Tommy is of course an UP God but I have to agree with Mr B. here. It may be that the new maker with the new chanter and the new reed has a perfectly brilliant setup except that this particular reed in this particular chanter is a hair sharp or flat either overall in both octaves or in one or the other octave. The bottom line as we say in America, meaning the point at which you have to cough up the big bucks for a particular enterprise, is the outcome. I suppose the maker could fish around for another reed that comes exactly in concert pitch exactly in both octaves, or throw the chanter away, but in reality, some pretty fooked up chanters sound gooddamned incredible over even their "perfect" line-production brothers and sisters either with just the right reed, or with just a brilliant reed with one small quirk fixed by a wire. You listen to and play a chanter and it's a done-deal by that time, so if it sounds and plays great except for some minor intonation problem, you don't in fact toss it in the bin or winge about how it has to have this or that bit of crap loaded into the bore to achieve the perfect result. The result is the result, and nobody in reality should give much of a damn about how it is achieved if it is achieved.AlanB wrote:A rush can:-
Pitch your chanter
Tune your chanter
Tone your chanter
It is not readily visible.
It is not a permanent alteration to your chanter or reed.
As Kurt Cobain said ' Mmmmm the rush'
There.......
(sorry Kurt)
The secret, evil truth is that some really great players are basically out of tune most of the time slightly at least and it doesn't bother them. If it did, they too would be grabbing for the bits of wire and bent matchsticks and rolled up playing cards. So in fact many of those arguing for the unadulterated bore simply crank the chanter in tune on each note as best they can and if it's close enough, within five or even ten cents that's considered a "perfect" chanter because it can be wrangled into tune without any internal helpers. Others just fix a few of the worst reed or design quirks without any deleterious side-effects at all by inserting a bit of this or that and achieve, with the same reed and chanter, intontation within a few cents of perfect pitch with half the effort.
So, if it really bothers you, take out the rush and reed and start dicking around looking for the "perfect" reed for that chanter that doesn't need a rush or a waxed or taped hole and let us know when you find it. And of course, get used to thinking of each individual note as a three part exercise of sounding, blowing in, and sustaining the correct pitch. Or just embrace a fooking rush and a bit of tape or wax in a hole and play your arse off with only a fraction of that effort in the meantime over the course of some score or two of years in perfect tune with great intonation until you find that perfect reed for that particular chanter.