Does anyone own/regularly play one of David's "penny chanter" sets? Just curious to hear some feedback from those of you who might havehad a chance to give his work a run-through.

Thanks

Piper

So I fear no one's got or played a set of David's pipes then? I'll post a review when mine come.

Y.P.

I'm suprised no one responded. I would have thought half of the 'pipers-in-waiting' for more expensive sets would have tried a David Daye set. Reviews I have heard on other message boards, were always positive.

I think the David Daye chanters are sort of a "skeleton in the closet" type of thing. No one wants to admit they have one when they've finally got their pipes. I know of several people who have them but they won't ever talk about them...a quick change of subject there.

I can heartily, unabashedly, and without reservation recommend David Dayes practice set. For several years I have struggled as a lone piper, as usual blaming my reed. My success at reed making has been slow to say the least, but I did not want to part with my chanter long enough to send it back to Ireland for the maker to reed it.
At North Hero, I saw one fellow with a Daye Penny chanter, and I must say I was not impressed with its utilitarian appearance, but the sound was good and the reed was quite responsive. I ordered one from Dave the next day. In six weeks it came; I plugged it into my Hughes half set and, right out of the box the sound was amazing. It was so much fun finally playing a good chanter-reed combination. Making the bag and bellows for a true practice set was a cinch.
Thus, with his practice set at a fairly reasonable price get down to serious learning right away. I do believe that Dave is coming to grips with the true essence of reed making in a scientific, methodical,reproducible way, and I thoroughly enjoy his on-line "reed scholarship." He has been just as helpful on the phone or via E-mail. Sincerely Bob Murphy

It's clear David is leading the pack with his ideas toward reedmaking & piping in general. I've considered buying some of his reeds, a penny chanter and one of his wood chanters just for the experience.

It may be that there aren't enough pipers viewing this board to give you a good sample... I suggest you go the Seattle Irish Piper's Club chat list and ask....

Actually, I have a Penny Chanter hooked up to my Ray Sloan practice set (Hi, John Allison!) right now. David is a meticulous craftsman when it comes to his reeds, stabilizing them for a customer's climate zone. We're experiencing a Santa Ana wind condition right now, and I don't detect any change in the reed he sent me. It seems to tolerate the low humidity quite well. One caveat: David uses teflon tape on the chanter to windcap connection. If the windcap seems too loose, remove the G*D tape and hemp it up properly. My chanter slipped out of the windcap as I was inserting it into the pipe bag's chanter stock, falling on the floor and damaging the reed. Tragic, considering how much work David puts into them, but the replacement reed sounds great. Anyway, IMHO, I highly recommend Penny Chanters and am amazed David can sell something with so much technical engineering and craftsmanship for so little money.