Do any of you have one of these?

It gives you two octaves D to D and is basically fully chromatic. I should be getting one in a few week and am curious if anyone has any tips!

http://lindstruments.com/pages/the-lindsay-system-chanter

Ah, a Scottish chanter with a Mormorka!

_________________
Richard Cook
c1980 Quinn uilleann pipes
1945 Starck Highland pipes
Goldie Low D whistle

Well, have you received your new Lindsey pipe yet? We need a report!

Still waiting dangit! It's hard to be this excited for this long....

I'll have to remember this when I'm hanging with my toddler this afternoon.

[Thread Revival. - Mod]

Have you got it?..

I am also extremely curious. It sounds good on the YouTube vids, but I'm curious how it is in day to day use. Is it reasonably ergonomic? How often is the player condemned to "tuning hell" versus ordinary pipes?

I have a version 2.0 chanter. I had terrible difficulties at first, and put it away in a drawer, but some months later Donald came to my place with a new reed, and since then it plays like a dream, with a full rich tone in the low f-d range. The reed is also very stable and never needs adjusting.

The chanter plays and sounds great in the normal pipe range too, with the advantage of the extra semitones available (I find the high g sharp is very useful for the Border repertoire).

The low notes are pretty easy to find, though at first it's hard to move right thumb and left pinkie without the other fingers leaking.

The high notes demand more control of bag pressure than I can manage consistently so far. I can sometimes get a high b, but much of the time have problems hitting the left thumb and right pinkie holes without leaking. It's coming, though.

I guess the only criticism I have is that the gloss finish on the chanter might not be helping me get a good grip. I see Donald's new set has a matt finish, which might be easier. I have also wondered whether scalloped finger holes might help.

Overall, though, it's a great way to bring some variety into your piping, and explore tunes that would normally be unavailable.

It's not easy, learning a new instrument, of course, even if a fine piper like Donald makes playing it look easy.

The rule as always is, as the Chinese say, 滴水穿石 - a drop of water will penetrate stone. Practise, practise, practise.

Well, I took the plunge and ordered a set. It's expensive, but I want to have played nice instruments before we all die of radiation poisoning.

Update: I have a Lindsay system set of smallpipes, and I LOVE THEM. Absolutely gorgeous tone, especially the high end of the extended range, quality (and often, quite clever!) engineering, and they don't look too shabby either. Drones have extended slides and each can be tuned up a full step to play A/B, or D/E. The bellows are made by Kelleher and are really nice. They're definitely made for multidisciplinary musicians looking to sing with the pipes in a variety of keys, and play a variety of different music (of course, Scottish will always be the easiest with the fingering, but nearly anything is possible).

Could you tell us more about your pipes and the music you're playing. What is your experience playing with other musicians. Was it difficult to master the fingering? I've been intrigued by these pipes for some time. Lindsey has come a long way in their development.

They're great pipes, and have opened up a whole new world of flexibility in terms of playing with other musicians. For example, last night we were doing "Chi Mi na Mhorbeanna" which is typically in A. Since none of us can sing it in A, we'd typically have to move this beautiful pipe tune to a different instrument. With the LSC, I could play the full tune in the second octave, then drop down to the low E and play harmony on the back bore, all while singing the tune myself. It was a magical, magical moment.

I wouldn't say I've "mastered" the fingering by any stretch, and especially for Irish repetoire in G or "low D focused" the fingering can be awkward to do quickly. However, the high octave is very intuitive and I found it relatively easy to grasp. Keep in mind I'm learning all this while playing a bellows-blown pipe for the first time, so I imagine an experienced piper would find this easier.

I would love to hear a sound sample of your pipes or a youtube video. Even just going up and down the available notes. Thinking of taking the plunge but there seem to be lots of variations of the chanter as it's still in development I guess..

It’s an old idea.
http://soundbytes.de/EarlyPatches/en/kortholt.htm

_________________
Information is not knowledge.
Knowledge is not wisdom.
Wisdom is not truth.
Truth is not beauty. Beauty is not love.
Love is not music. Music is the best.
- Frank Zappa

Yes I think that's what the "back bore" of the Lindsay is.

But as I said the Lindsay chanter also has a mormorka. Does the Kortholt have that as well?

As Lindsay demonstrates it in one of his videos, his chanter has precisely the same feature Bulgarian chanters have always had, the mormorka.

It's the top fingerhole on the front of the chanter, operated by the upper-hand index finger.

It's not really a tone-hole per se, rather it raises the pitch of any lower note a semitone.

So a Bulgarian chanter giving, without opening the mormorka

xxx xxxx G
xxx xxxo A
xxx xxoo B
xxx xooo C (natural)
xxx oooo D
xxo oooo E
xoo oooo F#

using the mormorka gives you a chromatic scale

xxx xxxx G
oxx xxxx G#
xxx xxxo A
oxx xxxo Bb
xxx xxoo B
xxx xooo C (natural)
oxx xooo C#
xxx oooo D
oxx oooo D#
xxo oooo E
oxo oooo F (natural)
xoo oooo F#
ooo oooo G

Then you take off the thumb for high A.

The problem with the Bulgarian chanter is, there's no high G#. Obviously Lindsay has fixed that.

(BTW for convenience of reference I showed the fingering for a Bulgarian chanter giving the same notes as an A SSP chanter. Though not common, I used to own one, the big chanter Bulgarian pipers call sol or a G chanter. Bulgarian chanters are named from the lowest note, with all fingers down, while Scottish chanters are named from the next-lowest note, with one finger up.)

_________________
Richard Cook
c1980 Quinn uilleann pipes
1945 Starck Highland pipes
Goldie Low D whistle

No need for one. The chart without
keys would work for a kortholt.
https://www.dulcians.org/fingerings.htm

_________________
Information is not knowledge.
Knowledge is not wisdom.
Wisdom is not truth.
Truth is not beauty. Beauty is not love.
Love is not music. Music is the best.
- Frank Zappa