure what that is.
I’ve used blue masking tape to calm down a squeaky reed by cutting two pieces about 1/2" x 1/2" and ‘folding’ it over the sides of the reed (where they join) starting about 1/8" from the reed lips.
Clear wrapping tape can also be used… avoid regular masking tape or any thin invisible (mystic) tape as the glues used on those products may dry and no longer be removable.
Plumbers tape is the white nonadhesive stuff. It’s about one half inch in width and has elasticity. I do not have a problem with squeakiness. My pipes sound beautiful. The plumbers tape however did not work as a mute. I guess the only solution is to become a better player and not worry about the volume!!!
Thanks for your help
PS You are the guy who steered me on the Preshaw Practice set…I am very happy with this set. Thanks again
Sorry for going at it again but you get yourself a wide bore concert chanter designed to play loud, and then you want to silence it.
I just bought me a formula 1 car, can anybody please help designing a speed limiter for it
Peter,
I love your responses (usually) I think he just wants to take the edge off the sound, not change it’s playing characteristics… ain’t 'nutthin wrong with that!
Mypipes, the white PTFE Teflon thread seal tape is used by many reedmakers to seal off the tapered part of the reed slips under the wrapping.
I would think an over wrap would have some effect in the reed. How far up did you wrap?
Some people are using pipe cleaners as mufflers though I haven’t seen pictures or the method and location for best results.
The windcap on my (loudest) chanter is a small diameter and close to the reed. The first time I tried sticky-tack on it, the reed became trapped in the windcap. On my second attempt, I had to warm the tack and stretch it like bubblegum to make a few thin wraps just above the bridal, too thin to expect any big results. The masking tape gave me better results. I’ll have to try the PTFE to see if I can get it to work.
I’m glad you like your Preshaw set. He always gets good reports.
How did that guy Pete know I have a formula 1??? I drive with the emrgency brake on so it wont go too fast!!
Any how I wrapped the Bottom below the reed at first as Willie Kelly had suggested this for a perceived opening leak in reed inthis area but I had also wrapped it above the reed for volume control…it had no effect at all so I took it off the top and left the tape under the reed. No problem at all with the reed.
Does Peter know that they make mutes for fiddles so people can “practice” quietly or sit back in session to learn tunes. Now he’s got me on a mission to invent the same for the pipes…Ha — I’ll make millions while Peter is scratching his head!!
I meant bridle on reed re last message ie above and below. Hope it makes sense now?
Tony, you can’t really quieten the pipes or as yousay ‘take the edge off’ without changing the characteristics all operations described involve major loss of harmonics.
Less than an hour ago I had a chat with Martin Preshaw, and I assume we are talkign about one of his sets here, and tried a half set he ha for sale [one of my students is considering buying a half set]. While Martin’s pipes have a strong volume, they are not overly loud, or scream at you as some concert sets do. So if you have one of those you got very much what you were looking for, a concert pitch set, if you don’t like it, well you bought the wrong thing. And that is what I said above. Go on make your millions, I 'll be scratching my head.
Peter, Evertjan 't Hart seems to think you can make a reed quieter. Here’s his response from the Uilleann forum:
Is there a way to make a reed play
very quietly, yet still in tune and
able to reach the octave? Or do I
need a narrow bore chanter?I frequently get home late and work
odd hours and it would be nice to be
able to practice at these times without
waking the family.
There is a simple and save method; take a small ball of ‘poster putty’ or ‘blue tack’ and stick it to one of the reed blades somewhere in the middle. Or on both reed blades if you want it more quiet. Poster putty can be removed without leaving a trace but you can use any material really. This is also an easy way to ‘balance’ the regulators and to cure a suddenly ‘unwilling’ reed when you are in the middle of a gig. It will fix back d problems and makes the second octave easier. It will however mute the higher
harmonics of the reed and make it sound more like a ‘flat’ chanter.
Good luck,
Evertjan
Peter,
Just for the record…I am absolutely in love with the Preshaw practice set that I have, including the volume and the sound, this has nothing to do with these pipes although I am aware that I can buy a set with less volume. I am a family man and my wife plays fiddle…since I am a beginner I rely alot on my ear and if I can only hear myself well thats good for me but detrimental to others at least at this stage of my playing. Someday I will play like you and then I wont have to worry about my volume. I do agree though that on my attempt to quiet the reed to date I have gone flat…that is with the plumbers tape…By the time i figure this one out I’ll probably wonder why I ever asked?
Don’t feel sorry you asked. There’s just a fundamental problem here, the concert pitch design assumes big noise. These chanters want to be driven by strong reeds, if you put a weak reed inside them they will develop immense problems that make them not very playable.
