E to F# =
P Brown D = 29.21 mm
Angus Narrow Bore D = 31.75 mm
Angus Bb = 35.56 mm
Uniform hole spacing and size were the norm on baroque flutes, when English virtuoso Charles Nicholson popularized the flute with larger holes and attendant increase in tonal power this uniformity was lost. Old Rudall Rose flutes sometimes look a bit like Rowsome's chanters - a tiny E placed much lower than you'd expect. One of Theobald Boehm's concerns with his designs was to restore this uniformity of hole size. Of course we now value this quality in wooden flutes. (tonal unequality from note to note - the character each note has, instead of the flat dynamic of the silver flute)
The same process obtained with Irish pipes, the Taylors often had to make the E smaller and more remote than before to keep it in tune. Rowsome's Es are often even more dinky than the usual Taylor.
I heard Geoff Wooff talking on a tape about one of the possible factors in the tone of old pipes - all the filth that had accrued in the bores from hundreds of years of smoke from stoves, Peterson pipes, etc. Indeed I am breaking in a great maple reed for my Bb bass drone, that has heaps of stray fibres in its bore. Perhaps if I'd cleaned all that out it wouldn't sound as buzzy as it does - and it sounds buzzier than any other reed I've put in there, as well as playing steady as a rock.
Pat Sky's Kenna B chanter was about the dirtiest sounding stick I've ever heard, and I like dirt. A great tone, very full of character. Part of the great sound Ennis and Reck got was, I'm now convinced, simply from "slop" - vibrato here, little doubled grace there, up with the chanter and down again there. An always varying sound. I've heard other pipers playing great sets - antique or newer versions of the same - and just not getting much of that tone. If they're playing Noisy Pitch stuff it's even more of a lost cause.
I hear the same thing with old flute players puffing and throating on notes, almost at random, and such a sound they'd have compared to just pushing out a sine wave.
Also regarding the old flute makers not being fools, they did persist with bad designs sometimes - Terry McGee outlines some of their quirks on his website, the flat bottom D for instance, which they stuck with for ages for some reason. I've played a Rudall that had that in spades, on a tune like the Plains of Boyle it was really sour. Or the metal lined headjoint, which would often crack no matter how well seasoned the wood or the quality of work.
'bottom hand' tonehole spacing - ask your maker!
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Kevin L. Rietmann
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