2009 August -- New Highland Bass Drone Design Developing
I'm working on a new bass design with competitive tone
not experimentation as the goal. However I will publish it in a home-buildable
format. Over the coming month I'll take it as far as I can get it myself,
and then offer it to a leading piping print publication first. If they're
not interested, or otherwise after they've run it, I'll post the specifications
here.
Here's
a sound sample of a prototype made outdoors at about 17 meters away,
slowly moving and turning. It's early 80's concert B-Flat pitch, with Naill
tenors and a War-Mac chanter. The design will scale to any pitch from folk
tuning at 440 to the current contest 480's or whatever.
There's no processing of the sound except to reverse the
published high frequency response boost of the microphones, and converting
to an MP3 format.
2009 April 02 Resurrection
Over the coming days and weeks I will be repairing links and updating
these pages after 11 years' neglect. At the time Ohio State University
took the site offline, it was still ranking around 24 in Google among 2/3
million bagpipe sites of all categories combined, 9-10 years after my last
edits. It'll never again return to a high ranking, but I get quite a few
requests for it regularly so I'm restoring it to a site under my control
and will keep it available for some time to come. Thank you all for your
continued interest!
Click Here for David Daye's
uilleann pipe making and performance site at daye1.com.
Newest Revision 4 June 2009 marked with ***
Under the Uilleann Pipes Home Building Page
Copyright 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2009 David C. Daye
Feel free to copy any and all portions for individual desktop use and/or
your individual study of piping. You may not republish all or portions
of this collection in any form, or distribute it in any form, without permission.
You must obtain permission for each item you wish to use even if I have
already permitted any use in the past. You may establish electronic pointers
or links to this page.
Sound files of David playing Highland and uilleann
pipes
All the sound files are in Windows .WAV format, 16-bit mono sound. Several
are sampled at 11 KHz, somewhat muffling the top end or treble a bit. 3
are sampled at 22 KHz because I'm trying to illustrate tone. This makes
them potentially large (sorry) so I kept the durations rather short (a
few bars).
ALL Artificial Reed Basics 10 KB -- General
notes on making double- and single reeds for drones and various single-octave
pipes.
ALL Pipe Bag Building 15 KB --
New text document, showing different shapes and seam constructions, diagrams
& photos.
ALL Chanter Modify 37 KB -- tips for (partly)
filling chanter holes, preserving finish.
All Chanter Reed Dull Tone 25 KB -- One common
cause of dull tone, may occur early in manufacture; remedy.
ALL Desk Lathe 71 KB --Electric drill clamped
on desk, with end of work inserted into clamped wood block, for making
tapered mandrels etc. Suggested by Benedict Koehler.
ALL Double Reed Marking 43 KB -- Marking
reed blades with data on cane type, dimensions, dates, staple data for
future reference.
ALL Drone Reed Maker 32KB -- Photo of lever
device for making cut in drone reed tubes.
UP Bridle Options 19 KB -- different bridle
positions per different blade designs.
UP Bridle Photo 40 KB -- closeup of one
type of sliding bridle. Grips both edges & faces, easy to adjust.
UP Chanter Bottom 11 KB -- a wrap-around
bottom ferrule for making bell hole smaller at extreme bottom, for better
tuned hard & soft bottom D. Made by Dave Williams.
UP Chanter Reed Maker 140 KB -- kitchen cutting
board with cane-measuring holes, trough & backstop for gouging, width
& length measurement marks, slots for forming sheet metal staples.
Photo shows markings to translate "float test"
waterline mark to sink-percentage.
UP-SP Drone Move 22 KB -- re-mounting small
drones for better microphone pickup position.
UP Octave Fixes 25 KB -- discussion and
diagrams of common causes for difficulty getting into or maintaining the
2nd octave; suggestions for remedies and avoiding problems in future.
UP Learning for Highland Pipers 10 KB --
Thoughts & experiences about making a big musical change.
UP Chanter Reed Elevation 30 KB
-- Rescuing newly tied reed blades whose lip opening is becoming too small.
UP Rush Holder 45 KB -- photo of thin tube
strapped to drone to hold wire "rushes" used for tuning chanter
UP Scrape 1 30 KB -- chanter reed scrape
diagram and explanation, based on bassoon reedmaking.
UP Scrape 2 35 KB -- method for creating
bassoon-based scrape shown above.
UP Scrape 3 33 KB -- common variations on
the long-style scrape shown above.
