Hi,
I think I saw something like this before. But can’t remember where…has anybody example images how a wooden bass reg windcap could look like? And did historical makers do such things (esp. Coyne), or did they make them generally from metal tubing?
Thanks & ATB.
Gabriel
Never seen one. All the Coyne bass regs I’ve seen (and everybody else’s for that matter) have had metal reed caps.
No reason why it couldn’t be done, but the bass bar is going to need to be metal anyway, unless you get quite radical.
The willie rowsome set in O,Neill,s has a wooden bass reg top !!
RORY
Thanks!
UO.com says that this set (probably) got refurbished by Brad Angus who replaced the straight bass bar with a bent one (like he often does).
Edit: The refurbished set: http://www.uilleannobsession.com/diary_2004.html#willierousome
The original set: http://www.uilleannobsession.com/diary_2003.html#boston_willie
After some looking, I’d say that the set can’t be the one in the painting. The images of the non-refurbished set show a bent bass bar or something like that, but definitive not a straight one. Hmm. Another possibility is that the bass bar got replaced someday.
Very interesting. Hard to tell from the digitized painting (and there’s always artistic license to be considered), but it almost looks like the top of the bass bar is timber as well.
BTW the metal tubing in these cases would have been hand-rolled, not sure when the seamless tubing became available (especially in nickel silver) but after WR’s time anyhow…
Bill
Looks like a wooden bass reg top too
I don’t think so, looks like brass.
Also, a lot less accuracy in the rendition overall; the bell on the chanter would appear to be an anachronism when one considers the bass reg. Consensus is that the bass reg didn’t appear until after 1800, at which time the foot joint was gone. I’ve never seen a bass reg on a set of “period” pastoral pipes. Also, even if this was drawn “from life”, bear in mind that the painting was probably colored in the studio, after the sketches were made, so you can’t infer a lot from the color of the regulator cap.
So it’s unclear what this gentleman is supposed to be playing, or the accuracy of the painting. As I said before, you have to be cautious about taking paintings and drawings of pipes literally, as the artists rarely are familiar with the instrument and are working from sketches that are likely to contain inaccuracies. Sometimes you can guess as to the accuracy, from the overall quality of the draftsmanship (e.g. is the drawing Durer-like in its attention to detail, or a bit more like a cartoon?)
I should follow up to say I was just sent a very nice photo of a wooden regulator cap and wooden bass bar, besides. I’m not at liberty to repost it at the moment, but it’s proof that it’s been done.
I suspect the bass bar has a double bore, instead of using the usual approach of putting the bass bar’s bore inside a concentric metal tube, and letting the air flow around the outside of this internal piece. I’ll try to take a couple of pictures and post them later, to show what the “usual” assembly looks like for those who haven’t seen the inside of a bass reg before.
You could make a timber bass bar with the conical bore inside, and a second small air feed bore in parallel in the same piece of timber, running from the mainstock attachment point up to the reed seat. I suspect this is what the maker of the old set did, but I don’t know.
It’s an interesting idea in any case. The only disadvantage I can see offhand (besides the complication in making the thing) is that the leverage between the bass bar and the mainstock during playing could be a source of trouble; you’d need to make the joint with the mainstock (into a metal “side-socket”) very secure, with a long stout tenon, to minimize the risk of damage.
regards
Bill
Here’s a photo of the Willie Rowsome set (from Irish Minstrels and Musicians via uilleannobsession). The painting was probably based on it:
It’s clear to me that the bass reg bar has a wooden top.
I just had a close look at my copy of IMM; actually the photo is pretty equivocal. It probably is a timber top but I don’t think you can be sure.
My comments about artistic license were mostly aimed at the pastoral painting of the piper playing the 3-reg set with a bell at the foot.
It is the same set. This is a colorized/painted version of the black and white photo found in O’Neill’s Irish Folk Music A Fascinating Hobby 1910. The set had at one time (as seen in the photo here) a double bass extension that had been removed many, many years ago. The Rowsome set, unrestored, was put up on eBAY by an estate sales operation in the Boston area; the extension piece was not part of the auction and is unaccounted for (the original Bb chanter was not in that auction, too, although two excellent Patsy Brown D chanters were in that auction).
Brad Angus restored the set. Evidence of the ‘missing’ bass extension piece was seen. Straightening out the bass bar seemed spurious, so that vintage modification was left.
Jim - What became of the Patsy Brown chanters?
They were put in order by Brad and then sold to a piper. They were fully keyed chanters with stop valves, very much in the Taylor style, real gems.
I know that at least one pipemaker (Rogge) has the reedcap enclosed within (and not by) the windcap: making the windcap purely decorative. Therefore the cap could be made out of any material that could be shaped into a cylinder.
t
Sometimes; other times he uses the standard reedcap == windcap design.
But even if the windcap and reedcap are the same, there’s no reason it couldn’t be made airtight, just like a wooden chanter top.
Zowie.
An “E” regulator, you mean. Willie’s set seems to have a fourth reg plugging into a tube attached to the bass bar. Brad found a metal disc soldered onto the bass bar, plugging where the air feed to the E reg’s tube would have been attached.
We always said Patsy Brown must’ve worked on the set, since it was found in Boston and Brown was the only 20th century Boston maker. The modifications were Taylor-ish: Modifying the straight bass bar into a wrap-around Taylor style, and also adding horribly strong springs to the regulator keys, which didn’t look original. Brad pointed out to me how the key shapes, turnings, and other details in the pipes matched up with Willie’s set - the ferrule on the front of the mainstock has notches cut into it to look like shamrocks, begor! For instance.
But there was perhaps another Bb Willie out there:
The CD Wheels of the World, Vol. 2, showing piper John Wayland. This set looks ever-so-slightly different than the Boston set. This set also has the wooden bass reg cap. Wayland emigrated to Australia, taking his Bb Egan set with him - which has bellows stamped “W Rousome,” If I Remember Correct.
Right but since the Rowsome Bb was an Egan copy who knows what is on his lap there. It was a single E note regulator.
What’s funny is that no one believed until that set turned up that Willie Rowsome made any Bb sets. This set forced a reevaluation of that position.
My personal guess is that O’Neill himself might have brought it back to Boston. FON tried to buy the Moloney Brothers set in Kilrush but, after Irish folks were alerted, engineered an immediate sale to Prof O’Leary. O’Neill saw Willie Rowsome in his shop with this set (Fr Fielding took the photo) later on that trip to Ireland in 1906, as well as with the Moloney Brothers set. Fielding (with his ever present Kodak) took a photo of ONeill holding up the Moloney Brothers set but only got O’Neills arm and hands.
Have a look at the pics of the McPhee set here http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=29276&highlight=mcphee for a wooden bas reg cap. It’s wood, alright. I know this set.
P.