Wooff Narrow Bore D Half Set on eBAY

lemonsquash · Post by **lemonsquash** » Wed May 26, 2004 5:25 pm

That should be "privilege", Royce.

Steampacket · Post by **Steampacket** » Thu May 27, 2004 5:24 am

Just wondering what's the point of a narrowbore D set? Too quiet to use in a "D" session I'd suppose, and probably not as earthy, or old fashioned sounding as a flat set. On the other hand useful as a instrument for practicing on if you have neighbours with bat like hearing, or maybe if you play/perform together with just one other melody instrument prehaps. I remember in 1999 an English piper at Miltown piping classes swopping her Cillian O'Briain D chanter (an old one, not one of Cillian's powerhouse chanters) for Dave Bondy's Wooff narrow bore D as she needed a quiet chanter. She sold it some time after though. Does a Wooff narrow bore have the same characteristics as a narrow bore flat chanter or is it more like a wide bore D, just quieter?

Tony · Post by **Tony** » Thu May 27, 2004 5:45 am

TJ, check these previous discussions about narrow bore D's

http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php ... 5b4929ca6d
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php ... 5b4929ca6d
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php ... 5b4929ca6d

Geoff's is a takeoff of his Harrington. Like any chanter, it's personality is controlled largely by the reed.

I rate it's loudness equal to a C chanter. I've never played a C# chanter but I suspect the narrow D is really similar.
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php ... 5b4929ca6d

Paul · Post by **Paul** » Thu May 27, 2004 8:27 am

Lorenzo wrote:I've noticed a lot of "I reserve the right to end the auction early" on eBay lately. I wonder why it's been going on for so long and no one seems to do anything about it.

Whenever we run cars on ebay we have a stipulation like that because someone could come to the lot any time and buy a listed car. It happens. ebay has no problem with that nor with our re-listing that vehicle if the deal falls through. However, if we were to re-list the vehicle with a higher reserve or opening bid than the original listing, they would cancel our account. they are very clear about that.

Cayden · Post by **Cayden** » Thu May 27, 2004 9:04 am

Steampacket wrote:Just wondering what's the point of a narrowbore D set? Too quiet to use in a "D" session I'd suppose,[.....] Does a Wooff narrow bore have the same characteristics as a narrow bore flat chanter or is it more like a wide bore D, just quieter?

Geoff's original idea was develop a chanter that did not have some of the faults of the wide bore design and would lean in it's playing chracteristics more towards the flat chanter. In other words a narrow bore with smaller holes which in theory would enable the player to change the harmonics as you would on a good flat chanter.

In my opinion it has always been a bit of a strange hybrid, I never was quite happy with the tonality of them allthough I have yet to hear a concert set that can match the lovely mix of drones and chanter. They are nicer than some concert pitch chanters but not to an extend I ever had the urge to own one for myself.

Overall they are about as loud as your average fiddleplayer, which is fine. I never believed in upping the volume to suit a group bigger than three or four. Pipes are best played on their own, in duet or trio situations, anything over that is a bit of a waste of time as far as the pipes are concerned [in my opinion].

The chanter design was not particularly based on Harrington as far as I remember, regulators certainly weren't. By the end of the day it is the player that determines the voice, the bore enables the reed to speak. IN other words if you put the same reed in different chanter and analyse the soundspectrum you'll find the spectrum is characteristic to the chanter, not to the reed. You can influence the sound of a chanter by using different reed designs but the chanter has it's own voice determined by bore characteristics.

Brian Lee · Post by **Brian Lee** » Thu May 27, 2004 10:36 am

Ya know I hear all the time the comparison of a "reasonable" chanter to the volume of a fiddle...but I gotta be honest - I've heard a lot of different fiddles in my time!

We have one player at our sessions for example who is so soft I can't hear her if there are more than three of us and I'm sitting anywhere but right next to her. She epitomizes timid playing, but she has fun so I guess that's what it's all about. On the other hand, I've heard many players getting into the music and have seen the little puffs of rosin coming off the bow as they play. Not ear splitting, but not even in the same ball park as the first fiddler mentioned here.

