It just means that I’ve seen pictures of chanters with more wood removed around the holes than mine has. Here is a picture where you can see the angle of the chanter’s outer surface shaping around the 3 upper holes compared to the lower 4.
http://www.concentric.net/~pdarcy/photos/koehler&quinn/kq_061603_7.jpg
It’s gotta be SWEDISH.
Royce
Bringing the scalloped tone hole topic back to life…
Childress does a back D scallop that’s very comfortable, not too deep.
A friend of mine has a scalloped chanter, I tried it, and liked it, it felt very comfortable to me, and since my pipes needed a new reed I asked the pipe maker if he would scallop mine. He said “no” (I think he was concerned about altering another pipe makers work) I wasn’t concerned because I didn’t think the chanter was a very good one. But the chanter sounded fine when I got it back. So I decided to sand in the scallops myself and I did. After cleaning out the sawdust, and waxing the chanter (I was thinking to myself, these pipes might not play, but they sure look good) I tried them and they sounded as good as before. I would not recommend doing this, too many things could go wrong, I was lucky. I guessed where I should sand, and how deep, I hoped sanding would not alter the sound, it didn’t, but I was prepared for the worse and to accept responsibility for what I was doing. I don’t think now that I can feel that much difference.
I recently voiced (tuned) a Rowsome chanter copy in D. The maker is not a piper nor could he make reeds. It played easily in tune with itself at about A=453, which is about the London Philharmonic pitch standard at the early part of the 20th century. With advice from experienced makers, I attempted the job. By using a longer reed I set the bottom D to pitch based on A=440. This gave a result of the chanter going flat, particularly in the upper hand. I had done a bit of undercutting to start as the maker had done none at all. I was faced with the problem of raising the pitch of the upper hand notes. Undercutting is one approach for the job, but undercutting would raise the overall pitch of the chanter due to increasing the the overall volume of the bore. I needed to drop the overall pitch. I was advised to scallop the outside of the chanter, more particularly increasingly deeper scallops as I went up from the bottom. The effect was that the individual notes were raised in pitch due to the shorter chimney heights. The other result was of dropping the pitch of the chanter overall, due to decreasing the total bore volume by the scalloping. This, in combination with further undercutting was how I brought the chanter to be well in tune with itself at A=440. I was fortunate to have not ruined the damn thing. Some scalloping of early chanters may have been due to the maker trying to bring chanters originally designed for higher pitch into the modern pitch standard. Another effect was a brighter sound, due to the shortened chimney heights. I was successful due to having professional maker friends to call on when I was uncertain of what I was doing. The chanter went to its new owner who is very pleased with the result. Bottom line is that scalloping will affect the tuning and should not be attempted by those unfamiliar with the process, or without someone to call on who has done this job before. I have seen more than one chanter ruined by pipers who wanted scalloping on their chanters and tackled the job without realizing what they were doing. I learned a lot from the process but would only do it again under duress. I drank more per day while doing it and would probably end up a blithering drunken idiot if I tried it full-time. It increased my respect for the pipemakers who understand the process and can produce in tune instruments.
Ted
Ted, you can see now how lucky I was. I might be off on some of my notes, if I am I can’t hear them. I am a new piper but I sound in tune with my practice video and I play alone. When and if I get to play with someone else I’ll know soon enough. I suppose I could take my tuner and ck my pipes but since I’m so new to piping I don’t know if my air pressure is correct.
James,
If you didn’t scallop very deeply, you probably didn’t change the tuning much other than to maybe slightly lower overall pitch which might only require slightly moving the reed into the socket.
RESIST the temptation of using an electronic tuner to check out a chanters tuning. You will not recieve the best information. Unless you record something at playing pressure, sample the notes and check the tuning as played musically, using a tuner will only cloud the issue. It is when playing to the tuner that you will have a tendency to vary the pressure and therefore the tuning of individual notes. The best thing to use a tuner for is to tune your drones to it and check the chanter against the drones. This requires some ear training and experience to tell how in/out of tune it is.
Same goes for regulators. I have seen pipers tune individual notes with the tuner only to sound out of tune when actually playing. A trained ear will recognize any out of tuneness of individual notes while playing, and adjustments can be made to bring those notes into tune. Some of the best pipers are playing out of tune antiques that they make play in tune, compensating by changing pressure and driving it into tune or shading tone holes as needed.
Ted
Good post! Last year I tried to explain this on the equal vs. just temperament scale…the difference in pressure having a greater effect than the difference in temperament scales themselves. Always appreciate your expert advice.
I prefer my pini unscalloped.
Royce
reviving an old discussion.
Thanks, it saved me from running a search on all the threads related to scallops, in addition to other sea food.
My Seth Hammond Chanter has scalloped fingerings. Very nice indeed. I really need to get a pic on my set posted.
I’m allergic to scallops. Just ask my date for senior prom. 
I preferr scalloped chanters. Just used to them I guess.
tk
Here are three boxwood chanters which happen to be on the bench. All of them are ostensibly the same, however, due to the nature of the particular pieces of timber, the one in the foreground was left a little thicker while turning. In order to maintain the proper chimney height, this one was noticeably scalloped. Although it could be said that it is a little more comfortable, my feeling is that more sensitivity can be afforded in half holeing on a well turned, round chanter. I do not usually scallop toneholes, but in this instance, the chanter was both too fat to play comfortably and would have had much too high a chimney. Scalloping toneholes on a well made chanter which is already undercut will result in making the holes larger and sharper on their edges. If you have a round chanter but want a scalloped chanter, buy one.
Sorry about the large photo.
Mark
yep, that’s one way of achieving scallops without de-tuning; just “grow the chanter” around the existing chimney heights.
Your photo points out that even without “scallops” the edges of the toneholes need ideally to be rounded somewhat, i.e. not sharp. Same on the inside of course.