Chiff and Fipple Forums

Yes indeed, all going well. I played it for my daughter’s preschool class yesterday as part of their culture week activities. Well received! And playing much better and more easily now. I still can’t quite get the bari reg balanced light enough without causing the D note to gurgle. At least not with...

Hi Geoff, Thanks again for all the above recommendations - I tried to write back but the forum has been down. Thank you, in any case! This has all been very helpful, and I have been surprised at just how low pressure I can get the set adjusted to and still have it playing nicely - lest anyone ever a...

In update: I did Geoff’s tests for leaking and things are all airtight. Closing down the chanter reed and drone reeds to lighten overall pressure (which was already quite comfortable) has made a big difference, and brought the chanter into better balance with itself. This is great, thank you Geoff. ...

Thank you Geoff- I always appreciate the time you put into helping all of us! I’ll give this all a try. Thanks again.

Thank you Geoff, that is all very helpful! Yes they are indeed new reeds - I've had them about 8 weeks and I suspect he made them in the month or two before that. We've also had mighty humidity swings in Sydney this summer so I'm coping with fairly wide ranges of behaviour on all pipes at the moment...

Hello all, I am currently getting acquainted with my delightful new-to-me B full set by Arie De Keyzer, reeded by Fergus Finnegan. It is playing beautifully (and I was bowled over that all seven reeds arrived in Australia having been shipped from Ireland, all working, all IN TUNE, with nearly no fet...

Yes I agree. Just pointing out the importance of WBCP in responce to the bashing they take by certain individuals who seem to do so at every opportunity. RORY I’m definitely in the “both” camp! And I’d gladly play both if my flat set chanter ever worked! But Rory you are no doubt right that WBCP ca...

I am not so sure the Ennis chanter was (always) troublesome or that it would have been to Ennis. And to underline my point about the driver's influence, there's Flynn saying Ennis sounded exactly like Ennus when playing the Reid set. ' There it was, the unmistakable Ennis sound'. I agree that it wo...

See I feel like even from Clancy, I hear THAT chanter despite. The style is definitely different, but there is a sound, an ineffable sound, in the mid range of the lower octave, that comes through regardless of whose fingers are on the holes. I can hear it from Colm as well. That said, I completely...

By “handled” do you mean reeding, or pressure, or fingering, or something else? All of that. As I said, listen to Clancy playing the Reid set. A bit over twenty years ago a friend sent me a set of recordings of a piping competition at the Oireachtas from 1963 or thereabouts. What struck me was that...

I don't think it was ever intended to sound like a flat set. Reid had specifications with regards to, for example, the drones etc. He was specific about what he liked though. At some point I had a student who had a Willie Rowsome set with a Leo chanter that was hand picked for the set by Reid (the ...

Isn't it the case that Liam O'Flynn's set of pipes was originally ordered by Sean Reid from Leo Rowsome with the particular instruction to make it sound as close to a flat set as possible whilst preserving the volume and pitch of concert D? Thankfully the instructions weren't fulfilled, to my mind ...

I will also have to agree, the bands such as Planxty, Chieftains, Bothy Band, Spillane, etc... And widespread availability and volume of concert D pipes have made them much more widely available to many folk around the world. I can vouch for the power of a wide bore pipe when in the hands of a skil...

So niche to be nonexistent. Other factors, would NPU be able to exist for a very limited number of pipers ? Would pipemakers be able to make a living from a very limited number of pipers ? How many pipers start on concert pitch sets and if they weren't there might not start at all ? How many pipers...

Suppose there had been no Leo Rowsome, and so there was a great, gaping lacuna in pipe making, even just for a few years. In that case, given the great ‘bridging’ role that Seamus Ennis had in carrying the tradition across a generational and societal gap, playing a flat set, do you suppose the rena...