After having sold & given away almost every whistle I own except a pristine Chieftain Gold Low D. I have placed an order for a set of Seth Hamon Practice Pipes.
My wife has her sewing machine and click click click is what I have heard for sometime from that thing so I ordered some pipes and its time for me to get even…
I would like to say thanks to those of this forum who provide encouragement and especially Joseph Smith who has gone out of his way to help me out with advice.
I hope to become a regular here, but if you don’t see me drop in, but from time to time, its because I am practicing and driving my wife crazy…
Good move. Seth does beautiful work. He made my bellows. Top notch. Looking forward to seeing/hearing the practice set, then the drones, and finally the regulators.
There is a tendency in PJ to jump at any picture of any set of pipes and go ‘that looks really great’. I always think of what Chris Langan said: ‘I wonder what it’s like on the inside’. And I know many people who can make a decent bellows but far fewer who can make a good chanter. Having carpentry skill doesn’t necessarily set you up for making pipes.
I made a comment based on these points, I thought the better of it and pulled it. There you have it.
I’m not proud of my sloppy playing , but that aside, there is nothing wrong with their intonation. Both chanters responded well to popping, ghost-d, hard D and they played in tune through 3rd octave d. The Cnat key on the one I kept is perfectly placed and produces an in tune Cnat.
Not true. When I don’t like a set I just don’t comment. I particularly like Seth’s work. He seems to have a very good image in his head of what he wants when he sets about planning how to build a chanter. Either that or his workshop is filled with failed attempts .
Most people who post photos don’t post sound clips so I can’t judge the sound and anyway I’d never judge a chanter or any instrument for that matter from a recording. Too unreliable. Even the most basic recording software can alter pitch and correct tuning. Unless you hear a chanter live you can’t fairly comment on its sound.
It’s my shoddy playing we are talking about now, and not the chanter in question… would it be possible to let KDMARTINKY get back to his happiness? You can always start another thread slagging my playing.
And you are correct, I wouldn’t have chosen my clip to sell anything… but I didn’t make that choice (no offense Seth).
Well, I get the impression that whatever stick you see posted you go ‘wow’ but maybe that’s just me.
I think recommending a pipemaker because he makes great bellows is a bit far fetched and I don’t get the impression Joseph doctored the clip used to endorse the chanters. There are things however you can tell from that clip and from the sheer fact that it is used to sell chanters.
I wasn’t referring to JES’s clip. I was talking in general about relying on sound files to judge the quality of a chanter. A few makers use soundfiles on their websites but there’s no standard as to how the recordings are made (software, effects, etc). Ausdag made a good point recently about playing slow scales and playing certain notes on and off the knee.
Anyway, rather than hijack the thread I’d again like to congradulate KDMARTINKY on the fine practice set and hope that he’ll post a few soundfiles of his playing when he gets a chance.
Peter whats going on inside is the greatness of my chanters… I take a lot of time on each chanter, and charge far less that I think they are worth…Thanks for your input… Maybye one day you will play one and see…
Hi Seth Jimmy Allen here… I have to say that everything about your chanter is a pleasant surprise. It looks as good in person as it did on the computer. I reeded it up, plugged it into my Whitmer set and quickly got it to playing a bunch of tunes. It’s got a nice slender feel to it and it appears that you have the bore, fingerholes, and reed all set-up correctly. I was able to tune the chanter perfectly to key D and all notes seem to play in correct pitch. This is a new experience for me because on my old chanter that I bought from someone else about 10 years ago, I have to use tape on the fingerholes and a rush to get that chanter to play in tune. Because your chanter is operating correctly ( in contrast to my old chanter, Im afraid ) I found that I could play my tunes quite quickly. So it’s true when they say that a poor instrument can hold you back… I even took my reed from the old chanter, plugged it into your chanter , and your chanter still played correctly. So that’s telling me that you’ve got some real workmanship going on there, congratulations. I play a bunch of different types of bagpipes and I know a good chanter when I play one, thank you for your pipemaking efforts. Thanks again
Jimmy Allen 8-1-2005
Mine, Mine…all mine!!
, but that aside, there is nothing wrong with their intonation. Both chanters responded well to popping, ghost-d, hard D and they played in tune through 3rd octave d. The Cnat key on the one I kept is perfectly placed and produces an in tune Cnat.
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