Hey! So, I went to fiddle camp last week like a good little brown noser student and got introduced to a man named David Seay who was helping running this whole thing. I guess he liked my whistle playing and showed me his tabor pipe and suggested that I should go get one so I can harmonize with my self. His is a generation brand, but here is my question… Where the hell can I get one? I’ve never seen one in my life until he showed me his… and his was made by Generation, so I thought it would be easy to find… guess not.
Do you know anything about tabor pipes? I’ve always wanted to play one- it would be cool to be able to play melody and percussion at the same time- but I know nothing at all about them.
Tabor pipes are SOOOOOO cool! I play one in my Celtic band, “The Fairy Godmothers”. If you want to know more about tabor pipes check out: http://www.mit.edu:8001/people/ijs/ptab/tab-pipe-rev.html
Chris
I think http://www.thewhistleshop.com has them…
On 2002-06-17 17:47, staten island wrote:
Do you know anything about tabor pipes? I’ve always wanted to play one- it would be cool to be able to play melody and percussion at the same time- but I know nothing at all about them.
Start your scale by overblowing into the second octave, you get a complete scale by starting there, and overblowing into the third. You can emulate a tabor pipe by taping over the top 3 holes of a regular tinwhistle. Of course the middle hole will be on the front on the whistle, whereas it’s on the back on the pipe, but it’s still playable the same basic way.
I got my Generation tabor pipe a few years ago through Andy’s Front Hall. It seems like they cost $7.50 back then. Looking at Andy’s webpage ( http://andysfronthall.com/pwhistle.html ) I notice the price has gone up considerably. They’re almost getting into the Susato price-range now.
Instead of shelling out big dough for a proper tabor (if I had the money I’d like one of these small snare drums), I went down to Lyon’s Indian Store, and bought a miniature drum from the toy department for about $3 or so. It had a loop to hang it from and was ready to go.
A good site to visit is http://www.ehhs.cmich.edu/~dhavlena/
Susato also makes them. I have a Susato and a Generation. The Susato is louder (surprise, surprise), but the Generation is a littler easier for me to control. Ralph Sweet makes one in G that I really want. Also, Tony Dixon makes them in D. Or you could get a LBW head from The Whistle Shop and buy brass tubing from the hobby store and make your own. Just match up the length with a whistle and drill the bottom 3 holes only. Put the F hole on the back for your thumb.
Susato also sells a tabor pipe primer that has helped me quite a bit. For less than the whistle, it isn’t bad.
I don’t have a drum, yet. I am still at the one-song-only stage in my playing. I intend to get a cheap hand drum or something that can be used until I actually know I want to pursue this enough to make it worth buying a proper tabor.
-Patrick
Here are two more sites worth checking out: http://www.taborers.co.uk/index.html and http://home.freeuk.com/sussexbrew/intropt.htm
You can play 2 regular D whistles together and harmonize with yourself if you put tape over the top 3 holes of one.
The Hobgoblin site has a Generation D tabor pipe for about $9. I have been toying with picking one up as I have 2 small children and could use a free hand. 
The first tabor pipe I got was the cheapest I could find, a Susato sop D, to see if I would like the weird fingering. I loved the fingering but within seconds realized that I needed a lower pitch–tabor pipe unlike whistle makes much use of the third octave. So, I ordered a Susato G. This one’s third octave doesn’t cause any pain. I too have been wanting a Sweet tabor in G, but I’m making myself work with the Susato for a while first to make sure I stick with the odd fingering and overblowing method. I’m working on playing The Blackthorn Stick and accompanying myself on my bodrhan. Soldiers’ Joy is next. I have a Howard fyberskin that still sounds decent when I hold it between my leg–(don’t tell me what you are thinking). If I had a tabor drum, I could play standing up, but for now… I think I need a Hoover quiet tabor pipe–I’ll ask Mack as soon as he says he’s back to whistle smithing…
Lisa
[ This Message was edited by: ysgwd on 2002-06-18 07:37 ]
[ This Message was edited by: ysgwd on 2002-06-18 07:41 ]