I've finally got a Rowsome family design that holds its own against Penny-Chanter's tuning and performance and response. The design is being evolved starting from the simplest basics of the family, so that all elements could be brought along for a comfortable fit to modern pitch and the stresses of stage and continental air changes.
At the beginning of this month a conceptual breakthrough has produced a suite of sister chanters spanning a range of power.
(For those waiting on backordered sets, new pipe development is always strictly off hours.)
| Breaking 10 Feb.
All 4 prototypes are now playing and tuning with drones, two in
the moderate range and one high powered Concert D types, and finally now
also the quieter "Apartment Chanter" concept I've dabbled with
on and off.
Click Here for 100KB sound sample of the December model of the lower-medium power Daye Traditional Concert D Chanter prototype in the temporary construction. Inquiries over the years suggest customer interest mainly in stronger Rowesome type, with lesser but significant interest in a subdued type, and at least some in a high power chanter for stage use. Finding myself with 4 working versions is quite an unexpected bounty. It means I'll be able to settle on a primary Concert D for most buyers, and make the Apartment Chanter and a high powered Stage Chanter available on special order basis. More sound samples will be coming shortly. |
The wood will be cocobolo, for example this plain prototype, well-seasoned, oiled & polished, a hardwood that is popular for traditionally made uilleann pipes and other woodwind musical instruments. It is a reddish-brown striped wood with good musical tone and stability at a modest price. We're also testing the black Delrin plastic so popular for many woodwinds to see if we can produce it with the traditional tools we use for working the wood.
I will probably tool up for the high powered model as well, and I'm investigating blackwood for this model.
At first, taper chanters will be a budget offering, higher priced than Penny-Chanter of course but plain one-piece construction without traditional integral wood keyblocks. Where keyed, they'll be fit with the same simple all-brass key and mounting construction of Penny-Chanter. We do expect chromatic notes to be available.
The wood is naturally air-dried timber purchased from special-purpose musical instrument wood vendors, hand-selected to be most appropriate for woodwinds.
Next, the wood Penny-Chanter is given its preliminary bore and rough exterior, followed by an extended period of settling. As with the reeds, this involves climate forcing in both humid and dry air. Testing has demonstrated that this triggers a significant amount of the natural irreversible settling that otherwise requires years to achieve in unworked solid timber. Click here for a photograph of a wood Penny-Chanter bottom after a seasoning cycle, ready to be finished. Notice the slightly irregular shape shown by the varying gap between the bore and the piece of round brass tubing placed inside for reference. This is caused by wood permanently settling different amounts along grain layers vs. through them.
After this, the finger holes can be drilled, the inside is rebored to its final dimensions, and the exterior is finished. The chanter is then given a natural oil treatment inside and out to minimize its cyclical response to normal changes in weather and climate, then polished and fine-tuned for playing.
The chanters are constructed using multiple-reamer tool sets, so that they can be readjusted any time in the future if needed, even if time has inflicted some longitudinal bend.
To E-mail David Daye click here
Telephone Langley WA USA (Seattle or Los Angeles time zone) 360-679-8787
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