UP Staple 1 37 KB -- non-destructive staple
tricks to flatten (parts of) 2nd octave.
UP Staple 2 35 KB -- flairing brass tube
to simulate rolled staple, sharpen 2nd octave.
UP Bass Drone Shorten 75 KB -- a wrap-around
endpiece for fitting into sessions & other cramped locations better.
In place on drone at left; normal endpiece shown above at right with round
resonator, at its normal length.
UP Chanter Reed Reverse Taper --
60 KB Blades narrower at top than at middle. Easier hard D, better tuned
E's, when trying to use softer cane in recipes meant for harder cane. Tested
on wide bore concert D chanter by David Quinn.
UP Blade Fill 19 KB -- coating blade interiors
for tone, octave ease, retard humidity response.
UP Blade Grain 31 KB -- reducing humidity
damage to 2nd octave ability.
UP Make a "Squinnter" Chanter
15 KB -- very inexpensive, easy-to-make uilleann pipe chanter, using wood
planks rather than lathe-turning, by the Australian pipemaker Craig Fischer.
UP Make a Penny-Chanter 20 KB
-- very inexpensive, easy-to-make uilleann pipe chanter, also info on other
home-buildable components of uilleann pipes
UP-SP Plastic Reed 30 KB -- a few ideas
for plastic SP or UP-regulator reeds.
UP-SP Plastic Chanter Reed 10 KB -- A successful
first attempt at 2-octave plastic double reed using novel preparation.
UP Scrape 8 KB -- One method, with diagrams
and explanations, for making long-style chanter reed scrape and break-in
for easy 2nd octave.
ALL Grow Your Own Reeds 3 KB -- Sources,
photos, and tips for buying, growing, harvesting reed cane. New root photo
ALL Cane Density Measuring Jig 10 KB --
Diagram of jig to read sink-percentage of any length tube or strip after
it is dunked & waterline is marked.
ALL Carrying Case 33 KB -- Photo of electric
guitar "gig bag" (soft case) holds full UP or GHB very inexpensive
($15-$50 US) compared to bagpipe cases ($100 or more). (Not for sale here.)
ALL Pressure Meter 30 KB -- sketch of how
to make water-filled tube to measure operating pressure and/or steadiness.
UP Microphones 3 KB -- Mic-ing uilleann pipes,
ideas from REC.AUDIO.PRO
UP Chanter Measurements 10 KB --
David Quinn 1984 "Liam O'Flynn (Leo Rowesome)" pattern of chanter
UP Chanter Measurementst 10 KB
-- C# old flat chanter owned by Kevin Rowsome, possible Harrington
UP Chanter Measurements 12 KB --
Taylor chanter in Ireland, bore shape diagram showing deliberate irregularities
UP Chanter True 12 KB -- Taylor
chanter, bore shape diagram shown to accurate 1:1 scale. Notice that the
bore at this scale appears to be almost completely straight conical
Make Your Own Whistle 2 KB -- updated:
cheap, balanced Irish whistle, great-sounding "Infra Whistle"
Whistle photo 40 KB -- whistle under construction
with steps in telescoped tubing and some holes & tuning tape showing.
X-Ray Photo Top 146 KB -- Upper bore of David
Quinn unnumbered late 1980's chanter.
X-Ray Photo Bottom 122 KB -- Lower bore of
David Quinn unnumbered late 1980's chanter.
A separate web page with extensive notes on the pitfalls of self instruction
in the demanding traditional Highland bagpipe style. Discusses tools for
assessing progress, ideas for practicing and improving technique, links
to some of the illustrations listed below. Not a tutor, rather a guide
to be used with any of the fine tutors available on the market.
Miscellaneous Diagrams and Instructional Notes
Bag 17 KB -- 1st attempt at holding and blowing
full bagpipes.
Hold 27 KB -- GHB or UP chart, extra tips
on finger & hand posture, for beginners.
Move 30 KB -- GHB or UP chart, how to move
fingers for melody & grace notes, for beginners.
GHB Birl 2 KB -- Notes on making the tap-&-curl
birl.
Confidence 7 KB -- GHB document, tips for
student & teacher on instilling confidence in the student.
Exercises 2 KB -- GHB text file, some tortuous
melody and grace note exercises, all levels of skill.
Musicians 2 KB -- GHB text file, fingering
issues for people with previous music expertise.
