{"id":3177,"date":"2015-11-01T14:57:47","date_gmt":"2015-11-01T19:57:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patrickmclaurin.com\/wordpress\/?p=3177"},"modified":"2015-11-01T14:57:47","modified_gmt":"2015-11-01T19:57:47","slug":"what-drone-reeds-to-use-in-sinclair-bagpipes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/patrickmclaurin.com\/wordpress\/?p=3177","title":{"rendered":"What drone reeds to use in Sinclair bagpipes?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I recently acquired a set of (probably 1960s) Sinclair bagpipes.<\/p>\n

\"sinclair\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I mouth blew all my drone reeds and decided that a regular Ezeedrone bass or a short, inverted Ezeedrone bass was best. Many other bass drone reeds were muted. This set would be a small bore Sinclair set, I believe. Apparently early Sinclairs and maybe now modern Sinclairs have bigger bores in places, but with a bass bottom bore at 8 mm I think this set falls in line with the smaller bore pattern attributed to their age. Many tenor reeds had the opposite problem of being too bold. So I settled on a lovely set of Rockets until they wouldn’t sound regardless of bridle position once I added a chanter, so then I just went with straight Ezeedrone tenors.<\/p>\n

In the recordings below, we’ve got the original Sinclair chanter paired with a Gilmour reed I’ve been playing for years that’s still too hard for me. It tunes right at Bb (low A = 466 Hz). I put tape on high G and D, and the B is flat, with the F sometimes flat. Short, inverted Ezeedrone bass and regular Ezeedrone tenor reeds. I thought the sound was good although the tenors lacked a little sparkle, in my opinion.<\/p>\n

King of Laois and The Thornton jig<\/a><\/p>\n\nhttp:\/\/www.patrickmclaurin.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/laois_thornton.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

Neili’s and Ger the Rigger<\/a> – POLKAS!!!<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.patrickmclaurin.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/polkas.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

Pressed for Time, The High Drive, and The Big Yin<\/a> – hornypipe type things<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.patrickmclaurin.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/pressed_drive_yin.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

Troy’s Wedding, The Snuff Wife, and Thief of Lochaber<\/a><\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.patrickmclaurin.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/troys_snuff_thief.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

After a conversation with Stuart on the bookface (someone who also recently picked up a set of Sinclairs), he floated the idea of using Selbie tenors so I figured, why not? The redwood sounded a bit bold as did the Kinnaird but perhaps a plastic tongue vibrant reed would spruce up the tenors without making them too loud. (Thinking about it, I might try Canning next as they’re a bit bolder than Ezeedrone as well.) I mouth blew the Selbie tenors again and was pleasantly surprised so I went with it. Still using the short, inverted Ezeedrone bass but now with a 480 Hz Colin Kyo chanter.<\/p>\n

Aires de Pontevedra, Muineira de Casu, Kittly Lie Over, Leisa McCord (EJ Jones), Rory Gallagher (Gordon Duncan)<\/a> – this is quickly becoming my international jig set<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.patrickmclaurin.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/aires_muineira_kitty_leisa_rory.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

I then decided I might play a slow air but I couldn’t help from getting the felling that there was some instability in the bass. So, I did something I never thought I would ever do. I reached for the Redwood bass drone reed to put it in. When I was mouth blowing the reeds it was one of the best sounding bass drone reeds, but in every other pipe I’ve tried this reed in, it isn’t very good. Primarily, it has a hard time starting. Well, in this pipe I think it sounds pretty darn glorious paired with the Selbie tenors which makes my favorite combo so far.<\/p>\n

Fair Maid and Donella Beaton<\/a> – let’s see how many times I can make the same mistake twice<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.patrickmclaurin.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/fair_maid-jig.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

Bessie McIntyre, Captain Lachlan MacPhail of Tiree, and Alick C MacGregor<\/a><\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.patrickmclaurin.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/bessie-lachlan-alick.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

Lastly, I figured I put the Redwood tenors in there to go with the bass, but ultimately I think the Redwood tenors are too bold.<\/p>\n

Mo Ghile Mear, The Herring Wife, and Rakes of Kildare<\/a><\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.patrickmclaurin.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/mo_ghile_mear-jig-kildare.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

Angus MacKinnon and Frank Thompson<\/a> – the BBQ set (Angus Frank)<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.patrickmclaurin.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/bbq_set.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

Which is your favorite?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I recently acquired a set of (probably 1960s) Sinclair bagpipes. I mouth blew all my drone reeds and decided that a regular Ezeedrone bass or a short, inverted Ezeedrone bass was best. Many other bass drone reeds were muted. This set would be a small bore Sinclair set, I believe. Apparently early Sinclairs and maybe … Continue reading What drone reeds to use in Sinclair bagpipes?<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dronesounds","category-ghbsolo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/patrickmclaurin.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/patrickmclaurin.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/patrickmclaurin.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patrickmclaurin.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patrickmclaurin.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3177"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/patrickmclaurin.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3188,"href":"https:\/\/patrickmclaurin.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3177\/revisions\/3188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/patrickmclaurin.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patrickmclaurin.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patrickmclaurin.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}