Super Mellow Sets?

seamus clark · Post by **seamus clark** » Sat Feb 09, 2002 7:57 pm

yes, I still have the chanter, the only other
scott chanters i've heard were played and owned by kevin scott personally. I don't know
how new you are in the UP world,but there are
definitely several makers that will alter
someone elses work, on maker/player in particular is rather infamous, but I will
not publicy slander his name. scotts chanters are very straight foward, the chanter has only one key/keyblock and that is the C-natural key. the exterior resembles
some of the work by cillian o'brien and the hole-sizes tend to increase further up the chanter. I know kevin has made at least two other chanter like this one .my suggestion
would be to e-mail kevin and go from there.
i'll also add, at a tionol last year, this chanter was tested and approved by a well respected pipemaker and another student at the tionol wanted to trade his flute for my chanter- needless to say, I still have my chanter.

Cayden · Post by **Cayden** » Sun Feb 10, 2002 2:48 am

[quote]
Seamus Clarke wrote:

this is an attempt to answer both previous questions. first to peter, I compared a fully
keyed woof chanter in ebony in narrow D kevin
scott chanter was also in ebony- both look like madagascar ebony- solid black-little brown streaks. first the chanter length,hole-
size as well as spacing and inner bell diameter were almost identical. I cannot speak for the dimensions on the woof reed but as far as scotts reed,the staple is very narrow and the head of the reed looks
about the width of a Bb reed. narrow D is
not my favorite,but both mentioned chanters
filled the bill just fine.
[quote]

all you say here is they look the same and have roughly the same dimensions, how can you justify a statement they are both on an equal par based on such assesment? There's a bit more to a chanter. It very dangerous to recommend a chanter to people based on such a comparison. Don't you have anything more?

seamus clark · Post by **seamus clark** » Sun Feb 10, 2002 7:17 am

your right peter, as far as playabilty,sound
and response, both the woof and scott chanter's sounded on comparable footing.
the woof narrow tended to be a touch sharp
on the A and C-natural,whereas the scott chanter was sharp on the back D and C sharp.
neither of these could be considered faults
as we all must occasionaly put a touch of tape on a hole from time to time. as previously mentioned,woof made the narrow D
as an expierment and kevin scott did like wise, both chanters mentioned play in tune with themselves, but I prefer a wide/medium bore D myself if I must play D,the narrow D
sounds thin and whiney to me, as for narrow bore chanters, i'm content with my C chanter
and look foward to getting my Bb chanter next month.

Tony · Post by **Tony** » Sun Feb 10, 2002 5:21 pm

Seamus, are you saying there's nothing to gain by having a narrow bore D?

Cayden · Post by **Cayden** » Sun Feb 10, 2002 7:07 pm

That's just about what he says, I think there's a bit to gain if you get the right one, if you want to play in D that is. Talking about a Wooff D, I would say the design has improved on some of the obvious faults of the wide bore Rowsome style instrument. If you get a full set you will get a set of drones unmatched by any concert pitch maker thrown into the bargain. The narrow D lacks the depth of a lower pitched one though. It's a compromise to suit people who insist on playing in concert pitch but don't want the foghorn style of piping.

seamus clark · Post by **seamus clark** » Sun Feb 10, 2002 11:06 pm

true the narrow D is a compromise, one can also consider closing down the reed of there existing D chanter rush the bore and have a quieter,mellower playing chanter.

brendan ring · Post by **brendan ring** » Mon Feb 11, 2002 1:34 am

Try making the chanter reeds from elder. This goes a long way to improving the sound of wide bore concert chanters and sounds amazing in flat sets. Personally I think the poor concert pitch pipes are getting a bit of a rough deal! All the players that I loved like Finbar Furey, Liam O'Flynn, Johnny Doran, Davy Spillane, Leo Rowsome ect played wide bore concert pitch and seemed to make a prety good job of it!

Tony · Post by **Tony** » Mon Feb 11, 2002 11:07 am

brendan ring wrote:
Try making the chanter reeds from elder.... ...Personally I think the poor concert pitch pipes are getting a bit of a rough deal!

I agree.
I'm sure if I were to meet up with Peter we could find at least something we can agree on and joke about the rest as much of this is just personal preference.
Brendan, please tell me more about the elder. I've heard of Alder, but not elder. Do you fabricate the slips with the same shape and thickness as the cane? I know a few guys are using wood pieces on drone reeds with good results.

brendan ring · Post by **brendan ring** » Mon Feb 11, 2002 1:14 pm

Hi Tony,
Elder, Sambuca Nigra is actually a shrub, but can grow quite large and look like a tree. It is absolutely loaded with medicinal and culinary properties and has a huge folklore surounding it, it is not the same as alder, aldus glutinosa which is a tree. Making reeds from elder particularly for chanters and regulators is a bit more complicated than cane because you have to gather it in the wild yourself for one thing!
Today a lot of people have heard of elder drone reeds but chanter and regulator reeds were also made from it and there are historical examples. I suspect that cane took over because it saves some time, but not that much. The response from a set fully reeded in elder is quite wonderful you can hear much more air in the sound almost like a sigh. Also these reeds have incredible longevity, and when I spoke to Geoff Woofe a few years ago he said that he had an ancient set of elder drone reeds in his own pipes. This just touches the surface, probably best to talk to me off list if you want more!