Chiff and Fipple Forums

The regulator that glinjack calls the "base regulator", (5th photo from the top) - is it a bass reg and if not, what is it and what notes does it play?

Tayloresque - does not quite look right for an actual Taylor (key shapes, metal support on the D Bass Regulator) but DQ would be the one to give the best opinion

It appears to be similar to Patsy Touhey's set as the keys on this have larger touch pieces and also the additional 'E' regulator - touch piece for this is at the top of Tenor although "normally" this would come up in between the Tenor and Baritone.

The detached regulator is a Double Bass giving the notes F#, E and D below the Bass Regulator.

"The only thing typical about Taylor pipes is how they are never typical." uillmann.

Yes, they were. Their craftmanship was very typical and consistant as regards attention to design, form, function and detail, especially the metalwork. This is what distingushes a Taylor Bros. made set from "Taylor style" sets made after the demise of the brothers, back in the day. I have not seen a modern Chris Bayley or Quinn & Kohler "Taylor style" set live, but I can imagine that they are very well made sets where attention has been paid to detail etc.

Koehler & Quinn

So, is this a five-regulator set? It looks like there's a reg underneath the tenor reg.

t

The regulator under the Tenor has just the one long key - an 'E'

I like this

What are these 2 switches at the end of the chanter

Carel, the "switches" affect how far out the popping valve on the bottom of the chanter moves out. When you turn the bottom switch all the way in the valve will stay totally closed (handy for marching).
I say! Those look like all-metal regulators. Rolf Knusel of Switzerland has a Taylor set that John Pedersen used to own, which had all-metal bass and double bass regulators, and also an all-metal mainstock (looked like a Gatling Gun). I seem to recall the decoration in the metal looked much like this one. There's a fellow in Washington who owns Patrick Fitzpatrick's Taylors, and that one has all-metal bass/double bass.
I agree though that this doesn't look precisely like Taylor pipes, as Quinn defined them. But the proof's in the pudding, perhaps they just felt like making those funny shaped reg keys for a change. Or to save weight - like the all-metal construction? (All-metal in this case means an inner tube with an outer jacket SOLDERED to the inner one, not machined from a solid piece of metal, which would weigh more than wood of course)
Two drones, right? Looks like the tenor drone is mounted "Outboard" - it doesn't actually plug into the front of the stock but has its own socket mounted on the stock's exterior. Amazing pipes!
Taylor made nicer drones than Rowsome if you ask me - Peter Laban once remarked that Rowsome drones typically sound "like a tractor coming up the road." This is what gets copied nowadays anyway. Taylor regs were generally very powerful though - part of the style of piping in those days it seems, pipers liked a very punchy sound when they tapped the keys, and reg playing with the pipers in America then was very rhythmic, often syncopated with the chanter. The best Taylor chanters are very sweet toned even if (I'm told) very loud, again, for me, much nicer than many Rowsomes. Things to recommend, other than the incredible workmanship. Their father built organs, by the way, so they weren't strangers to massive undertakings like this set.

Hi
the regulators have the outer german-silver sleeve and inside is wood,
the trim or deco is real ivory, these pipes passed through only a couple of owners hands before i got them,
i am at the moment doing a little research on the history of these pipes through the grandaughter of the previous owner, there is a photo of him with the pipes which she is trying to locate, hope she finds it,
i have owned the pipes for the past seven years and when i got them they were in their original leather case which is in very bad condition,

Innersting! Leo Rowsome later made that set for Felix Doran which had nickel silver over wood, and it leaked like a sieve apparently (Paddy Moloney said he "almost died" trying to keep the wind in this set), I wonder if Leo ever saw this set - or one like it - what part of the world are you in, glinjack?
Cillian O'Briain now makes regs with metal over wood, too.

BTW Kevin -
That odd yellowy-brown is indeed the color that old ivory can eventually turn, if not protected in some pristine storage condition. Whether it's due to tobacco-smoke staining, UV degradation, or a combination of the above, I don't know.

The five-rivets observation on the popping valve is consistent with Taylor, all right, but of course doesn't prove anything one way or the other.

Bill

I'm in the "-esque" camp on this set, for reasons that have already been pointed out by others.

"The five-rivets observation on the popping valve is consistent with Taylor, all right, but of course doesn't prove anything one way or the other. " Bill.

Yes, although on closer examination I see the the popping valve ivory piece is quite flat/narrow. Whilst on the Taylor chanters/sets I've had access to the ivory decoration piece is much thicker. Also the attention to detail isn't present on this set as regards the ivory decoration, scoring on the metalwork. Taylor sets were expensive even back then. Everything's much clumsier on this set, the bass regulator fold-round for example, compared to a set made by the Taylor Bros.

Whoever made them, they were certainly quite familiar with the methods employed by the Taylors. The popping valve, the trim above it, the bass drone bottom and loop, are all very Taylor, from what I can tell from the pictures. The maker would seem at least to have had plenty of access to the genuine article. The ivories also would appear to have much of the elements of Taylor design. I wouldn't be so quick to write this one off as an "esque" just yet.

Did the Taylor's have any apprentices that are known of.....??????