So, I’ve got the chanter stock tied in a little higher and with a bit more string now so things are coming together pretty well with the MacPherson’s. I’ve got one of my 3 ABW Colin Kyo chanters plugged in there. The D is a little flat so sorry about that. But, below you’ll find tons of recordings of me trying to find the right drone reeds or trying some prototypes again. In all it was a lot of fun but a lot of work too. The first recording you’ll find is of just various drone reeds and combinations between them. The recording conditions were all the same, in the bedroom, same spot, pitch, so, ya know, take it how you will.

All the drone reeds in this order:

crozier glass – redwood – crozier carbon – crozier carbon tenors and canning carbon bass – selbie – henderson harmonic deluxe – henderson harmonic deluxe tenors and canning carbon bass – ezeedrone – ezeedrone tenors with canning polycarb bass – colin kyo – kinnaird – ackland – ackland tenors with crozier glass bass – selbie tenors with crozier glass bass?(i forgot to specify in the recording = my best guess)

cg_rw_cc_cb_sb_hh_hc_ez_ec_ck_kd_ak_ag_sg <- Sound file

What’s your favorite from the sound file above?

I really thought the Selbie tenors sang out really well (I know them for this quality, played Selbie’s in my Hende’s for years) and the Crozier glass fiber bass was pretty rocking so I tried that out, as can be heard in the closet recordings below. But…

Crozier glass bass, Selbie tenors, CK chanter

Deer Forest and Helen Black of Inveran (played as a march then reel)

Song for Winter and The Old Chanter

The High Drive and The Snuff Wife (sight reading, back off!)

I couldn’t really get the Selbie tenors to settle. Their tendency to ring is well suited to mellow pipes like Shepherd’s and the like but it was just too much and I couldn’t get them dialed in really well. You can particularly notice this on my slightly out of tune E. So, I thought the sound of the Henderson Harmonic Deluxe tenors was pretty good to (used them in the past), as they are nice and smooth with still some good harmonic presence without the boldness the Selbie’s display so in they went, and I thought it went really well. Only got one decent recording though, then it was time for bed.

Crozier glass bass, Henderson Harmonic Deluxe tenors, CK chanter

Campbell’s Farewell to Red Castle, A Dram Before You Go, Glasgow Police Pipers

I had to go bind my dissertation and that took a lot less time than I thought so instead of parking, walking 15 minutes back to work for only a couple hours, walking back, etc. I figured I’d play the bagpipes! Duh! Checked the mail box on the way in and saw a package from Terry Ackland with a new set of tenors in there so figured, why not?! He sent me a bass reed not too long ago so you get to hear all three in the recordings below. I was having trouble getting the bass dialed in so I left it at one recording and I switched to my Crozier glass fiber bass from the other night (recordings above) and those are even further below. Gotta say, I wait in anticipation for the final product of Terry’s reeds because they really throw out some harmonics! Which coincidentally, make it all the more obvious my D is out of tune, bleh. Cut me some slack, I’m fiddling with drones not chanters here! These were recorded in the bedroom adjacent to the walk-in closet mentioned above.

Ackland bass and tenors, CK chanter

Fair Maid, Gravel Walk, Dick Gossip’s

Crozier glass bass, Ackland tenors, CK chanter

Kenneth MacDonald’s Jig, Thief of Lochaber, I Laid a Herring in Saut

Scarce o’ Tatties, Humours of Ballyloughlin, Troy’s Wedding

As with the Gellaitry’s, I had to give the MacPherson’s their run through at A440 with my EJ Jones chanter. A lot of the tunes above are duplicated below. Recordings were done in the closet. I have a whole lot of respect for border pipers, pressure variability and getting in tune is tricky!

Wygent A440 drone reeds, Jones A440 chanter

Song for Winter, The High Drive, The Hawk

Snuff Wife, Sleepy Maggie x2, Dancing Feet x2

Campbell’s Farewell to Red Castle and Helen Black of Inveran

My first brand new wood pipe purchase finally arrived in the mail today. The wait was about 4.5 months from order to ship. Then they spent another month in the mail between Bulgaria and Lubbock. The are a set of Doug MacPherson‘s pipes of african blackwood with boxwood ferrules, ringcaps, and bushes with blackwood rounded projecting mounts; the whole set is plain turned. The chanter also has a boxwood sole. These drones sound big! A clip of me trying to get a good drone recording is here:

MacPherson with Crozier Glass drone reeds

The chanter is also quite good and on the flatter side from where I’m used to playing. It came in around 475-6 Hz. The high G is a little sharp in the recording below (hence the tape that was added later before the pictures below were taken) and the low A a little sharp as well, but with a reed with 2 corners missing, there’s just not a whole lot to judge except the idiot playing a reed with 2 corners missing. This recording is with the MacPherson chanter with said Gilmour reed, with only tape on the low A to bring it down a little, so the recording is quite accurate as regards to the natural tuning of the MacPherson chanter without being muddled with a lot of tinkering. Which I think says a lot because it’s all very close. Note, the small Gannaway bag was a little leaky when these recordings were made (it is now draining Gannaway seasoning in the bath tub). Some reels I’m fooling around with: Sleepy Maggie ‘backwards’ from Scots Guards, Dancing Feet in G inspired by Seudan followed by Dancing Feet a la regulare. Kinda of a build up thingie madoodle: E, F, G, A.

Sleepy Maggie x2 + Dancing Feet x2