Are there any pictures of Tadhg Crowley sets anywhere

bobblee001 · Post by **bobblee001** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 11:14 am

Im looking for any pictures of the work of Tadhg Crowley. I am particularly interested in the mainstock and drones. Also any history of this maker would be most appreciated.

Thanks
Bob

Jumper · Post by **Jumper** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 11:46 am

It might be worth asking Michael Hubbert, who has based his concert-pitch instrument design on his own Tadhg Crowley set:

http://homepage.mac.com/photomorphose/hubbert.html

One of the sets Becky Taylor plays is a Crowley, but I'm not sure if it's by Tadhg or by his brother Denis:

http://www.beckytaylor.info/

billh · Post by **billh** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 12:19 pm

I believe this is a Tadhg Crowley set. I have a pic that shows the bass drone also if you are interested. (Chanter is Froment)

I may have a picture of a Crowley chanter somewhere as well, but that will take some looking.

Bill

MichaelLoos · Post by **MichaelLoos** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 12:30 pm

Except for the tuning beads, this looks exactly like my own set which is said to be by Denis Crowley. Funny enough, I also play it with a Froment chanter.

bobblee001 · Post by **bobblee001** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 1:32 pm

Those are exquisite visually. Yes Id love to see the bass drone. Do they play as good as they look?

Bob

PJ · Post by PJ » Thu Nov 08, 2007 1:49 pm

Did I read that there's a set of Crowley pipes in the Henry Ford museum in Detroit? Something about Henry Ford buying a set of Crowley pipes for his father who was from West Cork.

billh · Post by **billh** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 6:28 pm

bobblee001 wrote:Those are exquisite visually. Yes Id love to see the bass drone. Do they play as good as they look?

Bob

They play OK but not entirely to my taste. Regulator key pads were saxophone-type, sprung rather heavily; it was difficult to get decent spring action on them and I felt there were some issues with spring/key geometry.

The regulator caps were threaded on; again an interesting an seemingly attractive idea, but many were cracked despite not being all that old. The mustard color that the Crowley plastic turns with age is very distinctive of their work. I could be wrong about this being Tadhg rather than Denis, but that's my recollection.

Drone tone was interesting though, certainly a nice alternative to Rowsome.

Bill

Kevin L. Rietmann · Post by **Kevin L. Rietmann** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 6:50 pm

The plastic is that junk they used to use on Highland pipes. Looks good at first but it eventually turns that color.

Was looking at one of the Crowley GHB music books and was interested to see the Two sharps/G Natural sign for A Mixolydian tunes, which I had see in Dunlay/Reich's Cape Breton Fiddle book from the late 80s; didn't know the idea had been used before. It's a nice device. They also put (#) for the G sharp in A major tunes that don't have G#s in them (gapped scale tunes).

MichaelLoos · Post by **MichaelLoos** » Fri Nov 09, 2007 2:31 am

I used to think myself the Catalin plastic was junk but I've changed my mind after I saw a 200 year old chanter on which the (real) ivory had turned exactly the same colour. Of course the Catalin has no grain, but I do think it has a character of its own. However, it is a PITA turning that stuff, the smell of formaldehyde is unbelievable - and definetely not very healthy.
Obviously, Tadgh Crowley played the GHB in the first place; in his Uillean (sic) pipe tutor you find all the GHB gracings and also - interestingly enough - the "rubbing" back D triplet.

Hans-Joerg · Post by **Hans-Joerg** » Fri Nov 09, 2007 5:54 am

Here are some more pics. These here are simply named Crowley (not expressively Dennis Crowley)
are fairly similiar to billh´s pics. The regs are different, though: square key-lids; different end caps;
tuning pins missing

[/img]

These are expressively by Dennis Crowley:

[/img]

Dennis also made „ladders“

and he also made „sausage & wire – keys“

[/img]

and then there is this fellow with his old Dennis Crowley (taken from St. Patrick´s Obsession Site)

Mick, is your set brass or nickle?

Cheers,
Hans

MichaelLoos · Post by **MichaelLoos** » Fri Nov 09, 2007 6:44 am

It is brass, ebony, catalin plastic, block-mounted keys - almost exactly like Bill's set. There's a nice picture of this set on Davy Spillane's album "Atlantic Bridge", even the badly repaired G-key on the tenor reg is clearly visible...

PJ · Post by PJ » Fri Nov 09, 2007 7:23 am

I couldn't find any larger photos.

gregorygraham · Post by **gregorygraham** » Fri Nov 09, 2007 11:14 am

Will you settle for Dennis Crowley? Paul Eliasberg's site has a bunch of pics of a Dennis C set.

http://mulelia.demon.co.uk/pipes/pictur ... index.html

lundblad · Post by **lundblad** » Sat Nov 10, 2007 4:43 am

The look is very similar to my S. Gallagher D-set in silver. The overall workmanship of The Crowley sets are totally gorgeous I think. Especially the reg keys are very nice looking.

John Mitchell (a very nice man indeed, and a great tutor of pipes) has written about Tadgh Crowley on the Cork Pipers Club website:

http://www.corkpipersclub.com/crowleys.html

Interesting though, since I lived in Cobh for a year and never once encountered the name of Tadgh Crowley in Cobh nor Cork??? Must have been blindfolded.

Rob

lundblad · Post by **lundblad** » Sat Nov 10, 2007 4:45 am

The look is very similar to my S. Gallagher D-set in silver. The overall workmanship of The Crowley sets are totally gorgeous I think. Especially the reg keys are very nice looking.

John Mitchell (a very nice man indeed, and a great tutor of pipes) has written about Tadgh Crowley on the Cork Pipers Club website:

http://www.corkpipersclub.com/crowleys.html

Interesting though, since I lived in Cobh for a year and never once encountered the name of Tadgh Crowley in Cobh nor Cork??? Must have been blindfolded.

Rob