Yes but… In my home temperature and humidity are controlled ( not like a museum but with a central heat and air with a humidifier). I monitor both with an indoor/ outdoor weather station that tracks temp and humidity on my computer. And… It is hung horizontally and removed horizontally. Barring a major earthquake ( Portland is on a fault), there is nothing on those pipes that will fall out. Granted that in an earthquake it would survive and my wall hanging would be at risk…
Some have commented that even though my room is controlled that the case would be much more controlled on temp and humidity. I don’t believe that but I will do a little experiment and put the weather station in the case for a day and compare it.
BTW… I love getting advice. But if it does not pass the test of my logic and I think a certain path benefits me I tend to blunder into that path and benefit from my decision or learn the hard way.
…and there is the school (theory?) of letting the pipes learn to live where they live. That is: not attempting to maintain constant environmental conditions, but letting the instrument “move” with the local conditions. The idea being that, over time, the swings will be less and less and the instrument will “stabilize” eventually. This has been, more or less, what I do with my gear (within reason), and I am able to play throughout the year. Caveat: the pipes are never, truly, happy in 10º nor 90º humidity. With the former, I use cello and violin dampits (which may offer placebo-grade assurance) and with the later I tend to avoid playing altogether.
I live in the heart of N. America where we get all extremes.
When I am playing/practicing regularly, I actually keep my pipes out on a large blanketed coffee table in the master bedroom–which is shared with a bathroom and a sun room (w/hot tub). It’s like a little apartment and I keep the door closed. There is no central HVAC system/vent in there so I don’t have to worry about heat and forced air changing the humidity in the room (forced air and dry elect heat are incompatible with humidity. Free standing natural gas stoves work best in the winter). In fact, I don’t even use a meter to measure the humidity, because after you play the pipes for a few years you’ll know if it’s right or wrong just by the way the reeds are working. If I want more humidity and easier working reeds, I just lift the lid on the hot tub for a few minutes. Uilleann pipes deserve their own little environment, as far as I’m concerned, if you’re looking for the ultimate experience. When out playing for a concert, I’ll stick a sponge in the case, inside a zip-loc bag which is left open.
Here is a typical summer in my music room with Central heat and air and a humidifier:
The daily cycles of a few % humidity is because of the effect of the AC (during summer). You can see when the AC started being used as it always starts to get warm here in Portland starting 4 July. The larger cycles (over a week or more) were probably due to wet weather or I kept the room door closed. The week of low readings was probably because I let the humidifier get low on water (a weakness in my method). But despite all that Most of the daily variations are + - 5%. The lowest was 36% and highest was 56% over a 3 month time period.
I will post the effect of the closed case tomorrow as my little weather station is comfortably inside it right now. I will compare that to the previous day without the case. Outside weather is about the same but maybe a little warmer today.
Note that I used to keep a humidor full of cigars in my youth. With the right kind of wetting device you can control humidity in a box to within a few percent. I guess another question is how tight does the humidity bandwidth need to be for it to be OK?
heh. yaaahh, ya might wanna delete “pipe at some seisuns in Philly” from yer bucket list, Bob. It’s a comfy 85% just now. Amazing the difference between 85% & 95%. Oh, its hot too.
I gotta point out, “how one stores ones pipes so they dont get damaged” seems to me a vastly diferent topic from “gettin yer pipe to play half decent in all kindsa cr*ppy situations”
I lived in Sacramento for about 35 years. Where it got to be over 100 F for many days in a row during the summer . I think the humidity was in the teens sometimes. Maybe that’s why I could not make the Geoff Wooff practice set work for me. And why my Brad Angus practice set works almost all the time up here in Portland.
I have to agree with Tommy’s post.
I have been leaving my pipes out and around my house. The windows are open and they are subject to the variations in the weather. Yes, there are some reed issues, but nothing so drastic that I cannot play without a slight adjustment. I think this is very informative. Gives me an idea of what and how the reeds are affected. I live in Brooklyn, NYC. It gets fairly humid here in the summer, and with the apt. heat in the winter fairly dry. It may turn out that I have two sets of reeds eventually. For the moment, there are three sets of pipes about the house: one in an open case; one on a small table; and the one laying across the kitchen table. Looks like the aftermath of a pipers’ gathering!
Arbo
So your logic tells you to leave your pipes on a hanger like they’re a shirt at a clothing store rather than getting a large case to safely secure your pipes without having to break them down? Ok…
I like to think I am very efficient…more probably lazy. I leave my iphone out, my keys, my tools are on hooks. Any tools I put in a case I tend to not use or forget they are there. I leave my uke and guitar out. All of my penny whistles live in an open bowl. My bodran and small drums are out.
My shoes would last longer if I put in shoe horns and set them in the closet… I have shoes like that but never wear them.
For me out of sight is out of mind… and as a kid I NEVER liked to put away my toys. Never!
They only thing I am religious about is I put away my car in the garage, And I lock up my laptop and camera gear (I am a semipro photographer) every night.
So yeah… having my favorite things in open sight gives me pleasure to see them and I get immediate satisfaction from grabbing and playing with them without much set-up.
I think the humidity is NOT a reason in my climate at my house in my music room. Falling or coming apart is not going to happen the way I handle them. Dust could be an issue. AND… Channing Dodson, my tutor came by today for my lesson.
