What are some of the better types of tape for tunining? I don’t want to use something that will leave my chanter sticky or worse.
Some people recommend surgical tape (available at any pharmacy). Some just use black electrician’s tape. YMMV
djm
Black electrical tape here 
I know some who prefer to use wax instead of tape. They’ve told me that among other things, it doesn’t affect tone as much as taping. Is there anyone here who knows if this is true. Paddy Keenan’s K&Q chanter has tape and his tone sounds just fine to me!
I use a small amount of blu-tac in the tone hole. It doesn’t leave sticky residue like tape and it is easy to adjust or remove unlike wax.
If you use electrical tape, get the higher quality 3M stuff (the cheap no-brand stuff will definitely get gooey and leave residue). I’ve recently tried the surgical tape, and it seems to work really well.
No E
The surgical tape is amazing stuff… keeps its stickyness for years no matter how much you “open - close - adjust - repeat” it. It is quite textured though and the colour doesn’t blend as well as the 3M electricians tape.
PD.
It’s good to hear a tape recommendation from a man who plays Wooff and K&Q sets
I don’t actually use it but wouldn’t shy away from it if I needed it Whatever it takes to get your pipes to play in tune is fine with me as long as what you do is reversible!
PD.
The blu-tac for sale here in The States is too sticky. It can adhere itself to the most uncomfortable of places 
Meaning, in a hard to get at place in your chanter or regulator.
I use rope window caulk. It seems to have fewer issues.
Y(adhesion)MV,
T
Which kind of Blu-tac type product are you using tommykleen? I have some of the “Holdtu” and I found the opposite, I used some to wrap around a rush to bring a particularly truculent F# hole into tune (pressure adjustment and taping weren’t doing it!) It didn’t want to stick at all. Of course I haven’t tried it on tone holes yet.
I dunno. It was blue (very blue) and very tacky. I think other N. American pipers have had some familiarity with the product in that I have heard of people adding ebony dust and such to their too -sticky blutac to make it more “reasonable”. In any case, I’ve moved on. Rope caulk is my horse in this race now.
TK
Ahh…I think it’s quite possible that the “Holdtu” is closely related to rope caulk if not the same stuff w/ different marketing application. I got it from an art store and it does suspiciously resemble caulk. Hmm, maybe time for some experimentation on the spare chanter…
I believe there’s an this idea that if one uses tape on a quality chanter, there’s omething wrong with the chanter. That is simply not fact. Benedict Koehler, Seth Gallagher, Thomas Aebi (formerly the top builder with Rogge) and others use rushes and tape. Ronan Browne has tape on his chanter etc. They also don’t use them eg rushes or tape etc.
As a reed maker and general fumbler on the pipes, it took me a good many years to be able to get over the mental hump that tape etc is “bad.” In fact, I believe I learned it early on, most likely from someone with a slight experience.
Rushes and tape are tools. The object is to get a chanter to play in tune. Somedays & Some reeds, you’ll need nothing. Other reeds/ days it might need tape on the back D etc. Tape and rushes all mean “something” to an experienced reed maker. There is WAY to much reed making nuance to list (or to want to list) here in the C&F.
If the chanter has shit all over it and in it, then its time to have a go at a new reed. If an experienced reed maker(s) can’t get it to work sans the extra stickyness and intrusions, then it’s time to visit the maker. There IS the possibility that something may’ve shifted in the bore, but that would most likely be a .1% chance. (yes, point one, NOT One)
99.9% of the time, factoring in we’re talking about a instrument made by a reputablle maker, just ditch the reed…AFTER you’ve built a new one. (diddly diddly dee, never ditch the only one that pleeeeeeeeeays!). As you gain experience as a reed maker, you’ll need less of that stuff.
Tape does affect the volume (db) of a note, but hey WTF?! No big deal. I built a great reed for my great Hunter B. I have tape on the back d ,and I really love what it did to the volume/balance. No Problemo and the chanter is just as serious as it was before the tape, and more in balance across the scale.
…d’right tool for d’right job…
I don’t find anything wrong with tape per se (both of my chanters have it on the E holes at least) but it seems like after a while the tape gets screwed up or inadvertently moved. I had a few episodes of the Es going awry before I realized the tape kept sliding downward. Maybe it was just the summer weather, or crummy tape, but the idea of a bit of putty doing the same thing but being more “out of the way” appeals to me. That said, it is nice to have to quick adjustability of tape.
That was my point–there’s no chanter too good for tape. I think of it as a muffler for a chanter that has a cold.
I have used both electrical and surgical tape. Both work well, though the electrical tape looks better, but it also slides around more as it wears. BK did a professional wax job on one of my chanters and it was brilliant. I doubt that I could reproduce the same results though. I agree with comments about being able to reverse these adjustments, especially since the needed adjustments are often seasonal.
Neil
hmmm… all this about blu-tac. As a college student, my dorm room is adorned with posters varrying from “the Simpsons” to “Clockwork Orange”, and they are all held up by blue-tac. The stuff I have isn’t overly sticky; just tacky (as the name suggests). Maybe my batch is older, but is easy to mold (like stiff playdough) and easy to peel off the wall and the poster.
…How about silly putty? You could get the glow in the dark stuff for a cool effect, or spread out your lump of it, and “transfer” other’s sheet music with “THE tune” onto it (if its on newsprint) 
I’ll keep a lump in my case!!
Once that stuff dries, it sets like concrete. I wouldn’t recommend it.
As usual, late replying.
I use painters/decorators masking tape. Adheres well, and has some texture that keeps you in touch with the wood of the chanter; and unlike surgical tape, easy to peel off, with minimum residual stickiness. 3M product, possibly. Also does not slip as much as electricians/seleotape solutions to the problem
Pwt
I was kidding about the silly putty… 