Hello,
Anyone out there playing Sorbus Torminalis/Bois de Cormier/Wild service tree/Elsbeere ect. bagpipes of any type. I would like to know the Tone/Sound qualities of this wood. Is it rich, mellower and softer sounding wood as Ebony, Boxwood, Cocobolo or Brighter, louder like African Blackwood, Lignum Vitae ect. And also I am looking any infos about where is possible to get few Hi quality (dark color) blanks - squares.
Best to all, AA 
I know of a maker in Italy, who after having used a lot of expensive, imported timber, eventually settled on Sorbus (don’t know whether Torminalis, or other, but in my experience closely related species will have very similar timber.) He syas it is nearly as good as box, better than apple, pear and others they use for non-GHBs. It is dense, hard, and stable. Machines well.
By the way, I didn’t know it comes in dark colours. The only few pieces I worked with (not for pipes, though) were sort of off-white, with the yearrings not very prominent.
It’s funny you asked this because I just got a knew bagpipe (See the Ciaramelle d’Amatrice thread), and I have been reading up about the instrument in some Italian magazines and they mention in an article about the pipe that they are traditionally made from Cilegio (Cherry), Prugno (Prune) and Sorbo (Sorbus). I was unsure as to what wood my Ciaramelle were made from but, after some investigation, I’m pretty sure it’s Cherry. I’ve talked with lots of pipe makers and seen lots of Italian bagpipes, but I’ve never heard of anyone using Sorbo other than as mentioned in this article, so I can’t tell you what it looks like or sounds like. Amatrice is located in the Apennines mountains, so perhaps it’s a tree that grows at higher elevations in Italy???
Yuri, what pipe maker in italy do you know that uses Sorbo, and for what style of pipes?
He’s a guy that was active on the BobDunsire forum some years ago. Don’t remember his name, otherwise I’d look it up. He faded away from the forum maybe some 2 or 3 years ago. But I remember checking out his website, he plays in at least one Medieval group as well.
Thanks for help