Chiff and Fipple Forums

Looking to unload this brand new half set by Brian Bigley. Just a little explanation about why I'm selling it. I am a professional woodwind doubler for Broadway musicals, and I also dabble in historical performance. Over the pandemic I became enamered with the idea of trying out Uilleann pipes as a faure into Irish traditional music, but I'm realizing that the maintenance and artistic attention the instrument requires to be convincing is too much for me at the moment. I also finally came across a musette de cour for sale (which is crazy rare) so I had to hop on the opportunity and luckily she is holding them for me until I sell these to be able fford it. Looking for 5,750, which is about 500 less than I paid for the pipes and case. I've only had them for a couple months. Here are the details:

Half set of African blackwood, Walther mammoth ivory, and brass.

Fully keyed chanter, Bb, F natural, and G starp keys.

http://imgur.com/a/gz6opD7

https://youtu.be/VUva9Yd2Aug

If you're near the Boston area, pick up would be preferred, but I'm willing to take care of the shipping within the US.

need a bassoon?

The bass drone is unusual.
RORY

That brace reminds me a little of a fiddle bow´s frog.

Bob

A similar shaped turnaround for the bass drone slide can be found on some Tayloresque pipes. And the support bracket for the U bend on their bass regulators has the same graceful shape.

Yea! Looks and sounds great.
RORY

The design is very robust. The Taylor sets seem to have lasted the ages pretty well.

From a fabrication standpoint this design has a lot to recommend it. It can be made to be ´self-clamping´, so when brazing or silver soldering no other clamps or fixtures are necessary. Flux the piece, heat it to cherry red, touch it with solder/braze, and let wicking do its job. Neat.

Bob

I'm not to familiar with the details of Taylor pipes but did they also use the triple bored wood piece turn about on their bass drone? I remember reading an article by, I think, David Quinn, that the Taylors were not keen on bending tubing.
RORY

Jeez, Rory, you are tempting me to dive into the weeds of classic pipe making.
Yes, David Quinn did write about the Taylors´ triple bored stocks and drone fittings.
There is some evidence of a correspondence between the Taylors and R.L. Mealy and his also triple-boring. I believe Bill Haneman wrote something about this. There were some skilled machinists in that generation.

It doesn´t surprise me that the Taylors weren´t keen on bending tubing. Rolled and seamed tubing, the kind most readily available to them is pretty damn tricky to faultlessly bend. Drawn and extruded tubing wasn´t always readily available to them in the right sizes. Haneman points out that makers like Coyne and Kenna probably made their own rolled and seamed tubing, and exploited the acoustically useful ability to make the apropriate sizes and tapers.

Bob

In the same article by David Quinn he pointed out that even though he is a great admirer of Taylor work he would never use any of the Taylors bore measures. The Taylors were great innovaters in the workings of key's and such, but it was the Rowsome's that developed the concert pitch sound that is recognised today.
RORY

rorybbellows wrote:In the same article by David Quinn he pointed out that even though he is a great admirer of Taylor work he would never use any of the Taylors bore measures. The Taylors were great innovaters in the workings of key's and such, but it was the Rowsome's that developed the concert pitch sound that is recognised today.
RORY

designing Uilleann Pipes can be a nightmare. Starting with the fortuitous discovery that a Pastoral Pipe sans foot joint could be played more-or-less in tune as a stopped pipe and achieve the octave as well, now you add in a demand for both volume and a pleasing set of harmonics and overtones. . .a specific voice with a specific timbre. . .well, we´re lucky not to wind up with something not like a Kazoo.

Bob

I'm not necessarily defending the functionability of the Taylor sets vs. Rowsome sets, but I would suggest that the best explanation for why "the Rowsome's ... developed the concert pitch sound that is recognised today" is not so much whether one sound was subjectively better than the other, but rather that the great pipers of the revival were playing Rowesome sets, so that is the sound we all associate with what a concert pitch should sound like.

I'm no expert at all, but I suspect that if you look at how far the Taylor brothers brought the concert pitch set of pipes from where it was before them (non existent?) and how far the Rowsomes brought it, we would have more to thank from the Taylor brothers than the Rowesomes. Though a better way to think about it, probably, is that we have the Taylor brothers to thank for inventing the Concert set of uilleann pipes, and the Rowesomes to thank for refining it (though even that is debateable!)

I wonder if the Rowsome's had a Taylor set that they used as a template or did they start from scratch. I would agree that the Taylors contribution to the evolution of concert pitch pipes cannot be over estimated, after all in the bible of wbcp pipes the opening sentence reads "in the beginning there was the Taylors". Nowadays 99.9% of pipe maker's, if asked attribute their chanter design to Rowsome. But then again the choice is a bit limited.
RORY

Every Taylor chanter that I've heard and played has been fantastic. I'd say they're better than any of the modern 'modified Rowsome' chanters in terms of expression, tone, triplets, playability, etc. Just listen to Patsy Touhey or Sean McKiernan, or Fionnan MacGabhann for a younger player on a Taylor chanter.

The Rowsomes most certainly copied from the Taylors. I don't own a Taylor chanter but I do have an old Taylor long block copy on hand to illustrate the point.

https://imgur.com/a/kZXAm7c

An early Leo on the right. These two chanters are very similar, both 14 inch, same singing back D, same hole placement, same dimensions aside from the oval F hole (which was common on T chanters). The sound is surprisingly similar too with the same reed, but the bore in the Leo is a little more open.

Leo lengthened the chanters, added a rush and widened the holes over time, but you can definitely see where he was coming from here. The modifications Leo made at the start are surprisingly minute. Both Leo and Willie advertised as repairing pipes, so it's not out of the question that they'd have seen a Taylor set or two pass through their workshop.

I love seeing Taylor stuff make its way into contemporary pipe making, with DMQ and Chris Bayley flying the Taylor flag for decades, and newer makers like Andy May and Eoin O'Riabhaigh adopting aspects of the big Ts into their sets.