Liam playing the Ennis pipes

[Kevin L. Rietmann]

I imagine one of yas has Liam O'Flynn's "Fine Art of Solo Piping" record, I like that one. Anyway that's Seamus Ennis's Coyne pipes he's playing on there, ain't it? I only have a dub, I once considered plunking down $18 for an LP copy but passed. I always assumed so, if it is they certainly sound different than when Ennis's reeds were in there. I was told Nick Adams made new reeds for the pipes. The set sounds mostly "back to normal" on the DronesChanters2 though. He'll never get that Ennis tone, though! "An absolutely distinctive tone," Liam called it.

[tompipes]

Didn't Andreas Rogge rebore that Coyne stick..
May account for a slighty different tone. You'll need the Ennis fingers too.
Tommy

[djm]

I have the CD. I think its still available. Try NPU. The liner notes say he plays a concert set and "the treasured flat set which belonged to the great Seamus Ennis".

djm

[Kevin L. Rietmann]

My mistake, it's "The Fine Art Of Piping." It was recorded long before Andreas performed surgery, the tone of the drones is very different than when Ennis had the pipes. Liam has a motorboat bottom D going here, too, instead of Seamus's hard to sound hard D.

[reedman]

Andreas, may only have rereeded the set, from what I gathered,I think Liam may have had a new chanter made for the set, I don't think any pipemaker would "dare alter"that Coyne chanter in any way, probably had a new one made to preserve the oringinal Coyne one, but a set can also loose its sound through different reeds been fitted.

[PJ]

On the album Out to an Other Side, the final track, Sean O Duibhir a Ghleanna is played in C#. Could this be the Coyne set?

[billh]

Andreas, may only have rereeded the set, from what I gathered,I think Liam may have had a new chanter made for the set, I don't think any pipemaker would "dare alter"that Coyne chanter in any way, probably had a new one made to preserve the oringinal Coyne one, but a set can also loose its sound through different reeds been fitted.

Unfortunately, this is not how it happened. The chanter that was modified was the original Coyne.

Bill

[reedman]

How can any maker "modify" a famous Coyne C# chanter.

I'll email Andreas later list evening,and get the full story.

[billh]

How can any maker "modify" a famous Coyne C# chanter.

I'll email Andreas later list evening,and get the full story.

I was surprised too, and phoned Andreas around the time it happened. At the time he said he had 'improved' it, and he may still say that. That the chanter had shrunk. That he only reamed out a tiny bit of wood from the throat. That O'Flynn asked him to do it.

You may find it of interest that Andreas shortly therafter signed the famous/infamous "statement regarding the alteration of old pipes" which states that irreversible modifications to the work of other pipemakers (living or dead) should not be undertaken. Of course, this was the incident that precipitated that whole 'Statement' ...

Not sure I want to dredge that one up further myself. IMO it's a "what's the cost of being wrong" sort of issue.

Bill

[patsky]

It is my understanding that Andreus made a couple of duplicate chanters that had the same bottom D problems. He then set about modifying the copy chanters until he solved the problem. Liam then instructed him to modify the Ennis chanter and I understand that it worked. Knowing Ennis quite well, it is my openion that he would have approved.

As to opening the throat... I do not believe that would have solved the problem. It is a "smaller" throat that corrects the bottom D. Ennis himself used to tie a strip of paper match to the bottom of his reed. This tail on the reed, made the throat smaller and thus improved the bottom D.

All the best,
Pat Sky

[billh]

Hi Pat;

I would agree with your statement about the most common method for sorting out the kinds of bottom D problems which the Ennis chanter _appeared_ to exhibit. In this case however that was not the solution which was applied.

I took Andreas to say that he had modified the throat or at least an area high in the chanter bore, but I may be mistaken. Not what I would have expected either. Otherwise your report is pretty consistent with what I heard.

It is also my understanding that Ennis himself never had the pipes going entirely to his satisfaction after his original reedmaker (Mulchrone, was it?) died. This raises the possibility that a different sort of reed might have improved the situation as well, but Mulchrone (or whoever it was), I am told, took his reedmaking technique to the grave with him. That's a story I shall not repeat here.

Bill

[Mypipes]

Ennis himself used to tie a strip of paper match to the bottom of his reed. This tail on the reed, made the throat smaller and thus improved the bottom D
Pat Sky

Interesting...could you explian this a bit more as my bottom D has gone soft and I would like the mechanics ...did he insert the paper down the throat from the bottom of the staple??

[bwilson]

I use a piece of string in the throat of my penny chanter to fix problems with hard D. Ted Anderson suggested this to me and it has worked marvelously. The mechanics: I cut a short (maybe 2 inches?) piece of string, took the reed out, put the string down the throat, and replaced the reed (using the reed to hold the end of the string in the reed seat). I don't think the details matter much -- you just want something to hang down into the throat of the chanter to reduce the effective diameter.

For whatever reason, it was difficult to get a hard D on my chanter without this piece of string, but now it is no problem. If you're having troubles with hard D, it's worth a try. It only takes a few minutes and if it doesn't work, you can just pull the string out.

[fel bautista]

Interesting; the reed I had Benedict look at and adjust was made by John Mitchell from Cork. I had met him on my last day in Cork and was looking for a lighter reed. If you remember, I had put it in my chanter on and off and but never really played it or inspected until the week of the Tionol. Benedict pulled out what appeared to a be a longish end of an uncoiled paper clip from the staple and probably served the same purpose. The reed works great and has not had to see the light of day since. Even my wife noticed that my playing had improved after that weekend.

[billh]

also, if you want something possibly less 'soft' than string (in the event that it could act as a damping force), you can put a short wire "rush" in your staple that hangs down into the throat. The disadvantage is, of course, that this will reduce the I.D. of your staple for at least part of the length, but in some circumstances this is not a bad thing.

Worth a try anyhow, quick, and easy to undo.