Chiff and Fipple Forums

A common complain as I understand it but I beg your patience and indulgence once more. I've been tinkering with building chanters and reeds for some time now (still only a matter of weeks) and have at any rate produced a combination that will play very nicely and easily, to my ear anyway (I haven't heard a live UP since 1986 and that was a group called "You Slosh" in Scarborough, UK, and I was drunk, but it was a memorable experience!). Anyway both octaves are in tune and the chanter has a similar "ring" to chanter on the Heather Clarke tutor which brought a rather large grin, BUT.....bugger me if the low E isn't always about 20-30cents sharp or worse when the high E is in tune.
That was chanter number 4 (the rest were firewood) and I'm about to drill to tone holes for the next. The Big question is whether this is a reed or chanter flaw.
I humbly anticipate the wisdom of the group. BTW what make of chanter is on the HC CD?

Cheers

Just educated guessing here...

For some pipes it's the lack of humidity or the hardness in the cane. The upper part of the V scrape is what determines the Es and if the cane is not very flexible, either due to lack of humidity or hardness of cane, or the shape of the scrape is not designed right...then the faults in chanter will be hard to isolate. It could be one or the other, or a combination. Bruce Childress recently said he makes his chanters that way, and I know others do too, so that the upper E is a little flat. Go figure.

Thanks for the reply Lorenzo. I had a sneaking suspicion this would not be a straight forward fix. Western N. Texas hasn't been humid for months so you may have something there. Hopefully the problem will not follow me to Scotland. I shall, in the meantime, continue to tweak 'n scrape. Anyone else got any ideas?

Cheers

Putting a U shape in the scrape may not be the answer as much as making the V more elongated, and still pointed. That's what Pederson use to do, and at one time he was considered one of the best reed makers on the west coast. The cane really does need to be flexible for dry climates. In my experience, that's where lack of humidity shows up first.

Here's a link to the post where Bruce Childress talks about tuning E's...
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php ... e8aff48ed4

Attennant...before ye go off with the wee scraper if it is tune in the 2nd octave try this..Ist octave fingering for E off the knee little finger left on.
x/xxxxxOx/O it may work
Slan go foill
Liam

It's more than likely a bore/design thing, try a little blob of bluetack inside the chanter between E and F and see what happens [make sure you can take it out again]

I back up Peter here, but I use a small roll of card instead. (not on my chanter, you understand, my chanter is always perfectly in tune :tongue in cheek smiley: ).
You're doing alright if that's your only problem!
Alan

Maybe it could help to make more airspace where the stable ends into the head of the reed. A rush into the stable to, though it seems to influence the higher octave more than the first octave.
In my experience to make b-chanters ( several of them has go into firewoods to) I also using undercutting the holes of the chanter .
A undercut near the the bell of the chanter will raise the higher octave and a undercut near the top of chanter will raise the first octave.
Also using rush into the chanter will have a influence on the e's.

Ole

I had a similar problem with the E's on my Rowsome chanter in the early 70's. Leon fixed it in a similar way using a circle of rush up the bore. It also cured a gurgling bottom D.

With regard to Heather Clarks chanter, I think its a Howard.

since you are in a position to experiment, things to try:

* undercutting, and relative size vs placement of the E holes tends to affect the octaves differently
* you can leave the chanter thick at the bottom and drill one or more E holes at an oblique angle, so that the inter-finger spacing is preserved.

I have seen concert pitch chanters with the bottom E hole drilled 45degrees downward, much larger than the top E hole, and also with a smaller bottom hole and larger top hole, etc. No doubt there's more than one design that would 'work'.

Since with the E you have more variables to play with, unless you are concerned about the exact pitch of your ghost d you might be able to fix this pretty thoroughly. Of course, you then must weigh this against other issues such as the intonation of the off-the-knee fingerings for E, F#, G, the possible 'snarl' in the Es, and the behavior of the 'ghost d'.

Agree with Peter that probably the 'best' place to fix is in the bore, but it's easier to experiment with toneholes. Or find a chanter that's in tune, and copy that one as carefully as possible.

Hi Atennant, the maker of Heather Clarkes full set is Brian Howard.You can contact him on www.howardmusic.co.uk .Good luck

Thanks for the replies they're providing a lot of food for thought. I held back from further tweeking and scraping since the reed was good overall and thought i'd start with the suggestion of blu tack between the E and F holes ......worked like a charm!!! Peter, thank you very much indeed! Both E's in tune and in fact an improvement in tone down low. I'm assuming a slight narrowing of the reamer at the same spot should acheive similar results?
I'll be having a good think about all the above suggestions so I'll be busy.

Cheers

The bore was too wide in that spot, typical problem with loads of chanters, bluetack fixes it after, redesign it to be narrower there is the better idea.

Peter: is that a spot typically affect bottom D gurgles as well?