Hello Folks Peter Ashby mentioned this forum at last night's Caedmon Piping class and I thought I'd sign up. I believe there has been recent discussion re hole spacings on chanters with a request for pipers to submit the measurements of their own instruments in order find an average. This sounds to me like a rather pointless exercise as so much work has been put into this in the past. If the aim is to standardise hole spacings to play near concert F with a good bright reed then Mike Nelson has done this to near perfection. I have seen similar spacings used by Colin Ross. Both of these offer a range of good-toned pitch from concert F (A = 440Hz) to F + 25 (A=446Hz) depending on reed dimensions. Philip Gruar also uses spacings very close to these with similar beautiful results. These spacings are readily availble from Colin or Mike. Then, of course, we have the chanter spacings which Robert Reid used and are used as a model by David Burleigh. These spacings look similar to those mentioned above at the top of the chanter but are 5mm shorter by the time we reach bottom D. Standard reeds moved in towards the chanter to bring it in tune moves the pitch to a range from F + 25 (A = 446Hz) to F+ 50 (A = 453Hz). As David has made over 3,000 sets to this pattern I find that aiming for F = + 25 (A = 446Hz) is a good compromise for teaching groups and was the pitch I asked pipers to aim for on "The Cool Breath Tour" of New Zealand in January. I have heard that this strategy worked well even in my absence (for family reasons, Heather & I returned home prematurely) and resulted in a good sounding CD of massed pipes playing (21 sets). You can judge for yourselves when it is released shortly. I own beautiful chanters made by all of the above makers and know them intimately. They all sound tuneful and sweet. At the moment I use F chanters at 440, 446, 452 and 456 for individual teaching. (Squeezing harder / easing off to get a 6Hz shift will always compromise tone). Finally, it should be remembered that hole spacings themselves are not the end of the story. Hole size also makes a fair contribution to pitch as does the bore. I hope I've managed to add something useful to the discussion. Anthony Robb
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