Chanters I've heard also seem to run about the same. Some sound so soft and muted (and IMO bland) that you can't hear them with more than two others playing along. Then you have the guys who make their reeds out of tungsten steel or something and could practically deafen a Great Highland piper! These pipes can peel paint and cause hair and fingernails to fall out!

Where's the middle ground?! LOL

Help us out here Peter. Maybe we should use a standard measurement of sounding the first octave A note (at 440) with a decible meter 1 meter away from the tone hole.

That's more or less the way that speaker manufacturers measure the sensativity or loudness of their drivers. (guys, before you rin out to try this - I'm kidding here)

Anyway, I think it's all relative to the player.

Royce · Post by **Royce** » Thu May 27, 2004 12:17 pm

Tony wrote:
Royce wrote:....And, as has been pointed out, why go through the angst of bidding on an item knowing it could be pulled out from under you without warning?

Royce

It's eBay Royce...
Forget the 'angst' of worring about the seller ending the sale early.

Worry about the 50+ people (pipers, collectors and such) that have their sniping software armed and focused for the last 10 minutes of bidding.

Do you think that's fair??

First of all, apparently you and a few others are correct, this business, or bad business I'd say, of allowing cancelling of auctions on a whim is fairly rampant on Ebay. I guess I don't know how they can just keep it up, except to say that as others have noted, there are so many auctions going on all the time unless a trend of informants results it's not a problem for Ebay itself.

Under normal circumstances, angst is what a bidder is all about in an auction. That's the purpose of the auction, it's the freemarket in purest form and its thousands and thousands of years old.

Of course it's fair to have people loaded up to bid. That's the whole point. The seller gets the market concentrated in one focused arena, and the buyer has a wide selection of just exactly what he wants, and from that point it's just a matter of setting (almost immediately) the going market price.

Any provision, loop-hole, or device by which this process is thwarted, or through which either buyer or seller is allowed to monkey around, explore, play with, or just daydream with this marketplace is a very bad thing for everyone.

Royce

Kevin L. Rietmann · Post by **Kevin L. Rietmann** » Thu May 27, 2004 12:57 pm

This business of the width of the throat of the chanter is the key to quieting down a chanter; you can lighten up the reed a great deal and still have the hard D, meaning your pipes will play that much easier and people will enjoy hearing your music. You can still crank the reeds up and peel paint if you're so inclined. At the very least you all should give it a try, it's a snap to experiment with, is completely removable, and won't necessarily require a brand new reed either.
It's just a substitute for the wood the maker should've included in the first place, of course.

meir · Post by **meir** » Thu May 27, 2004 2:44 pm

come on, we all know davey- he is a nice guy and not a cheater, and certainly did not intend to be so in this auction. my guess is that if he knew how much discussion this would trigger, he would have done it differently. after all, if the goal is to get as much money as possible, the e-bay auction will cover that and any "private buyer" can join and bid.

as for the item itself, i would love it, but gee, 2025.00 and "reserve not met". i can only guess.

who ever gets it is lucky indeed.

meir

Douglas · Post by **Douglas** » Thu May 27, 2004 3:21 pm

Hello meir

As Mr. Boisvart pointed out, he is not the one auctioning the set. He was only mentioned because he was doing needed maintenance. Also, you are all distracting him from working on my pipes.

meir · Post by **meir** » Thu May 27, 2004 7:44 pm

i dont think he needs me to distract him. and just for the record, why should your pipes come before my whistle? a whistle is a little thing he can just whip out

meir

Royce · Post by **Royce** » Thu May 27, 2004 11:55 pm

meir wrote:i dont think he needs me to distract him. and just for the record, why should your pipes come before my whistle? a whistle is a little thing he can just whip out

meir

But not the only little thing he can whip.....uh, never mind. Too easy. I should leave the obvious innuendo to the beginners.

Royce

Royce · Post by **Royce** » Thu May 27, 2004 11:58 pm

lemonsquash wrote:That should be "privilege", Royce.

Thinks. Prove reeding slews downe meye tiepeeing.

Roce

meir · Post by **meir** » Fri May 28, 2004 8:51 pm

big big oops. now that really came out the wrong way.

Jim McGuire · Post by **Jim McGuire** » Sun May 30, 2004 3:24 pm

Auction has hit the Reserve of $4,000. Five hours to go and ready for an exciting finish!