Chiff and Fipple Forums

Dear pipers, I'm interested in your feedback...
I'm about to create my own enterprise and I would really appreciate your opinion on my inventions.
Am I completely misguided, or do you think that they may interest some clients?
It's really about getting honest opinions, not an attempt to be flattered.

Here is a remainder of the principles that inform my work.
It's about improving, as much as technical means allow it, the musical capacities of the instrument, without losing the qualities that the elders had.
This evolution could be compared to that of classical instruments in the 19th century, except that our demands in terms of accoustics and tuning aren't the same.
My work focuses on two areas: mechanics and reedmaking.
Mechanics allowed for:
- a more ergonomic key system on the chanter;
- a stabilisation of the holding of the regulators' tuning thanks to a circuit which cools their air supply;
- a regulator keybord that enables more chords to be played in a normal way.


Onto reedmaking, I try to get as close as possible of the ideal reached by Leo Rowsome, i.e., well tuned and easy to play instruments with a generous sound. I made great progress, and research is still going on...
At this point in my work, your feedback is precious to me.
What are your critiques, doubts/reserves, questions?
What are your expectations?
What would you consider the ideal set to be like?
What do you think of the evolution that I propose?

Don't hesitate to give your sincere opinion.
I need to know what the weather's like, so to speak.

Salut Benoit,

it may not be easy for people to give constructive feedback about something they have not seen more than pictures and diagrams of.

Obviously a better way forward, if possible, would be to complete the set and take it out to an event where plenty of pipers will be; the Willie Clancy Summer School or the NPU Tional for instance. When people have the chance to see the physical reality of your concept, and to try the set , perhaps they would be in a better position to give some feedback



Geoff.

IMHO first and foremost, all a piper wants is a good sounding playable chanter.Essentially Uilleann piping is chanter playing, So the chanter/ reed combination has to be good. Not every piper wants the same sound of course, so your chanter design should be able to accommodate different reed designs and for this reason should be easy to reed,any chanter that needs special hand rolled staple designs and specific head designs to play well is no good in terms as using it as a model.
After that you have to ask ,what are you trying to achieve and is it something that is going to make a big difference,one that pipers will actually notice as an improvement . Do pipers in general think the reg layout needs improving , do they think the key system on a chanter needs improving ? Will your system be easy to maintain ? Is your set easy to keep air tight and so on.

RORY