Taking up the bagpipes (Gibson or McCallum Chanter?)

[OC Richard]

the 5-String Openback Banjo and play clawhammer style... bang out the tunes using your manual dexterity and judgement to make em sound right.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLMXRSoL2ug

Very nice!

I'm from West Virginia, my Grandfather played fiddle and banjo, and that's the music that's "in my bones".

For me, there's nothing that can beat good drop-thumb banjo playing!

Take Amazing Grace. It's fine on the pipes, but for me this is the best version ever, with Tim Eriksen on clawhammer banjo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmFKZmcGAW0

[EagleJCS]

If you haven't yet, you may want to check out this thread in the Celtic Musicians subforum here on XMarks: http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/f...agpipes-41561/

*Lots of generalizations and broad sweeping statements follow. These are based on both personal experience and anecdotes from other pipers.

I have a long Walsh blackwood PC and really like it. I started out on a standard Naill poly PC. It's OK, but I really like the tone of the Walsh.

As far as the GHB's go, choice of materials will depend partly on the environment you expect to be playing them in. Delrin/polypenco generally requires less maintenance but you have to be careful about exposure to strong sunlight and extreme heat. I play Madagascaran rosewood (Bois de Rose) pipes, in the Dalbergia family (same as African Blackwood - ABW). They're a little lighter in weight than ABW (but I also don't have any metal mounts, just imitation ivory).

I agree with the advice to check out the Dunsire forum as well. Look at the archives.

If you haven't found one yet, find thyself an instructor forthwith! I’m sure there are oodles of pipers and pipe bands in your area.

My background:
I just stepped down as Pipe Sergeant of the Louisville Pipe Band and have about 13 years playing experience. (I was even acting Pipe Major in a couple of contests and band performances). I started taking lessons in April 2000 (it took me a while to get going on the big instrument).

[OC Richard]

About both PCs and the actual pipes, Dunbar in St Catherines, Ontario is truly one of the best makers on earth.

Our Pipe Major has played classic vintage Hendersons and a new Cushing but now he's playing a new set of silver-mounted ABW Dunbars and they are superb. (Well, he gets a good sound out of everything he plays.)

And now is the time to order pipes made in Canada! Because the Canadian dollar is very low, Dunbar bagpipes are an incredible value, priced (for us here in the USA) far below pipes made in the USA or the UK.

Ditto the PCs and pipes made by John Walsh (in Nova Scotia I think).

[OC Richard]

I mentioned above that our Pipe Major recently got himself a new set of Dunbar bagpipes.

Earlier today I was over at his house and we traded off playing three different sets of pipes

1) my c1900 RG Lawrie (Glasgow) the finest set of pipes I've ever owned

2) my c1945 Starck (London) probably made for the Army, with an interesting dark warm tone

3) his new Dunbar (St Catherines Ontario)

We didn't switch the same chanter between the pipes, which would have been ideal, but all three chanters were similar McCallum poly chanters of the same pitch, all using similar Megarity reeds.

Tonally the Dunbars were very close to the Lawries. Both pipes superbly supported the chanter. Both were tonally bolder and more supportive than the Starcks.

I then did something that I like to do, compare drones one-to-one. I traded the same reed between the three bass drones, mouthblowing each, and found that the Dunbar bass was very similar to the Lawrie bass. The Lawrie tenors were the boldest of the three. The Starcks were a bit softer and more dull both in bass and tenor, as we expected.

Anyhow the Dunbar is a very fine pipe! Perhaps the closest you can get to a fine vintage Henderson/Lawrie tone.

(The Starcks nevertheless had a fascinating high-quality tone, and we think that a chanter of lower pitch and volume would suit them ideally.)

PS this thread should be moved to "Celtic musicians" or "Celtic music talk". I don't know if I can ever think of the pipes as a mere way to accessorise the kilt!

[Kamilavalamp]

I mentioned above that our Pipe Major recently got himself a new set of Dunbar bagpipes.

Earlier today I was over at his house and we traded off playing three different sets of pipes

1) my c1900 RG Lawrie (Glasgow) the finest set of pipes I've ever owned

2) my c1945 Starck (London) probably made for the Army, with an interesting dark warm tone

3) his new Dunbar (St Catherines Ontario)

We didn't switch the same chanter between the pipes, which would have been ideal, but all three chanters were similar McCallum poly chanters of the same pitch, all using similar Megarity reeds.

Tonally the Dunbars were very close to the Lawries. Both pipes superbly supported the chanter. Both were tonally bolder and more supportive than the Starcks.

