In so doing, I found Mr. Gumby’s comment about Ronan Browne’s set intriguing:
“You’re probably better off looking at shape, size of the head and diameter and placement of the air inlet. Ronan Browne claims to have the upper hand over other pipers since he had the reedcap tied straight into the bag for example.”
Mr. Gumby, if you’re available for comment, by having “the upper hand” do you mean that he can play upper hand notes in the second octave better, i.e., without them dropping to the first octave? I ask (Mr. Gumby or anyone who’d like to comment) because I’m discovering that when I use a larger windcap on my C# chanter (Rogge, Coyne copy) the upper hand/upper octave does seem to be more stable.
I think he really meant to say he was a step ahead of other pipers. The tie-in is supposedly a help strengthening the low notes, as far as I know.
That said, other discussions will show you that things depend on what your chanter was designed/set up for. It’s not unlikely an old chanter was originally made for a tie in.
Geoff has pointed out here changing the head (and I take changing the bag connection as an extension to that statement, which may or may not be the right thing to do) may have some unexpected effects on your chanter’s performance.
Thanks! I suppose it stands to reason that the dimensions, material (?), etc. of the chamber in which the reed sounds has some transfer to the chanter itself. The change I just noticed was immediate and obvious.
I think Séamus Ennis’s chanter was originally meant to be tied in. The metal tubing looks like it came from an old brass instrument I think. I wonder, did it have an effect the behavior of his chanter
?
My chanter looks a lot like his, only the windcap on mine has a straight taper, and his was more bulbous looking.
Are you sure that you’re not talking about Liam O’Flynn’s (Rowsome) concert pitch set? I’ve seen two separate windcaps on that set and one does look like all (silver-colored) metal and not of the usual design for what you’d expect for that set. You can see pictures of this in many places, e.g., here:
The more you know! Though I wonder if the ivory ring and ferrule were original, but got exchanged. Because they both look yellowed. Correct me if I am wrong.
The swan neck on my chanter is rather wide, would a wider swan neck mimic the behavior of a tied in windcap?
There are 4 photos of James (Jimmy) Ennis playing the Coyne set in NPU’s (members only) archive. Photos no. NPU00203, NPU00204, NPU00205 and NPU00206.
203 shows the Coyne set without the extended Bass Reg and the “swan neck” windcap.
204 shows the Coyne set with the extended BR and what may either be a “tied-in” windcap or a regular windcap but covered by an extra-long bag cover.
205, taken at Feis Carna (1940?), shows the Coyne set (can’t see the extended BR) but with a different wind cap - the air intake is at the side, not at the top.
206 shows the Coyne set without the extended BR and the same windcap as in 205.
The Ennis Coyne has been extensively modified over the years. When Jimmy Ennis bought it in 1905, it was in pieces. He gave it to John Brogan to restore. One thing is clear. The Ennis Coyne chanter is a left-handed chanter (judging by the keys). So it’s possible that Brogan converted a left-handed set to be played by a right-handed piper. All he needed to do was make a new mainstock and bag.
Might Brogan have made a new windcap? The windcap in photos 205 and 206 has what appears to be an ivory mount, but it look brighter than the mounts immediately below it on the main body of the chanter (although this could be a trick of the light). This could indicate that the windcap is newer than the rest of the chanter.
No way of knowing. The set of pipes was bought in a pawn show in London in 1905, reportedly in pieces. Brogan had the job of restoring the set. It’s reasonable to assume that if a part was missing or beyond repair, as a pipemaker, he would have made a new part himself.
