Naill’s, drone reeds in the Gellaitry’s, and Husk vs. Ezee = Whew!

Bagpipe Sound Research, Drone Sounds of the GHB, Great Highland Bagpipe Solo

I’ve sort of convinced my friend that he doesn’t really need a set of Naill’s he has so it looks like he’ll be selling them to a local police officer as he learns the pipes. Don’t worry, he still has 2 sets of Robertson’s, a set of Marr’s, and a poly Dunbar. I was given charge of the transaction, so I decided to bid them a fond farewell. They were made in the late 1980’s and I’ve fitted them with my Naill Rocket’s for the recording. Original Naill chanter is reeded with an old Gilmour of mine. Passed onto the student, the chanter was fitted with a SuperSoft Apps reed which worked really well.

Amazing Grace

I recently picked up a set of Rocket drone reeds and a set of Crozier Carbon. The Rocket’s (Naill variety) are going in my Henderson’s unless displaced by the Crozier Carbon’s (not likely). The Rocket’s are excellent reeds but can be a bit bass heavy, so they are unsuited for the Gellaitry’s which already a rather strong bass presence (not a Henderson overall bass tone though). However, it quite easily picks up the bass that’s a bit lacking in my 19050’s Henderson’s. Below you’ll find recordings of 4 sets of drone reeds in the Gellaitry pipes: Kinnaird, Rocket, Crozier Carbon, and Crozier Cane. I’m going to stick with the Kinnaird, put the Rockets in the Henderson’s, save the CCarbon’s for the MacPherson’s on order, and lend the CCane’s to my 1950’s Robertson friend, in which I think they’ll be FANTASTIC! Recordings are unnormalized and were taken in a walk in closet, which makes for terrible recording conditions. I face the mic several different ways, hence the wawawa in between bits of pseudo-in-tuneness (I gave blood earlier today, so keeping steady pressure was hard enough).

kinnaird, rocket, croziercarbon, croziercane

Here’s a contribution from a reader (I presume). A quick blow through Ezee and Shawn Husk tenor drone reeds in a Dunbar P1. I’ve often thought that Ezee’s had a very nasal sound to them, and compared to cane, they do! Hence you’ll notice there are no plastic tongued drone reeds that I’m considering up above for my pipes. Ezeedrone is first, then Husk cane.

ezeedrone_vs_cane

Marr poly chanter + Gellaitry drones

Great Highland Bagpipe Solo, Reviews

Recently I had the chance to review a set of Marr drones (recordings here and here), and now I’ve played a Marr chanter as well. The chanter has a unique design so it is easily recognizable. I ended up with tape on every finger hole except the A’s, so the chanter is in general, a tad sharp. That’s not a terrible thing though (and maybe intentional, I dunno), as you’re pretty much never going to have a flat note! In that, the note with the least amount of tape was high G, which is odd in that every other chanter, this note has the most tape. Needless to say, I like it! However, for those of you who like to play the sharper version of high G in Piobaireachd maybe need not apply, as this chanter may not get you there (see this post and this post). That said, this would seemingly be a great band chanter as you’d never have to worry about carving the chanter. Whereas McCallum bagpipes has a band chanter with effectively the same property (never having to carve a hole) because they’re big and oval (the holes all still requiring tape), the Marr chanter keeps the hole size to a reasonable level (still round too) and you just tape them down a bit. The holes are a bit bigger than what you’ll find on most solo chanters, but that would seemingly be to compensate for the need for tape so that no notes become noticeably quiet in comparison to adjacent notes. So, it was quick to tune once I got tape on the holes. A picture of the chanter right next to my Colin Kyo chanter is below. Note that the exact same brand reed (Gilmour) was used in both chanters (you can see the CK tuned very well with no tape save for high G, furthermore, you can see the CK is capable of the sharper Piobaireachd high G [which is stupendous by the way]). You can click on the picture to get the full size version. Not the greatest picture in the world, I admit, but you’ll notice how all the holes between low A and high G (not including them) are higher on the Marr, which is consistent with those notes being sharp and the tape needed to tune them.

Lastly, some recordings with the chanter plugged into my Gellaitry pipes. The first is of some common 4/4’s and then on to a couple tunes I’m learning (so cut me some slack!). Also, it’s a new reed so the high A isn’t quite broken in yet. I also retied the blowpipe stock and went back to a shorter mouthpiece. The whole pipe is more comfortable now, yay!

Rowan Tree, Murdo’s Wedding, Wings, Scotland the Brave

Abercairny Highlanders and Miss Proud