In the case of the Martin Preshaw chanter, it is set up to use the words of Martin himself, to sound Keenan-esque [and I must add to that I didn’t find his chanter to be extremely loud, for a concert pitch, and while I don’t fancy the concert chanter at all, it was one of the more playable ones I have tried in a while]. It works well that way if you like that sort of soundscape but I am sure that if you do close the reed down you’ll find that at the very least you will end up playing very much out of tune, suffer autocran and dead back Ds.
If you tape up the reed you will create a muffled dead sound, loosing the harmonic content that makes the pipes attractive in the first place. I was in conversation last night with Geoff Woof and Dave Hegarty, one of the things about the concert pitch chanter that came up was that most are copies of copies of copies of Rowsomes that were a very much flawed design to start with.
At some point Jimmy O Brien Moran wrote an article for An Piobaire in which he said he learned his music on a Matt Kiernan C chanter and it never ever gave him any problem. Jimmy has a more subtle way with words than I have but what he was trying to say was that a beginner would be better off playing a type of chanter that is more trouble free and very much less loud than the standard concert D.
I couldn’t agree more.
Tony, the bluetack thing works well on regulators, I have used it for many years to balance my regs, I wouldn’t recommend it for chanters though as again, and EvertJan says so himself, it kills the harmonics and will leave you with a desparately dull chanter. His statement that it makes them sound liek a falt chanter makes you wonder about hte flat chanter he has heard in recent years.
[maybe I should ask him I saw him walking up the mainstreet last thursday so he is around for Willie I suppose].
[ This Message was edited by: Peter Laban on 2002-07-09 05:40 ]
Peter,
I have to smile when I say this as sometimes it feels like you have to be provoked to share some of the valuable information that you keep in your head.
Thanks!
Hi folks, let me just reiterate, I started this thread not because I thought my chanter (or concert D chanters in general)was necessarily too loud, it’s just that because of the odd hours I work, I frequently would like to practice without waking everyone in my house. As a beginner I need to practice every day however I frequently lose my chance if I get home too late. It’s all about practice, you know?
Jeff, I have a similar situation with late night playing too. My O’Grady chanter plays fine in ‘hush mode’ when I tape the reed, sometimes it’s just a matter of squeezing the bridal a bit. It still plays in tune just fine.
i thought I started this thread? for the very same reason. Peter’s last response is most informative. I am curious though… no one, except Tony responded to my prepurchase post regarding Preshaw Pipes. As a beginner I am delighted the set. I love the Keenan-esque sound. My experience may be different as I have played whistle for some years and some N. Umbrian pipes which by the way i could never get, but I had some pressure control and I am able to translate whistle tunes and skill. I am, however, all not knowing about any “flaw” in the Rawsome prototype? I have yet to order the half set from Preshaw or anyon else until I get a better handle on this dirth of information and of coarse the wisdom of you kind gentlemen.
i thought I started this thread? for the very same reason. Peter’s last response is most informative. I am curious though… no one, except Tony responded to my prepurchase post regarding Preshaw Pipes. As a beginner I am delighted the set. I love the Keenan-esque sound. My experience may be different as I have played whistle for some years and some N. Umbrian pipes which by the way i could never get, but I had some pressure control and I am able to translate whistle tunes and skill. I am, however, all not knowing about any “flaw” in the Rawsome prototype? I have yet to order the half set from Preshaw or anyon else until I get a better handle on this dirth of information and of coarse the wisdom of you kind gentlemen. Thanks “a million”
mypipes… quieter chanters have been brought up many times on many message boards as the variances are so great. As significant as the reed design is, much of it has to do with the initial bore design.
Forgive me if my dates and facts aren’t totally accurate. I thought the Rowsome wide bore D came about around the turn of the century to fill a need for a louder instrument to entertain larger auduences; typically found in concert (and dance) halls in the US.
Because it is technically different to flat (narrow bore) pipes it’s tone is not as refined. Peter likes to use the term ‘fog horn’ to describe this.
My analogy would be a clarinet though similar in design and length to a soprano saxophone has a very different sound. Both use similar size reeds.
Through the generations, piping was on a decline and much of the art was lost, often copies of copies were made by both good and not so good makers leaving a wide span of non-standardized designs. Without a good system for apprenticeship, I would guess a pipemaker could spend 10-15 years of changing designs before striking on one that worked best for him.
It seems every maker thought basing their product on previous designs will add their own blend of experience to improve their work.
mypipes, I heard a story about a piper who was so carefull not to reveal any of his tecniques in fingering the chanter that he went so far as to hang a small velvet curtain to the front of the chanter while playing to onlookers. This allowed him to keep hidden from view his fingering skills, so others could not copy him and possibly upstage him . That curtain trick may have quieted the chanter to some degree .The possible downside is that it might look stupid to others ,but I guess if your happy who cares? 