For all those of you playing about with stuffing bits and pieces into your chanter–take a look at Brian Howards Website (howardmusic.co.uk).He’s come up with a tuning ‘Iris’ which has done the job for me!And it also makes adjustment due to humidity or temperature change so simple.As he says: “It’s traditional to improve”.
Impressive!
I’ve used plasticene (children’s modelling clay) to create a lip at the mouth of the chanter in preference to wires, bits of cardboard etc. that intrude too far up the bore, but the tunability of this innovation is an excellent feature.
As the French would say, “il fallait y penser” - in other words it is an idea that just had to germinate in someone’s mind and that, retrospectively, is so blindingly obvious that you wonder why you didn’t think of it yourself long ago.
That is impressive! Geez, why didn’t anybody think of that before? I could have really used something like that over the summer when my reed went all wonky from the heat and humidity…
Also very clever that he’s designed it pretty much specifically for his chanters. Granted, I suppose you could fit it to other chanters, but it looks like you’d haved to make some unpleasant modifications to your instrument. It would be great if Howard or someone else designed an iris capable of mating with a wide variety of chanters. I’m sure many of us would pay for such a doohickey. Hell, I’d buy one.
In the meantime, I shall reluctantly stick with the cardboard sticky stuff, wire, tape, etc.
Yeah, I don’t get it. Shouldn’t it be adjustable? So you can change the size of the hole at the end I mean.
Harry.
According to the instructions, it IS adjustable.
There are two pieces at the bottom, one stationary and one that can turn, each having a hole drilled slightly off-center. When the pieces are aligned the hole has maximum opening. As you rotate the ferrule, the holes go out of sync, reducing the effective opening of the bore.
…
OK I’ll bite; all of these fixes for bottom d (O-rings, irises) are intended to reduce the diameter of the opening. On my chanter, this flattens the note. Any advise on sharpening bottom d a few cents, without having to adjust the seating of the reed?
My chanter is fairly well in tune with itself, except winter has done a number on bottom d (and back d too, strangely enough). Is this just a problem with the reed?
If the reed sounds less loud too you might want to open the reed lips a tiny bit.
As for getting only bottom D higher on a chanter.., surgery could be needed to widen the bore at the bell.
But that would be the LAST thing i’d try if i were you, if at all…
First try adjusting the reed or anything someone else might offer.
Ultimately have your pipemaker look at it.
Good luck!
for brian’s “bottom d tuner” to work, i would think that the chanter would have to be tuned a little sharp on the bottom d. since most are a little flat , so to fit one of these to your chanter you would have to open the bore down there a little or shorten it a little. seems like it would best be done at construction, not something many would relish undertaking on a well playing chanter.
best, tansy
Ah, didn’t see that one Tony. Throw in a copy of his new book “My Secret to Success, Hapiness and Health” and I’ll buy it for a fiver then.
Regards, Harry.
Harry, no problem.
Tansy, agreed the chanter would have to go back to maker for the modification.
Kevin, 2 of my chanters (by Ian Mackenzie) are designed with cork ‘rings’ to tune in and improve hard D. It probably works the same as an O-ring.
Hello again. I’ve spoken to Brian about this and he says the Iris sharpens the soft bottom D and flattens tha hard one.I have found that after they are in tune it makes them both sound harder in tone.Most chanters I have seen have a ferrule at the bottom of an inch or so in length.With the removal of this ferrule any competent repairer could adjust the diameter to accommodate the tuning Iris.Brian even provides drawings on his website.
He is working on some other revolutionary modifications and will post them on the site as soon as they are ready.Watch this space!
Try opening up the reed just at the eye by moving or putting a cramp/bridle there. It sounds daft but it often solves that problem.
Or you might just blow some moisture into the chanter–a puff or two and see what effect that has. If it fixes the problem what you have is a shrunken/closed reed from dry winter heat.
Royce
I’ve never heard one that was flat except a local home/maker job that we fixed by grinding down about 1/4" one night in the greenhouse tool shop at the piper’s club meeting. If all the chanters you’re playing tend to have a flat low D you’ve not got the reeds set up properly or you have other rushes in there already messing up the low D. I guess soft low D could be flattish–haven’t seen it though. Even soft low D tends to be in tune or sharpish, and with a bit of rush in the bell or with other rushes higher up from other corrections, both hard and soft D come in very good tune, though hard D tending a bit sharper than soft D.
Royce
Couple of things: No other pipe maker in the world would probably take off the foot ferrule and stick on Brian Howard’s gadget. Just the way the business is. Also, Brian would be unlikely or at least unliked to adapt another maker’s chanter to take his gadget. And finally, what really happens is soft D is flattened a bit by constricting the hole and hard D simultaneously dropped far flatter so they meet (hopefully) both in tune or with the hard D in tune and soft D maybe a hair flattish. Somebody would have to invent a new phenomenon to explain how reducing the area of an exit hole could possibly sharpen any reed pipe except in Bizzarro World.
Royce