RenaissanceGuy wrote:
Keyed chanter by an unknown maker, described as blackwood (no reed included):
Ebay linkDoes anyone recognize this work?
Looks like a "Widdicombe" chanter. Pakistani made, I believe. I've tried one. Here's what I wrote on FB when a similar question was raised there:
I came across one of these chanters a few months back. They appear well turned but the insides are rubbish. I tried a bunch of my D reeds. The reed seat is very large and needed a good few wraps of hemp to fit the reeds. I could get nothing tuneful from the chanter using my reeds (which work fine in my chanter). The lower hand notes were out of tune but did sound. Only the lower A on the upper hand produced any sound (B, Cnat, C# and D produced no sound). The throat was very large, but I didn't measure it. The reeds which came with the Widdicomb were just disasters. Either collapse and closed, or open along the sides. No bridles on the 2 or 3 reeds which came with the chanter. The tone holes were positioned differently (closer together) to those on my chanter. Like the reed seat, the bell was significantly larger than anything I've seen before. The bore seemed to be conical, just much larger than what I'm used to. My verdict would be, don't waste your time or money on these.