On 4 Apr 2007, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > It does seem a bit odd that a G chanter and F chanter have reeds > crowing at different notes, a third apart, and of significantly > different sizes, but the same reed works in a D and F chanter - is > there some compensation in the designs of the chanters? Or am I > wrong? > > John >
I think the starting point of this discussion must be that the 'original' pitch of NSP was the key of G at the time. The 'standard' pitch has risen in the meantime leaving the NSP flat on concert pitch, somewhere between F and F#. When keys were added up to high b this restricted the design of the reed. When James Reid built his D chanter it was a simple matter to move the holes down the stick, but there is no way to turn an F chanter with 11/64" (4.35mm) bore into a G simply by moving the holes. Thus, to make a G chanter other changes must be made, and the easiest place to do it is the reed, but this leads to reeds which are far less tolerant and generally have a harsher tone. This, to my mind, is why pipers prefer the traditinal pitch. With regard to SSP reeds, a softer reed can generate a better tone in open ended pipes. A really good NSP reed can be very squeaky in an open ended chanter. Barry Say To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
