Hey everyone,
I’m slowly getting the bugs worked out of my reed. I’ve got everything just about perfect, except my back D, which is noticeably sharp.
I don’t want to do any non-reversible adjustments, so can you think of anything I could try?
Thanks,
Joey
p.s. 'just took my pipes out to the Rockies. We camped at about 11,000 ft. - quite a change from the 50 ft. elevation were I live. My cane shrank and by the time I figured out what was wrong, the bridle had all but fallen off. No wonder…
If the chanter plays easily in both octaves and just the back D is wonky, tape the hole.
If the second octave is difficult, too, you may want to move the bridle down a millimeter.
Joey… that’s PARTLY tape the hole.
Gotta be specific here. Sometimes 15-30% coverage will do depending how sharp it is.
Sanding the lips of the reed will flatten the back D. This is a non-reversable procedure which should only be done if you are very knowlegable and experienced in reed making. If the reed is stiff it might be viable.
Ted
Nobody mentione he shoulr tape the TOP part of the hole…usually just a hair …if it needs 15-30% taping then the reed is probably bad. Might also try pulling reed out of its seat, elevating it with hemp just a mere fraction of a mm and see what it does to rest of tuning issues.
Nobody mentione he shoulr tape the TOP part of the hole
Actually, I was getting to that.
I figured a picture was worth a thousand words so I got the camera and realized black tape on a black chanter doesn’t show up. While looking for lightly colored tape the phone rang then the neighbors kids started throwing rocks at my dog, then the phone rang. You get the picture… :roll:
There’s an art to hole taping, isn’t there??
Tony, Yeah sure. Heard that one before. 
The one I really like is the one about how the voices told me to stay home and polish my guns … 
djm
while we are at it, a real stupid follow up from someone with a beautiful seth chanter who does not want to ruin it.
what kind of tape is OK? which is best?
meir
Plastic insulating tape is fine. Don’t wrap it right around as you will need to adjust it with the reeds ever changing mood. An in tune chanter is worth a million pretty looking ones…
Alan
test
I use bees wax. I soften a piece and apply it, out of the way of my fingers, with a rounded tool (ball point pen) just inside the tonehole.It is easily adjustable and removeable. Dan Sullivan told me a chanter with bees wax in the hole(s) is a sign of a good chanter as the player thought enough of the tone to tune it. Good antique oboes in museums often show signs of bees wax. A favorite instrument of a pro may have had keys added to it as they became used and often show signs of tuning. Many fancy old instruments show hardly any sign of use. The players instruments were often very plainly ornamented as well.
Black tape is used by GHB players as the thin wall of the chanter will hardly support wax without being dislodged in playing. Bees wax is used for tuning almost universally by bagpipers of other European instruments. As tuning can vary from reed to reed a rush for lower holes or bees wax can be used to bring it into tune. I have chanters with wax in them for years with no problems.
Ted
So Ted, you’re a finicky type dude-do you go out and get special beeswax? I’ve a block of this highly refined stuff-white in color, looks nothing like the store bought junk, which looks like earwax. Doesn’t taste like it, though. They shouldn’t make it look like a big Reese’s peanut butter cup…
What about black wax for reed wrapping, drone weights, sealing letters, etc.?
Last winter, when I was talking to Keenan about his new pipes, I noticed he had black tape over one of the fingerholes. But, I don’t like the looks of it much.
For years I’ve been using a black putty stick, used for filling finish nail holes. It’s about the shape of a nice cigar, waxy (roll a little between fingers to soften), and simply press into the upper edge of the hole. Can be shaped with a toothpick or nail, highly accurate, and looks like part of the chanter. comes out easy, holds together, stays, doesn’t melt in hot weather, leaves the surface of the chanter natural, etc. Just about any color is available for a particular wood. Any lumber store sells it.
Kevin,
The refined stuff is fine, if it is soft. The usual brownish wax can bee quite hard as it has wax from the structure of the honey comb in it. I get capping wax from bee keepers. It is a light yellow colour. It is obtained by the apiarist from the combs when they use a putty knife to cut off the cap of the comb prior to centrifuge extraction of the honey. Evidently bees use this softer wax on the cap of each cell so they can easily get back into the filled cell in the winter for food. The browner wax has more structural integrity for building the cell walls. If you roll a piece of wax in your dirty fingers for a while, it will get quite dark, if this makes a difference to you.
I use black wax on my reed wrapping and for drone weights in a pinch. I use sealing wax for weights and sealing drone ends when I can as it is less messy. I use black wax/ bees wax mixture on tie-in cords.
Lorenzo,
The nail putty is probably fine as long as it is easily removeable with little or no residue. Good suggestion. 
I find some tape may slide around as it ages. Others may have better adhesives. It usually leaves a residue that is hard to remove. GHB chanters almost always use tape. Paddy Keenan has almost a zero chimney on his tone holes, hence the tape.
Ted
(above picture is from a link that Quinn provided a while back-upper one is Keenan’s)
Ted, that is what I thought when I inspected it. Could you enlighten some some of us as to why this would be…very little chimney height in the tone holes? The chanter is not sculptured, so this would mean that the wall is quite thin, which must mean larger tone holes are necessary, which would mean what…for boxwood, and for the amount of material needed to affect tone/timbre?
The bore itself is not up to the tone holes. The chimneys are widely undercut, yielding a brighter tone than with more chimney. His old ebony chanter was scalloped and undercut by himself during his teenage years. It ended up being a bit over bright, hence his desire for a boxwood chanter to mellow the tone a bit. Paddy believes that the almost nonexistant chimney “lets the notes slide out” more easily. He certainly has capitalized on what he feels that style of chanter can do, altho I think it’s more in the player himself.
Ted
I remember him saying that he almost ruined his old Rowsome when
he was a kid, filing on it somewhere. By undercut, I asume you mean
the hole (chimney) is tapered from the outside into the bore.
That’s correct!
Ted
Another wax issue, I guess you’d call it: I’ve had tape on the G of my Taylor? chanter for a long time now, because if you rush the G to flatten it it flattens the F# a bit too much, especially if you play off the knee. I imagine the maker kept it on the knee at all times, that being the way with these pipers in America back when. I wonder, then, if I shade the fingerhole with wax, how much it will flatten the F#?
I heard that Quinn and Koehler made the opposite of Paddy’s chanter, sort of, for Brian MacNamara: a superthick mopane chanter with deeply scalloped holes, thus giving the usual chimmeny height.
Kevin,
Waxing the G will hardly affect the F#. I can’t speak for Brian, but I believe the chanter is ebony. David Quinn can answer all this better.
David?
Ted