I live near Boston where these pipes are made. Has anyone had any experience with their practice set? I’ve seen one favorable review so far. Any more? Brian
You could get a real wood set form Pat Sky for about the same price. You decide.
Wood is not everything.
Although wood is a lovely material, chanter design and reeds are what will produce the sound in the end.
Alex
And in a few ways, a resin chanter will remain stable through climate changes… except, of course, for the extremes. 
It is all opinion. Usually the plastics give a brighter tone than wood and judgting by the sound clip that is definatley true in this instance.
Maybe the reed and chanter design are what produce sound, but how about tone? I remember something David said:
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?p=356363&highlight=#356363
Based on some experiments that I did years ago (same Northumbrian chanters out of different woods) and lots of reading on the topic of folks who have done extensive tests with flutes and other wind instruments, I have come to believe that the “machining characteristics” of the material is what makes the tonal differences, or at least the bulk of the tonal differences between two otherwise identical chanters made of different materials. And this is at the really small, nearly microscopic level.
For example, blackwood turns, bores, and reams to a really smooth, almost non-porous finish straight off the tools. Injected plastics would be even smoother. Woods like soft maple and cherry ream to a very porous, pitted, rougher texture. The smoother the texture in the bore, the brighter the tone. That is why you go from a dull tone with walnut or cherry or soft maple, to brighter and brighter as you work up the scale to blackwood. Ebony is just a bit rougher than blackwood, so you get just a bit less bright tone. It TENDS to be that the heavier the wood, the smoother it machines, but that is just a generalization.
You can also “fill the pores” (really pores and machining tear-outs) in a bore with lacquer or other agents and brighten the tone of a chanter made from the “lesser” woods, presuming you then ream the lacquering back to the same dimensions so that it is only filling the voids and not filling any of the desired bore.
Anyway, grab some different woods and try it out, keeping all other factors identical. At least the evidence I have seen bears out this theory. This is of course NOT to say that all chanters made of one wood will sound brighter than all chanters of another wood, because the bore and reed make huge differences as well.
Although I would agree that wood is not everything, I would argue it is far more than a lovely material.
As said above: reed, chanter design, and bore finish will have major contributions to the overall sound. But woods have a property that plastics have so far failed to match in range and depth: resonance.
Which is a property with profound musical effect!!
The implication of that is that different woods will selectively absorb and even amplify different frequencies. The result is the resonance of the wood will colour the harmonic output of the chanter for any given note.
The range, groupings and intensity of harmonics within a note is interpreted by your brain as the timbre (tone) of the chanter.
Interestingly African Blackwood is know to be one of the most resonant woods, hence it’s use in such thing a xylophone bars. Basically it rings it doesn’t clunk.
David
I’ve seen, touched and played no fewer than three chanters of Pat Murray’s and all were great both in tone and playability. Hands down the closest thing to a ‘real’ chanter I’ve seen to date - by miles. Interestingly, each was reeded differently, and had it’s own characteristic tone, but all were fairly similar to my memory.
If you’re considering a set from Pat, you can certainly do worse. The only caveat I had with my set from him when I played it was that the vinyl he used for the bag and bellows looked great, but cracked after a few years. Upgrading to leather would be a nice option to see him offer - or just pick up a decent bag (I got a new L&M from Seth G.) and tie it in.
I am of the opinion that they are real chanters… no offense intended.
Blackwood is resonant in the role of xylophone bar to a large extent because of the way it is suspended. If you hold the same piece of wood in a different place, you can make it clunk, all right. That being said, I tend to agree that there may be something to the way the wood in a chanter moves, adding something very subtle to (or perhaps not subtracting as much as other materials from?) the perceived sound. I know a fairly competent reedmaker who will swear that two chanters identical in every way except for the mass of wood will have different tonal characteristics. This is deep in the heart of frog hair country, however. I also think that Mr Liestman is right on the money with his explanations as to the whys and wherefores.
The chanters Messrs Murray and Bush are making are acoustically sound, as someone who has played one can attest. I would hope that in 2005, there will be enough open-minded people willing to consider the M&B plastic chanters as the valid musical instruments they are to keep the boys afloat. Me, I’m an unapologetic wood snob, but I have also made and sold plastic instruments, and am not ashamed of myself for having done so. Cillian Vallely played a Delrin K&Q C chanter on tour with Lunasa for several years, and only just recently did we replace it for him with an ebony one. As he tells it, it was a question of feel, and I can relate to that.
The arguments over which wood is better or if plastic is acceptable for woodwinds have a certain classic something about them. They keep coming back. Apparently more evidence keeps turning up, as grad students in the physical sciences run out of useful topics upon which to build their dissertations. For those who feel that the important thing is what the music sounds like, the Murray and Bush chanters are a good choice. If you’re looking for a work of art, there are pipes of all descriptions available at all prices. I’ll go out on a limb and say that if I were a beginner today, I would make serious inquires with Murray and Bush, and also with Pat Sky.
None taken here Joe me boyo. Just referring of course to ‘real wood’ as opposed to ‘real plastic’ chanters. 
I think David’s hit in on the head here of course…
Nailed it, he did.
Yes, for a xylophone, glockenspiel etc. to work, the bars must be supported at the two nodes present in it’s fundamental vibration.
Assuming the basic design of the instrument is good, my point was that then choice of materials can come into play.
Blackwood is then chosen because of it’s highly resonant properties.
In general terms that means more of the energy put into the bar (by the mallet) will come out as sound than would with a less resonant wood.
With a chanter it is the reed that is the source of the vibration not the wood of the chanter, so any effect would be less marked but present none the less.
I once spent a lot of time tapping a piece of Brazillian Rosewood. Contrary to the usual experience this rang no matter where you held it.
No matter how hard I tried, it would not clunk. 
Has anyone heard or made a Brazillian Rosewood chanter. I’d be interested to hear an opinion on it’s tone.
David
Nice GHB chanter are made of resin, flutes also, Seery or M&E to quote a few.
There is no reason resin couldn’t give great UP chanters (mine is coccobolo).
I was looking at some chunks of the stuff in Malcolm McLaren’s garage the other day and I know he has made some chanters from Br. R/wood. I’ll be seing him again this Tues so I’ll ask him what he thinks.
Cheers,
DavidG
The sound file on their website is very convincing. Would never have guessed it was a resin chanter.
DG