Metal Chanters

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reedmasters
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Metal Chanters

Post by reedmasters »

Has anyone come up with a metal chanter? David Daye has shown that you can take a p[astic tube and make a chanter out of it. I have seen an all brass set of highland pipes. Silver, if memory serves me correctly has also been used. My brass bass drone has a rich deep sound that I love. There must be a reason a lot of reed caps are metal. What's the scoop?
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Mr.Gumby
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Re: Metal Chanters

Post by Mr.Gumby »

Off the top of my head: Kevin Henry always carried two metal chanters, one of them double. There's one made by Johnny Doran. Other historic examples as well. And weren't Daye's penny chanters made in brass?

The Doran chanter:

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Re: Metal Chanters

Post by pudinka »

It only played two or three notes? Is there a front picture of the chanter? I have to wonder if octave tuning would become a bit more 'linear' with no real wall thickness...maybe not linear, but a predictable curve?
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Mr.Gumby
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Re: Metal Chanters

Post by Mr.Gumby »

it only played two or three notes?
A bit of a silly question, isn't it? Considering it is obviously an image showing the back of the chanter.

There are, as far as I can see, only partial images of the front. The lot is up on the npu archive.

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Last edited by Mr.Gumby on Sat Oct 01, 2022 3:15 am, edited 1 time in total.
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reedmasters
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Re: Metal Chanters

Post by reedmasters »

One of my four chanters is a Daye penny chanter . As I look at it, the bottom hand is brass. The top hand is an "off white plastic tube assembly and decorative ring." The whole chanter is lined with a set of graduated brass tubes. Thanks for the response and great photo Mr. Gumby. I imagine it was the conical bore that kept a lot woodworkers away from metal. Don't know about tone.
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Mr.Gumby
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Re: Metal Chanters

Post by Mr.Gumby »

I seem to remember trying a penny chanter Wally Charm had that was all brass but the memory of it isn't clear, twenty five years ago and all that. The Kevin Henry ones were Taylor-ish. I remember them as well made. But again, not a very detailed memory.
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john
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Re: Metal Chanters

Post by john »

Leo rowsome plays a.double metal chanter on the drones and chanters I believe (my darling asleep).

I wonder where the chanter ended up.
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jon1908
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Re: Metal Chanters

Post by jon1908 »

I have a chanter made from a bicycle seat stay. My dad realised that the internal taper was an approximation of a D chanter and decided to see if it would work. To some degree it did and subsequently he made a regulator out of the other side!
That’s what you get for an engineer making pipes…
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Re: Metal Chanters

Post by Steampacket »

Here's pictures of Felix Doran's silver chanter, made by Leo Rowsome, and played here by Neillidh Mulligan:

http://www.neilmulligan.com/doran2010%20.htm
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Re: Metal Chanters

Post by PJ »

IIRC, Marcus Coulter made at least one all-metal chanter. I saw photos somewhere on this site.
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