I then did something that I like to do, compare drones one-to-one. I traded the same reed between the three bass drones, mouthblowing each, and found that the Dunbar bass was very similar to the Lawrie bass. The Lawrie tenors were the boldest of the three. The Starcks were a bit softer and more dull both in bass and tenor, as we expected.

Anyhow the Dunbar is a very fine pipe! Perhaps the closest you can get to a fine vintage Henderson/Lawrie tone.

(The Starcks nevertheless had a fascinating high-quality tone, and we think that a chanter of lower pitch and volume would suit them ideally.)

PS this thread should be moved to "Celtic musicians" or "Celtic music talk". I don't know if I can ever think of the pipes as a mere way to accessorise the kilt!

Thanks for the info, and I agree that the thread should go there. I would have started it there but I didn't see that section.

[TRWXXA]

Can anyone recommend a good piping forum for us beginners?

I received my Dunbar practice chanter. Surprised myself by managing to play "Amazing Grace" on it after a few tries. Muscle-memory sticks around.

Also got a Fagerstrom Technopipe. The band for which I run sound and lighting wants me to play the intro to "Copperhead Road" and "It's a Long Way to the Top". The electronic pipes is one of the few ways to play in normal concert tune with other instruments. I'm sure traditionalists will poo-poo the Technopipes, but it is fun to hear what your fingering will sound like on full pipes. The kazoo-like quality of a PC gets old fast.

[OC Richard]

The most popular GHB site I know of is Bob Dunsire.

I have a Fagerstrom electronic chanter, and it has built into it the same Just Intonation scale that the vast majority of good pipers use today. Both the Fagerstrom and the real Highland pipes will clash with Equal Temperament in exactly the same way.

I don't know if new Fagerstroms allow you to choose an ET scale. Mine is old and I don't think it can do that.

I do gigs with orchestras, brass ensembles, pipe organs etc all the time. To play in Concert Pitch you just need to get a Concert Pitch pipe chanter.

Yes traditional Practice Chanters have that kazoo-like sound. I prefer the Gibson which sounds more like a Smallpipe chanter.

[TRWXXA]

Yes, the new Technopipes can change pitch. There is a whole menu of start-up finger placements that control various functions, and that is one of them.

I did read about concert pitch chanters, but don't some drones run out of adjustment?

[Kamilavalamp]

I ordered the Gibson Long Practice Chanter. I like what people are saying about how it has a better sound kinda like the smallpipes. I'll tell ya how it goes.

[OC Richard]

I did read about concert pitch chanters, but don't some drones run out of adjustment?

Not sure what you mean by "run out of adjustment". Yes keeping drones in tune with the chanter requires constant adjustment, due to the chanter changing pitch according to how wet or dry the reed is, or how warm or cold the chanter itself is.

A sheepskin bag is, in my experience, the best at keeping the chanter reed at the most even moisture-level possible. When in a cold environment (outdoors or the AC turned too cold) the chanter itself gets cold and the pitch goes down dramatically. I've got in the habit of holding the chanter and feeling what temperature it is when it's playing in tune. Then if I have to wait for a while in the cold before I play again I'll put the chanter up my jacket sleeve or inside my jacket to maintain it at that same temperature. Then when I play again it will play at the same pitch.

Same goes whether you're playing at the high modern pitch or at Concert Pitch.

Concert Pitch chanters can be called "concert" "B flat" "466" "orchestral" or whatever. Their "Low A" is at 466 cycles, so in piper's terminology they're "466" chanters. In ordinary (non-piper) musical terms these chanters are in the key of B flat at the pitch of A=440.

Just did a Holiday Brass concert last night, using a McCallum 466 chanter which is great for these things. I tuned up so the electronic tuner was showing Bb being bang-on.

About drones, with my pipes the bass is no problem, because I can simply tune it out further to get down to 466. Tenors are another matter. (Especially with my vintage Lawries that have the tenors very high, showing 1/8" to 1/4" hemp, at 484.) EzeeDrone makes special long tenor reeds which can get down to 466. I myself use old Wygent tenor reeds on long home-made brass tubing extenders. My pipes sound very good tuned down there at 466, which by the way was where all pipe bands were pitched when I started playing in pipe bands in the 1970s. I lived through the meteoric pitch rise, starting with McLeod chanters that played around 469 around 1980, to everybody playing Warnock chanters in the 1990s carving the heck out of them to get them up to the high 470s to all the new chanters coming out that play at 480 and above. Our band just switched to G1 chanters which are pitching in around 485.