So, here’s the scoop. The trading post on the forums of bobdunsire.com work really well. The only trick is, sometimes someone will sound genuinely interested in buying something and then you never hear from them again. I try to be nice and tell anyone who inquires after that person that they’re next in line after I hear back from the original person. Well, more often than not you don’t hear back from anyone. So, to get around that, I spent a couple days writing a butt load of php spread across a few scripts and opened a for sale section on my website. Transactions are handled with PayPal and as soon as something is bought, PayPal sends my scripts some data that they then process and remove the item from the for sale page. The only catch is if two people try to purchase an item around the same time. If someone clicks “Buy Now”, the for sale page will state that someone has clicked on the Buy Now button and how long ago they clicked on it, but that the transaction hasn’t finished yet. The notification disappears after 20 minutes as I’ve assumed the person changed their mind. The notification states that it’s probably safe to proceed with the purchase after a delay of 5 minutes as they’ve probably changed their mind, but to refresh the store page right before finalizing the purchase to make sure that item still shows up on the store page and hasn’t been bought while you were filling out the PayPal “paperwork”. Check it out!
Monthly Archives: October 2011
Husk 3.0 chanter reed & SOS, Gael, and Kyo chanters
Believe it or not, Shawn Husk has steadily improved his reeds over the last month or so. I’ve had the chance to play 3 versions, which I’ve named 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0. The reason for major release numbers is that each reed was different. 2.0 was a little longer than 1.0 and 3.0 has a little ridge on it. Anyways, his 2.0 matched the best reeds I’ve ever gotten to play. His 3.0 is a real cracker though! Popped it in the SOS chanter in the Gellaitry pipes in the bedroom and away we go:
Newmarket House and Hen’s March
Next, I wanted to test the Husk 3.0’s pitch, so it went in the Gael. After a suitable warm-up, I had it a 466 Hz. That’s with the reed pushed in a little and the high A taped to sharpen some middle notes up to the low A. I also realized the chanter timbre I was hearing on the “Pipers’ Controversy” album was in fact just a bunch of chanters with flatter pitches. I had to add hemp to my tenor reeds and the tenor tops were still almost falling off! The rest of the recordings were done in the walk-in closet as the kiddos had gone to sleep. The remaining also played on the 1950’s Henderson’s.
Newmarket House and Paddy’s Leather Breeches
Well, you’re probably tired of hearing Newmarket House but I’ve got a competition coming up and I still need to get the parts straight. So here I’ve moved on to the Kyo with my band reed (Gilmour with a corner missing) followed by the Husk 3.0. We’re tuning around 485 Hz as a band, with the Husk 3.0 it came down a bit to 482-3 Hz or so (I have to guess because the analog tuner only goes to 480 Hz, so I have to roughly convert cents to hertz).
Newmarket House and Glasgow Police Pipers with Gilmour reed
Newmarket House and Alan MacPherson Of Mosspark with Husk 3.0 reed