I have a chanter here with a hole that some reed maker whittled on to correct the tuning for his home-made reed.
The chanter has since been re-reeded by the maker and is in perfect tune except for the whittled hole (go figure).
I can fix the tuning with a bit o’ tape but these whittled-on chanter holes seems to be a common problem. Does anyone know if it’s possible to refill and re-drill these holes to repair them?
I know, I know…contact the maker…did already…haven’t heard back yet (sheesh you’d think those guys were busy or something )
I thought it might be an interesting discussion and that someone might have experience.
Also note… I’m not proposing to undertake this repair myself. It would be done by the maker or by no one.
If the pipemaker’s reed works without the alteration, that speaks volumes about the reedmaker who can’t make a reed without hacking up the chanter. Hacking into the chanter is doable by anyone, and many sets have been butchered in the past. So the answer would be yes, it can be done, but no, it should not be done by the inexperienced, and if the pipemaker is still active, it would be best to have him repair it (unless you are dubious about the pipemaker in the first place).
The short answer is ‘yes’ - as you say, I’d strongly advise having the maker do the job, since anyone else is just going to be guessing as to what the tonehole size and shape “should” be.
It should be possible to fix without too much trouble, and even if a plug is necessary, the maker should have the appropriate reamer to even “touch up” the inside of the repair if needed.
Having the original maker do the fix and re-reed, etc. also greatly improves the saleability of the instrument (if that is relevant to your situation). Otherwise, as an “altered” or “butchered” chanter, you may find it hard to offload when you disclose that fact to potential buyers.
Things depend on what kind of butchering has been done to the tone hole.
If, as is commonest, most of the gouging took place as undercutting or whatever, you can fill that with red wax or maybe blutak, which means there’d be no further interfering with the architecture of the chanter.
If its mostly the surface diameter of the tonehole rather than the internal diameter, tape might work out best.
Try a blob of red wax like you’d find on certain cheeses, warm it in your hand, slip a bit in on the end of a matchstick, insert into the tonehole and press into the upper surface of the tonehole to make it lodge there.
Fix it so that when you play it won’t be in contact with your finger, but equally it won’t be jutting out into the main bore of the chanter where it would alter the airflow/soundwaves.
I’ve done this with back D holes in various chanters over the years, sometimes makes the difference you need, and I liked it even better than tape.
If you put the wax on the lower aspect of the tonehole then that note will be flattened more in one octave than the other. It pays to experiment.
Just watch you don’t send the wax off into the chanter bore itself. Retrieving it might be “fun” you could do without
)