Hello,
I am in the market for a D chanter. I would prefer a Cillian If anyone has one for sale and also fully keyed would be nice. But I will look at anything.
Please email me pictures of what you have for sale or of anyone has a good maker they can recommend who doesn’t have a long waiting list that would great.
Thanks very much
Ashley
There’s a few makers on the board here, myself included, that might be able to help.
But tell us where you live. There may be a pipes maker a lot closer to you too.
Best of luck!
Tommy
I have a Robbie Hughes with three keys (f nat, g#, and c nat). Reeded and playing well. Email if you are interested.
Arbo
i heard a gordon galloway chanter recently - it was very bright sounding and loud and i could see that it wasn’t hard to get up to the high b - i’d say his chanters would give cillian’s a run for their money
assuming you have a bag and bellows to go with it?
Cheers everyone.
I have a Rogge C set coming with drones that slide up to D so I only need a chanter.
I’m living down in Clare.
You’re spoiled for choice there.
Give Jim Wenham a shout. He makes a cracking chanter similar to Cillians design.
Tommy
I have a Rogge C set coming with drones that slide up
When you get them tune the drones to D and with the C chanter you can play tunes like Toss the Feathers and The Pipers Despair, Tom Busbys jig etc. which are in E minor but they’ll be in D minor with the C chanter and they go lovely with the D drones.
Tommy
try Mickey Dunne or Andy Faden made chanters , both make O’Briains like chanters (If remember rigth both been C O’Briain’s apprentises also)
Cillian was Brian Howard’s apprentice, so Brian is also very good and sometimes overlooked.
I thought Cillian was taught by Matt Kiernan?
Well, they are not mutually exclusive. He worked for Brian Howard in Waterford for a while as the hired hand/apprentice.
Ashley,
They are now lots of good makers all over the world. I play on a Brian Howard set and it’s great.
But when you buy a set of pipes, it’s better to buy it from a maker near you for further maintenance, reeds etc.
So, you live in the best area. There are good makers there : For example, Mickey Dunne makes great pipes and is not far from you (Limerick). His pipes are on Cillan’s design. They often meet and work together.
Mickey is not on the of NPU’s pipemakers list since they changed their website. People have to ask to be on the list. If you want his adress just send me a PM.
Regards
Pierre
Cool! That sounds like lots of fun. As for the D chanter, Jim Wenham’s in Tipperary and his chanters are terrific – I’ve played one for about six years, and people who have O’Briain chanters have played mine and liked it just fine. And Jim’s reeds are pretty much bombproof, too – basically, you put gas in them and they go wherever and however you want with no fuss. If you want his email address, just PM me. Good luck, and enjoy the magical land of C 
Good advice about using a local(ish) maker! On the subject of quality makers though I was amazed by a FB conversation today with a D chanter FS by a highly regarded maker, which used a tuning rush and taped holes. Holes taped buy the maker too. Now, would any orchestral instrument maker do this, never mind a market leader? So why should us pipers put up with it?
As chanters exist without rushes or tape, is it fair to say some makers just do not have the knowledge of acoustics needed to produce a quality instrument? Let’s not descend into a bun fight here, genuine question.
Disclaimer: I’m not a pipemaker, or even a decent reedmaker (and have the scars to prove it), but here’s my .02 as someone who’s played about four different chanters and a couple of bigger sets from two very good makers for about 7 or 8 years now … (I also play out at gigs and do a fair bit of travel with my pipes, so dealing with changing conditions is a fact of piping life for me)
I think uilleann pipes have ever so many variables, maybe more than most other instruments. I also think we’re always changing those variables. Bridles up, bridles down, humidity high, humidity low, bag pressure up, bag pressure down, leaks, no leaks, sharp today, flat tomorrow, new reeds, old reeds, cane reeds, spruce reeds, stiff reeds, soft reeds, winter, summer … and all these things work either with or against each other.
To me, rushing and taping are just responses to certain sets of variables. What is rushed or taped today may resolve itself this winter, or change with a new reed, or when I get that annoying little leak quashed, or whatever.
So while I don’t disagree with the belief that a new chanter or set of pipes shouldn’t leave its maker in anything less than pristine form, I do think it’s a bit idealistic to expect them to act the same halfway across the world, all of the time, regardless of the environment.
As chanters exist without rushes or tape, is it fair to say some makers just do not have the knowledge of acoustics needed to produce a quality instrument?
The maker of the chanter you mention certainly has all the knowledge required, and more.
The chanter in question is a copy of a chanter made in the 1930’s before A=440 was a standard. So it’s going to need something to bring it down to modern pitch. You could make a larger reed but big wide reeds tend to be too loud and not very sweet in tone. More like a foghorn.
So the trade off is to narrow the bore with a rush to flatten and keep some of the tone of the original chanter.
You could redesign the bore to make it more conducive to play in 440 (as many makers do) but it won’t be a ‘Rowsome copy’ then.
Horses for courses.
Tommy
… and then there’s that. 
Wise words from both #drumroll
Well I recently bought a 2 keyed and a 4 keyed chanter off Brian Howard and am very impressed with them both, lovely bright sound and spot on throughout the range.