Chiff and Fipple Forums

I'm pretty sure I read about the Northumbrian (?) chanter with built in harmony in Baines - was he repeating what he read in Talbot's writings, then? Seem to recall that he saw that stick first hand. Must fish that book out and check this. I've played the MacGregor double chanter myself - the owner ...

The set I was describing was/is owned by Rhode Island piper John Campbell, from whom I bought the P Brown (?) set whose chanter I still play. It had forged keys, wide like Egan or Rowsome, but they were set between long metal tabs - in fact, I think the tabs ran the length of the keywork. I still ha...

Thanks for sharing, Jeff. Those are some funky pipes - the "bass reg" seems to plug into the stock, thus maybe a 2nd middle reg? Or maybe it's the keyed part of a normal bass reg - the proportions look like it - and someone just jammed a stick into its end to plug it into the stock, and th...

Richard - was that John Rosenberger? 4 years ago Sean Folsom recounted all the non-GHBs PM Rosenberger owned. John lived in San Diego. I notice you missed that thread from 2011. The main hassle with double chanters is getting the 2 reeds to work properly. Fingering's a minor quibble in comparison. L...

Brad Angus has turned out a few doubles over the years. Recently he's figured out how to make them out of the one piece of wood, too. I like to tell people that accordions - which I also play, btw - in their simple folk form were/are inspired by/a ripoff of the Union pipes. I mean, think about it, d...

I'd be happy to help. But first you're going to have to surrender that 4 MB of RAM.

I have a list with the titles of all my tunes on it in random order, so as to avoid playing warhorses all night long. I think of playing the Kesh jig as an inevitability, like a musical root canal.

Or instead of the boring old Kesh I might play the Comedy Maid instead.

Same with my copy - it's a production flaw.

Nobody except pipers plays Dinky's in D, I'd guess. No point in doing so on other instruments which can handle those jumps from A to a no problem. Most of the tunes those pipers played stayed in the original key, far as I can recall. Cue up some of Robbie's records, you hear a few of them go by. The...

Andy Conroy called it "The Mark of the Beast." :lol: Harsh gracings, lack of tightness. Jerry O'Sullivan's someone who made a virtue out of it all, including the gutbusting reeds aspect. Chris - do you know a guitar player, Ken Karibelnikoff? Also plays the piano accordion. He was down her...

A chanter that could go down to low C and still be played tight would be handy. Some kind of popping valve apparatus that would close the end of the bore? See, even adding one note leads to utter confusion. :boggle: You'd have to retool everything, different bore, the acoustics would be thrown for ...

A chanter that could go down to low C and still be played tight would be handy. Some kind of popping valve apparatus that would close the end of the bore? See, even adding one note leads to utter confusion. :boggle: You'd have to retool everything, different bore, the acoustics would be thrown for a...

I've encountered it, but I think it's not maybe quite overly common. "suitable for the pipes" was in quotes so that it would be obvious that it was meant to encompass the whole of the original discussion, and hypothesis, that the majority of irish traditional music stems, or was heavily i...

I don't believe that is true at all. You mean you have not encountered players who eschew the "new stuff"? Really? I've read that in the old days some composers were bashful about revealing that their latest tune was something of their own creation, as people wouldn't take them seriously....

The MofI is a bit of a mess, especially in the key signature department, and even the sources listed for tunes are largely arbitrary - was the musician with their name above the tune the original source of it, or did they learn it from a colleague who was uncredited? This led to a bit of bad blood w...