The worst possible piping accident just occurred! To be sure, I KNOW that it is punishment from the netherworld for my drum-making…damn..
I just recieved from Brad Angus a chanter made by Patrick Henley earlier last century. I bought the chanter from Jim and Brad made a new top with stop key in the same style. Beautiful looking to say the least! The chanter is Taylor-esque and requires a reverse staple reed (which is an interesting thing as the tone is very up-front and sort of one-dimensional…more on that later). Well, Brad was good enough to send 3 reeds along with the chanter. I was playing it for a little while just yesterday and left the little box of reeds (labeled REEDS in black marker) beside the pipes case there, only to find it missing this evening when I sat down just now for practice and a tune. I asked the lovely wife if she’d seen the reed box and she tells me she thought it was trash (didn’t see the label “REEDS”) and threw it out this morning just before the garbage collectors came!!!
…oh no
Had to have a quick whiskey to calm the nerves a bit, but now face another delimma. Brad made me three reeds. I’ve only played the one and the whole reverse staple thing has really got me caught off guard. For instance, the chanter only plays a hard D. Most of the other notes are absolutely set also they are either sounding fully or not at all, no wobble in the tone), except for the upper hand which is a bit more pressure sensitive. Second octave is all sorts of messy yet with the reed making the most shrill noise you ever heard (hence me putting the chanter away last night and switching back to the Preshaw to practice). So, having only played one of the three reeds, I am worried that the other two were far better than the shrill one, but then I don’t know because I never got a chance to play them before the city of Austin hauled them off!
help!
I don’t know the first thing about making a reverse staple reed (or even necessarily what about the reverse staple makes it so necessary with this chanter). Any of you more knowledge-heavy peoples out there know to whom I might ask to make a reverse staple reed? I’d ask Brad again, but other than the embarassment I also thought I’d ask around here on the forum… oh, and I’ll be keeping the reeds locked away from now on.
Our Little Boy, Is Quite a Little Man…
Damn, think I’ll go watch Five Easy Pieces. Mmm, Chicken Salad Sandwich…
Uh, you make a mandrel from the size of the smallest (bottom) end of the reed. It won’t fit the top (largest) end of the staple entirely - tough dookies, that’s how it was done. They’re a bit tricky to fashion, an “eye mandrel” that only fits the eye of the staple may help some.
Perhaps you can get a brass tube staple to go in there; or you could flare out a tube which may be easier for you to flatten. All I’ve ever made for my Brown chanter is rolled copper though. On mine the staple has to be just the right size and the reed seat is too small for anything large to fit in there. Yours might have a larger reed seat, thus take a wider staple.
Do you have a rush in the bore? Lots of Taylors and copies were set up with those in mind; it’ll take some of the edge off the tone, too. If you have a reed which is A) too sharp overall and B) very slightly flat in the 2nd octave a rush of the right size will put you in concert pitch no problem.
Or you could get to fishing through the trash…
Naw. I’m going to miss Seattle this time around…first time in donkey’s years. And I’ve always wanted to meet the larger-than-life Denis Brooks too. Shucks.
Oh, and EVERYONE are under STRICT ORDERS not to have any FUN.
Seriously though, was this the chanter that was on eBay a few months back? I was curious to know who the new owner was. Post a few photos when you get the chance.
Spoke with Brad today and am glad I did. I suppose the concept of a conical staple is somewhat simple (thanks to all for your suggestions regarding the ease of making one), but Brad said that he’s be far more comfortable reeding the chanter himself as he has access to original Taylor reeds/staples and that the length, taper and end measurements of the staple are actually quite important and that those measurements need to be accurate for these types of chanters. That’s great because I certainly don’t have access to an original Taylor reed or staple. This is my first experience with a Taylorish chanter and reeds of this type and naturally am glad to be learning about these topics.
As the drums go it gets worse than kangaroo heads for the drums. I use heads taken from lambeg drums too.