Mypipes, you are right you did start this thread. I started a similar thread on the UP mailing about the same time and someone quoted that email post here:
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.
Hence my confusion about the whole thing.
Sorry for the mix up.
Jeff
There is a way of altering the volume of your (concert pitch)chanter. It’s tricky and doesn’t always work, but is worth a try. …Make/get a reed with staple diameters for something like a C chanter, with a narrow reed head also, you will end up with a quieter sound for sure, but flat to concert, then you need to use rushes and tape to get the thing in tune, and it will require heavy rushing and all below the back D as that will be most likely flat. You will theoretically end up with a “flat” chanter. I don’t think sticking stuff on reeds, then taking it off, is good for its longevity. As for taping note holes, many remarkable players have chanters lagged in the stuff, so I would guess that’s not a problem area(aesthetically).
Alan (no tape, slightly sharp B)
Instead of mucking about with the reed and possibly losing it in the process, have you given any thought to altering your practise area? A good thick rug of the floor, some styrofoam ceiling tiles placed on the walls(you can get big ones very cheap) and a heavy blanket hung on the door should dampen the sound well enough to keep disturbance to a minimum. That way you don’t have to screw around with the reed in making it louder for sessions. Myself; I like the volume on the daye chanter. I can fill a large church without a microphone but still not shtter peoples eardrums. That’s what my highland pipes are for.
How can a layer (or two) of removable tape harm a reed?
I don’t know; it probably can’t do any harm but I don’t really want to find out on the odd chance that it can. ( “Don’t worry boys. There’s enough Indians for everyboby to kill one!” - General George Custer ) Marc
Since my name is mentioned- time to step in…
My response on the Uilleann forum was merely a quick note on how to mute the chanter’s volume so one can practise without disturbing the neighbours.
Peter Laban (how are you by the way Peter?) is wondering about the flat chanters I’ve heard in recent years and although the sentence in my response that triggered the remark was badly composed -what I really meant was the volume and not the harmonics of a flat chanter- I can tell ye all I’ve heard as many bad flat as concert pitch chanters.
Over the years from all the flat chanters I’ve heard maybe 10% I found convincing. The rest -in my ears anyway- just ‘concert pitch’ chanters in another key. So I didn’t understand what all the ‘flat is better’ fuss was about until a year ago when I bought a ±40 year old B chanter. The sound of that chanter is really amazing and compared to a concert chanter
the nuances are stunning. It has ‘soul’ and the harmonics are brilliant and amazingly easy to reed too.
After this experience I took it one step further and made myself a copy of a Timothy Kenna chanter in C (from the measurements by Ken McLeod, Seán Reid Society Journal 2) And this is really something else, what a beautiful sound, so easy to play, etc, etc.
Anyway I’m into flat chanters now, I’m convinced!
All the best,
Evertjan 't Hart
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].
Evertjan, welcome aboard!
If you do a search on your name, you will see you’ve been mentioned several times already.
Do you have any more pictures of your B chanter? A truly awesome sounding chanter. Perhaps it does have a soul… but I say it only sings in the hands of it’s soulmate.