Does anyone have any experience with reeding a Crowley concert pitch wide-bore chanter? My friend has a (very heavy) Crowley 3/4 set and would like to get it back to working order and would like to know some dimensions for Crowley chanter reeds as he and anyone who knows, they aren’t the easiest chanters to put a reed in. BTW, not sure if it’s Dennis C or Taigh C.
Cheers,
DavidG
Crowley of Cork, not sure but I think Denis?
I reeded a Crowley not long ago (big wide throat in the thing, 5.39x5.29 (oval)). The chanter was 355.8mm length overall, does that sound familiar?
I made a reed that ended up working pretty well (A=440, but a rush of about 1mm diameter was required, sorry, don’t remember exactly how long) . Here are the measurements I jotted down:
“12.7 wide, shoulder 11.0, scrape 22.4 (U shaped). Thickness across “body” of reed 4.1mm about 1/3 of the way up the scrape. LOA 81.4, wrap 51.5, crow at G#-20 cents. Staple H04-03[1]”
[1] staple H04-03 is i.d. 4.35, hand-rolled from 0.5mm copper, 52mm long, 13.6x15.4 width trapezoid.
I then made a better reed, but it seems that in the rush to deliver, my note-taking skills abandoned me. This second reed was substantially similar, but the crow was “G+50” (i.e. 50 cents sharp of G, or about 30 cents flatter than the first attempt) according to my notes.
Hope that helps,
Bill
Alan Burton recently re-reeded my early 30’s T Crowley chanter, its singing, sweet as a nut (although very slightly sharp of concert pitch due to its being somewhat on the short side). I’d recommend getting in touch with him about it…
BTW ausdag the reed dimensions I posted used a “low bridle”, i.e. against the top of the wrap. It was a light reed as well.
You also might ask Michael Hubbert cause he specializes on Crowley:
hubberts@mcn.org
Bill, Thanks for the details. They will be very helpful. I’ll pass them on to the chanter’s owner.
Becky, yes, Alan contacted me yesterday and told me of his experiences reeding up your chanter so between his info and Bill’s here I think I’m off to a very good start. The owner will be pleased with the response.
Hans-Joerg - Thanks for the lead. I’ll keep that in mind too as another possible source of information.
Cheers all,
DavidG
ausdag,go with the Leo rowsome style reed,
reed head width 13mm, slip thickness 1.4mm
staple, length, 48mm x4mm staple bore,
staple eye height 1.5mm,
staple 16mm inserted into the reed head,
if certain notes are flat the tube staple, you may need to make a
hand rolled staple for the job, what length is the chanter?
14"+ 1/4"inches or 14"+ 3/16 inches,interesting to know ausdag. 
Regarding Michael Hubbert’s sets: He makes D sets based on his Crowley (Tadgh) set with a Taylor style triple bore bass drone. Michael O’Donovan has been making the chanter reeds for these sets.
(I know because I’ve just gotten a Hubbert D full set in the past few months).
I believe that the B chanters that Michael is currently making are based on a Michael Egan B chanter which belongs to Barry O’Neill. I have seen a few of these alongside the original Egan.
His website is: http://homepage.mac.com/photomorphose/hubbert.html
Thanks for that Reedman. Not sure of the exact length as it’s not my chanter but when I find out this weekend I’ll let you know.
Cheers,
DavidG
Thanks Matt. I’ll keep that in mind.
DavidG
I just found out from the owner, his crowley chanter has the following dimensions -
a 4.7mm throat
360mm long, compared with 355.8mm of BillH’s chanter
Cheers,
DavidG
Hmm,as I thought, a 48mm staple should work this baby, 
try a slightly tapered reed head for this chanter ausdag, and don’t make the reed slips to thick either, 1.3-1.4mm max,all the best
with the mission.
!
Something doesn’t add up. Different Crowley perhaps?
Then again you might want to take that throat diam with a grain of salt, depending on how it was measured.
Bill
Billh, I’ll ask Malcolm to measure it again. He’s had many years experience at measuring bores - the Coyne set he measured very accurately according to independent analysis - upon which he and Dicky Deegan based their work for some of the chanters Dicky plays now. So we should be able to accept that measurment with confidence, but we’ll check and recheck just to be certain. But even Malcolm said he was surprised to find it considerably smaller than what he was expecting, so I’m assuming he has already rechecked it at least once or twice to be certain…I’ll get back to you.
DavidG
I just got back from Malcolm’s house where we measured the throat again and it came in at 4.7mm, as usual. Here are some pics -
Looks to be dark rosewood, silver plated. Stock, drones, chanter and chanter top all have ‘Denis Crowley Cork’ stamped on them -
Hi Reedman,
I tried one of my own reeds that I use in my Rowsome copy. In the crowley it was mostly in tune bar slighty sharp bottom E and slightyl flat 2nd 8ve E and the back D was way too flat, but the back D hole is much lower down the chanter than most chanters I’ve ever played. My reed dimensions are - 13.5mm head, 4mm i.d rolled copper staple, 83-84mm overall length and the rest I forget off the top of my head. Plus it was close on A440.
Chanter length is 360mm
Cheers,
DavidG
Cool looking set.
Yep, but the base drone is really, really heavy. The bass drone end slide is just about as heavy as the rest of the drones, regs, and stock together.
We’ll get that thing working yet.
DavidG
Hello ausdag, well at least its playing, 
try a similar style reed but with a shorter staple,can you not get a thin piece of wire,bend the end straight back over, so it catches the inside of the staple, and get a measurement of the length of the staple on that reed you tried, the staple in your Rowsome copy chanter reed will probably be 51mm in length,? and not 48mm, you may find that the Crawley may play slightly sharp of A440mhz, get some slips sanded down,your in for a busy weekend. 
Benedict Koehler has had a similar Crowley in the shop for refurbishment for the past 3 years or so. You might check with him for data and ideas.