He did not like the set up either. But he showed me a few things that made sense. I did not realize that you should store your bellows stored with the flapper valve in a closed position. So those will sit on the bookshelf top now. He also said that the way I had the practice bag hung that the chanter stock could come loose and fall down and hit the main set. But rearranging the way I sit my practice set in fixed that. One other comment was that some of the weight of the fullt set was bearing on the tenor drone.
That made me think that maybe for the set… I should replace the two guitar holders with a padded shelf (with a lip so it won’t fall off…) sort of a case without a lid but with lower walls so I can still see the beauty of the set.
To me putting your pipes in a controlled environment where the local environment is unstable, equals life support. Where I live, it is just not feasible due to the extreme dryness of the desert. If your reeds are not constructed properly or acclimate poorly due to properties of the cane beyond your control, your pipes are living on borrowed time by controlling their environment. Though, I do think controlling the pipe’s environment is a good idea, if your climate is stable. To me, stable means no shifts from one extreme to another (dry to humid).
Case 1 - NO CASE Temp variation 73-77F, Humidity 43-48% So thats 4F and 5% variation over the course of a day
Case 1 - IN CASE Temp variation 73-76F, Humidity 48-50% So thats 3F and 2% variation over the course of a day
This in my Central AC Home with a humidifier. Case 1 was data from Monday, Case 2 from Tuesday
So the Case, in my music room, maybe offers a slight advantage in the variation of of Temp and Humidity. But that variation may also come from the fact each case is a different day.
But I think what this shows is that in my room there is not a large advantage for just humidity and temp.
For me, valid reasons FOR a case may be handling and storage safety, dust control, And maybe theft?
On the theft… how many people have had their pipes stolen over the years… where would the thieves fence it? OR are pipers stealing from pipers??
Maintaining a temperature of let’s say 78*, A/C through a forced air ventilation system in the summer does not have the same effect on humidity in a room as dry heat through the same system in the winter. Plus, the temp at head height (and above) in a room will be different than the temp in the case located at floor level and in a closet.
Sure. But I still don’t think a case will make much of a difference unless it is air tight. And with a humidifier going in the room it does not matter whether its hot or cold air… You just adjust the machine to give you what you want.
For a room without a humidifier there will be much larger swings and I think it will be a little better in a case but not a huge difference… Unless there is a little humidifier in the case.
BTW. I am using a Venta, German made, air washer that also humidifies. I have a wierd disease where I need to have relatively clean air whenever I can get it. So I mainly have it for the air cleaning. But the humidity control is a bonus for the pipes.
I edited my post while you were posting…just to lower the temp a little, and to add floor level temp and case in a closet.
In Portland, in a normal house, you shouldn’t need a humidifier most of the year around. Humidity in Ptd is a 50% right now, temp 78*. And it’s probably been similar the last few days. It’s only in the winter when the room air gets dried out from the dry heat and wind (forced air ventilation systems). Warm wind will suck the moisture out of anything real fast, including the reed as the enhanced wind speed picks up through cap.
So, bottom line is…in Portland it doesn’t matter most of the time whether your pipes are in a case or out, on a table or on the wall–as far as humidity goes. Here’s the 3-day weather history of Portland–including dew point and relative humidity–which makes me wonder why you had your humidifying going during your tests. http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/mesowest/getobext.php?wfo=pqr&sid=KPDX&num=72&raw=0
When you turn your heat system on this winter you may want to keep your pipes out of the wind and warmer room temperatures, maybe keep them near floor level or in a case in the closet (floor level).
As far as safety, that’s entirely up to you. 1000:1 there’s less risk in a case.
I saw Bob’s wall hanging setup yesterday and expressed my skepticism about the arrangement. Any situation where the chanter is dangling gives me a mild case of the heebie-jeebies. (As Northumbrian piper Colin Ross famously put it, “Divven’t let your chanter dangle.”) I was also a bit worried about pressure on the tenor drone of the full set.
I put my set away in its case (an old Savage & Hoy UP case) when I’m not playing it most of the time, but sometimes I’m lazy and just leave them sitting on a couch that I never actually sit on in my office at home.
I think I remember seeing some video of Gay McKeon and his sons talking about how they would just leave a set of pipes out on top of a shelf or on top of a piano in the living room at home, and they just took turns playing it throughout the day.
I don’t necessarily see a problem with keeping your pipes out in a relatively safe place for a couple of days here and there, but it is preferable that they live in a case that’s stored someplace relatively cool and out of direct sunlight when you’re not playing them.
I must be up for another round of criticism because I am going to post some more pics of where my pipes finally lay.
The guitar wall hangers were a bit to0 precarious… they might have been fine in my private room with my careful handling. But they did put part of the weight of the pipes on individual points of drones and or regulators.
I noted that several you lay your pipes on a table, piano, or a chair. So think of my creation as an open case or a padded table/piano.
Its a wood shelf with a 2" lip on it to prevent rolling. On that I have some foam with partial cut-outs to bed the chanter and stock/drones/ reg.. On top of that some velvet that I had left over from my case set up.
So now I have a relatively pleasing display of my pipes that are there for immediate playing. And in full site nagging me to practice more. The only weakness to this would be dust and spiders.
And again my room is always between 40-50% humidity so that is not an issue… and they are fully out of the sun. Theft should not be an issue as the crime rate on UP theft, I think, is low… and my room has a motion and video alarmed ( I have other goodies in there).
I lay my pipes on top of my guitar amp so I will be more likely to reach out and play them. If they are in my case, I have a tendency to forget they are there.
It’s a comfy 85% just now. Amazing the difference between 85% & 95%. Oh, its hot too.
Ok…
