New set by Pierre Blanchet

[Graineag]

Yes, I'm very happy to see this thread revived.

If I ever won the lottery, one of the first things I'd do is track down Pierre Blanchet and order a set of his Donald MacDonald reproductions. (Of course, seeing as how I'd won the lottery, I'd probably also buy a charming old Breton farmhouse and spend the rest of my life playing for festoù-noz and studying reedmaking, piobaireachd, and how to make a good Breton galette.)

For those of you who are not natural-born francophones, if you don't mind polishing off your rotten high school French, Patrick Molard has some wonderful descriptions, photos, and videos of his Blanchet sets on his website.

http://www.patrickmolard.com/actuali...s-instruments/

You can also hear Patrick's Donald MacDonald set on his avant-garde piobaireachd album "Light & Shade." Note however that he plays a Hamish Moore A440 chanter in order to play with other musicians on the album. The drones sound extraordinary in any case. It may have something to do with his brother Jacky's production work, but on every album I've heard of Patrick's, his drones always sound superbly rich--often much more so than on other solo piping recordings in my opinion.

[Alain Marion]

The piper who can be heard in the recordings available through this thread is my good friend Yves Tison from Lassay-sur-Croisne (Sologne region, France).

Yves was playing his original Alexander Glen bagpipe. He also makes his own (excellent...) drone and chanter reeds under the name of "McTy".

Here is a picture of Yves playing his Glen pipes when the recordings were made:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/yy4y6o35ag...pipes.JPG?dl=0

and one of his instrument (which is made of ebony if I remember correctly):

https://www.dropbox.com/s/6f9iaynu7l...gpipe.jpg?dl=0



Super bon son Yves, comme toujours!

Alain

[DNorwood]

My goodness - that was beautiful!!


Thank you for the soundfiles and this thread.

[McTy]

Thanks very much for your comments.


The aim to get the sound heard two centuries ago is to make the good reeds they made at that time, so when cane from Spain or south France was not provided enough they used local material like Elderberry stems.
The sound obtained is really fabtastic full of harmonics especially for the bass drone.
Of course a chanter reed with a staple of one inch long is the answer to sound again vintage chanter.
Nowadays nobody dare to play old sets with old chanters using strange reeds but when done, sound obtain is certainly close to MacCrimmon's era.

[McTy]

And many thanks to my friend Alain MARION who recognised me playing into my local church.
The sound was recorded onto a TASCAM STEREO NUMERIC recorder.


To compare old sound and actual pitch used nowadays I will post a tune taken the same day with the same pipes (A.Glen 1847) but with a wooden KRON chanter pitched at A448.

[will103]

Originally Posted by McTy

Thanks very much for your comments.

Of course a chanter reed with a staple of one inch long is the answer to sound again vintage chanter.

Hi, I am trying to get a mid 19th century pipe chanter going, but I am struggling with modern reeds. Do you make reeds with a longer staple yourself? If so I would be very interested. Ta will

[Glenurquhart]

Originally Posted by will103

Hi, I am trying to get a mid 19th century pipe chanter going, but I am struggling with modern reeds. Do you make reeds with a longer staple yourself? If so I would be very interested. Ta will

Who is the maker of your chanter? I havee encountered this problem any times and it varies a lot depending on the maker, the vintage and the intended pitch and scale of the chanter.

[Glenurquhart]

Originally Posted by Graineag

Yes, I'm very happy to see this thread revived.

If I ever won the lottery, one of the first things I'd do is track down Pierre Blanchet and order a set of his Donald MacDonald reproductions. (Of course, seeing as how I'd won the lottery, I'd probably also buy a charming old Breton farmhouse and spend the rest of my life playing for festoù-noz and studying reedmaking, piobaireachd, and how to make a good Breton galette.)

For those of you who are not natural-born francophones, if you don't mind polishing off your rotten high school French, Patrick Molard has some wonderful descriptions, photos, and videos of his Blanchet sets on his website.

http://www.patrickmolard.com/actuali...s-instruments/

You can also hear Patrick's Donald MacDonald set on his avant-garde piobaireachd album "Light & Shade." Note however that he plays a Hamish Moore A440 chanter in order to play with other musicians on the album. The drones sound extraordinary in any case. It may have something to do with his brother Jacky's production work, but on every album I've heard of Patrick's, his drones always sound superbly rich--often much more so than on other solo piping recordings in my opinion.

Pierre was allowed to make only four reproductions of the NMS MacDonald set, one of these four being Patrick's pipe. He has made reproductions of two other MacDonald pipes, both from my collection: the first sounds almost exactly like the NMS reproduction set, the second has just been completed and has not yet been set up though the first sound tests seem to be extremely successful; the original pipe is very similar to the "Kron" MacDonald set and was probably made in the 1830's, unlike the two other pipes which can be attributed to the early 1800's. I have not yet seen pictures of Pierre's new creation made from black Chacate wood and billiard ball ivory.

[BGP]

Originally Posted by Glenurquhart

Pierre was allowed to make only four reproductions of the NMS MacDonald set, one of these four being Patrick's pipe. He has made reproductions of two other MacDonald pipes, both from my collection: the first sounds almost exactly like the NMS reproduction set, the second has just been completed and has not yet been set up though the first sound tests seem to be extremely successful; the original pipe is very similar to the "Kron" MacDonald set and was probably made in the 1830's, unlike the two other pipes which can be attributed to the early 1800's. I have not yet seen pictures of Pierre's new creation made from black Chacate wood and billiard ball ivory.

What do you mean only "allowed" to make 4?

[Glenurquhart]

Originally Posted by BGP

What do you mean only "allowed" to make 4?

At the time when Pierre measured the MacDonald pipes in the NMS the NMS restricted the number of reproductions to four sets. However, ex-curator Hugh Cheape cannot remember any such restriction, but Pierre insists that he was not allowed to make more though he still makes reproductions of the chanter. This being said his second MacDonald reproduction (the subject of this thread) has the same tonal properties and is similar in style. I have a record of Patrick Molard and Pierre Blanchet striking in and playing both sets of drones. They are tonally virtually undistinguishable.