Probably a very basic question here, but still, I’m wondering… Does the shape of a bass drone (i.e bent near the end versus two tubes soldered together) has any influence on the sound of the drone ? Is it just a choice of the maker or is there more to it ?
The sound is affected by the reed more than anything else. The basic idea of the drone tube is that it should be a long conical pipe that has sufficient length to capture the desired wavelength of the note you’re after. Different makers have different designs for wrapping that great length of pipe up to somehow keep people from tripping over it on their way to the washroom. As long as the tube has sufficient length and doesn’t vary too much in its conical formation, the drone should work fine.
Are you having a problem with your drone, or just curious? 
djm
Thanks djm. Just curious looking at pictures and designs… I don’t have any problem with my drone reeds since I don’t have my drones yet.. Ya know, there still stuck at customs along with the rest of my half set 
The straight drone puts the sound further from your ear and may be perceived as quieter. Also, I’ve heard from one pipemaker his curved bass drone with resonator is a bit more stable than the straight design.
Hi Folks,
FWIW I heard that a straight drone was best as it caused the least disruption to the sound wave, followed by curved with a trumpet end pointing towards the player and then curved with a soundbox/resonator. Based on this theory I would have thought that the railtrack/H type would be the worst as far a disrupting the sound wave goes. Whether the disruption of the sound wave causes a negative effect or enhances the sound I don’t have a clue. I saw Mick O’Brien playing his Rowsome set recently and it sounded great to me, it has the H type return. Like most things concerning the pipes it’s how they’re played that makes the difference. Wasn’t there a similar discusion regarding straight or swan neck chanter inlets?
Cheers, Mac
Hey guys
The above ranking of which design causes the least disruption of waves is correct based on theory. Straight is best, curved is a little worse and right angle bends worse than that.
Without getting too far into acoustic theory, sound doesn’t like to make hard turns. It causes a change in the impedance. This is actually very similar to why toneholes work. So the right angle bend has the most potential to diminish the sound.
That being said. A good maker has many other opportunities to taylor the sound and to design for that type of bend. And the good makers can easily over come the issues associated with a particular design.
There could actually be a case made that because of diffraction and reflection, the H type excites more harmonics and creates a richer fuller sound.
I think the question of “better” is a matter of taste.
Tumleweed
There are certain elemental things that can be integrated into a drone’s design that will make it work better; smoothing the end of the standing joint’s last section, or removing the rough edges from the end of the first section of the bore of the tuning piece, where the sliding section terminates and shrinks to the next part of the bore; or at the exit, where the hole can be undercut much in the same way as a chanter’s fingerhole. Removing rough edges like this will cut down on turbulence that can cause the reed to clap shut, and enable it to play at a lower pressure, too. But the most critical aspect seems to be for the pipe’s proportions to be correct for the pitch you expect it to play in. A dramatic instance of this for me, a while back, was trying to get my C set’s bass drone to play. This was derived from the Ginsberg “Egan” blueprints, and the only way to get it to play in C was to use a very short bullet of a reed, which didn’t work well at all, and didn’t seem natural to what the pipes wanted. When my pipemaker changed his designs to a copy of another set of Egan’s, which were measured much more accurately, these problems went away, and his C basses use a normal, longish bass reed.
The old makers tapered the drone bores, too; so as far as the old boys were concerned, the Union pipes were strictly conical bore. This stabilizes them even more, and refines the tone. I was told Quinn was tapering the bass and baritone, but leaving the tenor untapered, to give it some buzz.
Much ado!
Well MY pipemaker says 
he adds a little gap at the end of the drones where the ivory/wood/whatever joins as it smooths the sound a bit and makes them steadier. Obviously there’s many ways to play with these things and they still seem to work.
Kevin, you say your pipemaker started with the Ginsberg C plans. I had heard that both of Ginsberg’s C and D plans were useless as they leave out all the critical bore measurements for the chanters. Did your pipemaker make any similar comments, or did he find them workable/usable?
Thx,
djm
He junked the Ginsberg Egan C chanter straight away. Useless, the bottom D would fart constantly. He shows a 3/16" throat. I don’t think so. Someone hosed most of that set if that’s what it’s like. The small regs are OK, bass not so hot.
Brad still uses the Ginsberg Rowsome plans as a general outline, but makes chanters with multiple changes of taper, etc. The Rowsome chanter isin’t much good as is, either. He puts cavities in the drone exits, yes. It smooths the tone out a bit, like you’re saying.
Nobody mentions soundboxes. Old pipes usually have a slice of Ivory at the end with a hole drilled through it. This later was ‘developed’ into a soundbox and the bigger the soundbox, the more turbulence inside it. Which can cause many problems in the bass drone stability.
mine’s a straight one.
Peter, I have a donut on my base drone, but the bore through it is smooth. However, the donut is hollow. I thought this was what was supposed to resonate (?).
Kevin, I guess it would be fair to put the word out to prospective shoppers that the Ginsberg plans are largely crap, especially for people who suppose they’ll be able to get a working set of UPs out of them (and the plans ain’t cheap, either).
djm
Hmmm Donuts.
I don’t know about donuts, there are different things stuck on ends I suppose. I had one once that had a soundbox made out of a bras bell from a Dublin bus, the one you rang to let the conductor know you wanted out.
Some of the Rowsomes have huge metal boxes [all sorts of things travelled through customs in them I am told] that can be troublesome to reed.
Someone had mentioned a slanted bend as being more stable than a curve or H-bend. Can anyone tell us more about this or post a picture?
I tried to do a wee diagram, but this is worse than trying to draw with an etch-a-sketch!
Marc
Jelly or chocolate?
I think by “donut” you mean the “sardine can.” Or the “dingus.”
I believe Peter said in an earlier post that the old makers never hollowed the “soundbox” (Let’s call it that for the sake of discussion) entirely, that it’s full round shape was purely cosmetic. I don’t know if any authentic Taylor sets had the hollow metal soundbox Rowsome loved so much. Paddy Fitzpatrick’s bass looks like it maybe has one.
I’ll post something about the Ginzoid plans, we can all scream at one another there. Should be lots of blood shed.
Peter is, again, 100% correct. I have found the “disc” or puck, when hollowed as a resonator DOES indeed cause instability.
The straight/bent thing does indeed have an effect on the way the bass drone sounds. Before my descent into bagpipe madness, I was a mild mannered trombonist and most trombonists prefer f-valve attachments with an “open wrap” design (i.e., with as few curvy bits as possible). In theory, I suppose a bass drone would sound its clarion-clear best if you unwrapped the whole thing and made one long straight tube. This would however make the instrument a bit hard to play at packed sessions though…
Donuts/bagels/pucks/whatever may be a wee bit unstable, but they sure are purdy to look at, doncha think?
I love this one. “Wonder if there’s a better way to do this…”
Hey Kevin your link didn’t work.
Mark
It’s there… hit refresh.
Kevin, is the bass drone directly below the regulator (optical illusion) or are they somehow shared?
It looks like a bit of a cheat, with the one drone looking like the pieces are just lying there, and not connected. Is that a pastoral pipes, with the extra foot joint and no possible way to reach it?
djm