Why do you think "Mythbusters" is such a popular show? Because there's such a vast pile of pseudo-science out there.
Assuming we're talking about dry-blown pipes, there's next to nothing to create a difference in lifespan between playing them and keeping them in the box. Yes, sound is an acoustic wave, and causes some force against the wood, but nothing strong enough to alter the structure or chemistry of it. What will cause degradation of the wood (other than dropping it--more later) is either thermal or moisture cycling. You'll note that flutes, shawms, sackbutts (gotta love that name) and other instruments that are directly mouth-blown are far more prone to cracking, even when the user is meticulous about keeping them oiled. But unless you platoon semiannually from Guam to Helsinki, atmospheric moisture isn't too much of a problem, especially with the tight, close-grained woods we use in pipes. (Some stringed instrument players like guitarists and fiddlers keep a gadget in their case to keep the humidity up. Recall, however, that their soundboards are very, very thin, and under a great deal of mechanical stress). Temperature cycling isn't usually too much of a problem--we tend to like to live in a very narrow temperature range. But most of us know at least one sad story of a musician who's left a wooden instrument in the trunk of a car (or boot) and found it warped and/or cracked. But any temperature you can stand--or be willing to pipe in--is not going to be much of a problem for your instrument. I mentioned dropping. Other than fumbling your whole kit, the biggest dropping risk is having a drone or--gasp, chanter--slip out and hit the floor. Obviously, the way to avoid this is proper wrapping. Here I'd say the wet-blowers are more meticulous than the bellows-blowers. That's because wet-blown instruments need far more tuning as the moisture of the reeds changes during a session. Keep your wrapping neat and tidy. And then grease it. I leave it to others to argue about the best lube, but a slide that is too tight invites the use of more force when tuning. And the combination of the awkward position we adopt while tuning and too much force often leaves a sad piper holding the drone top with the slide broken off inside it. Anyway, that's a bit off-topic. In a message dated 5/12/2011 4:03:12 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, [email protected] writes: Maybe not totally relevant, but in my (much) younger days when carrying around a sliderule as a student, it was claimed that the best sliderules were made of bamboo coz they didn't expand like metal ones and were self-lubricating. Indeed, to smoothly ease into small gradations a prior pumping of the middle movable band was useful. John Clifford On 12 May 2011, at 10:12, Richard York wrote: > Hello all. > I've just enjoyed re-reading Francis Woods' excellent article, "In > Praise of Old Pipes", in the 2010 Vol 31 NPS Journal. > There he refers to the "myth [which] holds that instruments > inevitably > deteriorate if they are not used. [...] what really wears them > out is > using them ". > I quite see that the mechanical use of moving keys, sliding tunable > parts, etc. causes wear, but would welcome comments on a > probably very > unscientific thought on the actual wood in instruments. > (By the by, I realise mouth-blown woodwind deteriorates through the > warming, wetting and drying and cooling effect, but feel that's > not so > relevant here.) > I watched a demonstration recently of how the form of vibrations > through an instrument can clearly be seen, by using sand on the > soundboard of a rebec held horizontally, which neatly slid into > patterns. > Since all matter is made of particles, is it possible that the > regular > patterns of vibration may somehow arrange these particles in a way > relating to these regular movements? > Which in turn would affect its acoustic character, I assume. > Best wishes, > Richard. > To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html --
