What is your favorite method for bringing the A’s into pitch?
This is the first thing I try to do when I balance my chanter.
I adjust the depth of the reed to bring low A into 440, then check high A, then almost always find it sharp.
Since I read (I have a number of reed manuals and things I printed from this site) that adjusting the reed depth affects lower octave more than second, I sink in my reed to sharped the lower A in an attempt to meet high A.
However, I cannot bring them into same pitch this way: my D gets sharp and they chase each other across the meter: upper A always stays a little sharper (I use the meter only to find A, since it cannot beused to tune pipes).
The difference between the A’s is usually about 10-15 cents. It does vary a little from reed to reed. Most times, I just make do and let off pressure as much as I can without losing second octave A to flatten it. I also habitually play 2ve A with F finger raised, which helps a little too.
Maybe there is something I could do to the shape of the reed head that would bring my A’s closer together? I’m working on fine tuning…
Or maybe the pipes are sounding just as they should? The drones to raise in pitch when I go up to 2ve, so perhaps they will meet my sharper high A and I am just being nit-picky.
I can record a sound clip if needed…
Any help any of you wish to offer is greatly appreciated…
Your A’s should be (both of them) just about 2 cents sharp to an A=440 tuner. But this doesn’t cure the rest of your question. How does the rest of the upper octave sit? Is it flat relative to the A note…or at least flatter? Meaning is the A the only one that is noteably sharp in the second octave?
You may want to try a very thin wire rush in the bore with a small ball of poster putty at or just above the A hole and see what that does. It’s easy to move and to remove if needed.
Actually, my pipes sound pretty good most times. My wife is a good fiddler and I can really hear whetehr I’m in tune when I play with her.
My G is sharp in 2ve… I have it taped a bit. F sounds nice. I have a wire rush going down just before F. Makes my E just sharp enough to the rest that I don’t have to play pressure games in 2ve E to sharpen it up..
I think I’ll try a little tape on the A (I haven’t the knack of getting poster putty to stay in nice…)
Wife says I’m just being picky. After all, I’m no Paddy Keenan… but his chanter always sounds so perfect…
I am thinking it’s not really reed manufacture because the reeds I have made and the reeds I have had from the pipe maker (Childress) behave this way.
Then it could possibly be the chanter itself. My Gallagher stick has issues on E and I’m not entirely convinced it may not need to be sent back in and at least looked at. It is of course unlikely, but these are hand-made instruments and the occasional (and probably very slight) oops on a tone hole would seem likely to happen given enough time.
And not to knock your wife, bit if you’re only talking a few cents here or there - can she come to where you are? The best fiddlers I’ve had the pleasure of playing with understand that certain notes aren’t ‘true’ with their in tune fiddle. They can de-tune slightly on the fly with their fingering to match the pipes more closely. The big question then I would think would be wether or not you were in tune with your drones. I would use that as your final barometer.
Sounds like much if not all of your 2nd octave is sharp.
You might try putting a thin wire rush, slightly curved to hold it in place, in the reed staple. This is easily adjusted or reversed, and it can flatten your second octave. Depending on how far into your staple it goes, it may affect some notes more than others.