OK. First, I’ll qualify these comments as being my own observations. Perhaps David can clarify the issues and speak of the specifics or discredit my comments where appropriate.
First, the tone of the new chanter was fairly close to that of my own which is quite distinctive and precisely what I prefer in tonal character for a D chanter. I really like that about this new design. For the record, my K&Q chanter is designed after the Rowsome the Liam O’Flynn plays. As a testimony, my K&Q ranks amongst the best chanters you’ll ever play based on conversation I’ve had with several modern day greats in piping who have played it.
Second, although the chanter was playing with a new stiff reed that was set up to require a little more pressure than I was used to, it moved easily between the octaves. The octaves were in tune and there was not a shred of tape on the chanter.
Third, the e’s were dynamite, spot on, required no tape, no squawking if the upper octave e was attempted to be overblown. All the e problems with D chanters seemed fixed…at least to my ear they did.
Fourth, the back d was stable, did not break, and quite lovely in sound and in tune with the whole chanter. There were no obvious C/C# compromises.
Fifth, the tone holes were placed in a manner that seemed more natural and also there was a minor amount of scalloping around them so that the chanter face was not rounded. Some, including Neillidh Mulligan, firmly believe chanters should not be round on the face where the fingers are placed.
To be honest, it took me a while of comparing this particular WR copy chanter to a nice Johnny Bourke copy K&Q had constructed and to my own LOF copy to realize what they had accomplished. The more time I spent with it the more I liked it. When the dust had settled, I still liked my original chanter better but that was because the reed set up is so that a lower pressure is required without volume compromise. Given the opportunity to play a WR copy set up as my current chanter is reeded there would be no question of which design would be more favorable. I asked BK about the way he had the reed set up and he implied that he too preferred an easier reed but that some of the important people who would try out the chanter and provide valuable feedback preferrred reeds that required more input and that is why he set it up as he did. My understanding is that the design does not, however, require a reed that needs more elbow. :adminok:
