Bass drone volume on smallpipes

[Ray Sloan]

Originally Posted by replicant

I've seem to have always had the issue with tuning my bass drone when I have them in the standard "A" configuration w/my A chanter. Not sure if it's my ears just unable to register it, or if the volume is too low, or maybe a bit of both?

When playing my D chanter I have no issues tuning the "D" drones, and when tuning my drones to "B" to my A chanter I have no issues tuning them either.

But when I'm doing a standard Tenor A, Bass A to my A chanter I can just "feel" that the darn thing is out of tune! This is actually an issue w/both my mouth blown and bellows blown pipes made by two separate makers .. It's a 50/50 shot for me it seems, and normally just religates me to playing my D pipes.

Anyone else have this issue or have any suggestions? I'm at a loss!

You should not really be having this problem. I do not see this as anything to do with 'tuning' methods or drone configuration or anything like that. I would say that it is quite simply either your Bass drone bores are too small or you have a reed problem.

One thing you can check, just to be sure, is that the drone bottom (standing part) is orientated in the stock so that the tongue of the reed is facing the middle of the drone stock. If it is facing the wall of the stock its performance could suffer through the proximity of the vibrating tongue to the stock wall.

[Bill Adam]

Originally Posted by Ray Sloan

One thing you can check, just to be sure, is that the drone bottom (standing part) is orientated in the stock so that the tongue of the reed is facing the middle of the drone stock. If it is facing the wall of the stock its performance could suffer through the proximity of the vibrating tongue to the stock wall.

That is something I haven't considered with my set. I bought it used and have been making some adjustments with the reeds. I'll have to experiment with this tonight. It makes sense but I'm not sure how much of a difference there would be.

[Ray Sloan]

Originally Posted by Bill Adam

That is something I haven't considered with my set. I bought it used and have been making some adjustments with the reeds. I'll have to experiment with this tonight. It makes sense but I'm not sure how much of a difference there would be.

It's probably not the problem........but it's worth checking simple stuff like that first, then that ruled out you can get to grip with what the real problem might be.

[Bill Adam]

Originally Posted by Ray Sloan

It's probably not the problem........but it's worth checking simple stuff like that first, then that ruled out you can get to grip with what the real problem might be.

I wasn't the one who posted the problem. I just this comment seems to make sense and something I might try to see if it does make a difference.

[Tedley]

I have made a number of cane drone reeds for SSP. NSP, BP and UP. Some tupperware bass reeds are more quiet than rhe others in many typrs of pipes. I have often found greater volume in the bass drone by using cane reeds.

[replicant]

Thanks for the suggestions folks, tuning the bass drone 1st has helped with the issue a ton, forget who suggested that ;-) Seems like an obvious solution to the issue.

Also gonna verify that the tongue is facing towards middle via Ray's comment ..

I guess that's my Highland training kicking in when it doesn't need to be, tune the tenor 1st ..

[Nate Banton]

Sitting next to a wall helps. The sound bounces back. (what I do in a noisy room).

[bob864]

I find it hard to hear too. I tune the drones individually to A using the chanter E to get them all in the same neighborhood first.

[John Dally]

Interesting comments above. In my experience it's best to tune the tenor(s) first--I never have had a problem hearing them. Then I tune the bass. And then I tune both or all three to the chanter again. The final tuning, imho, has to be done with all drones and chanter going at the same time. Playing a 'd' rather than an 'e' helps me locate where the variance is, because you can hear the beats better.

I have heard extremely quiet drones with what is imho thin and poor tone on some of the other wee pipes (not EJ's) sold these days. These pipes not only sound like kazoos but are very difficult to tune and blow, mostly because the PC-like reeds used in the drones are inefficient and appear to be made with something other than quality tone in mind. Of course, ymmv.

Speaking of beats, I just took delivery of a beautiful new set of silver and buffalo horn mounted SSP drones in A from Ray. This set has two tenors, as opposed to the tenor, baritone, bass set up you usually see. (I rarely used the baritone on my other sets.) But what really sold me was the shimmering tone of another set with two tenors made by Ray that belongs to a friend of mine. If you have ever heard a double chanter you know what I'm talking about. Two tenors give the same kind of tone, which shimmers like a small creek. There are three sets of Ray's pipes in this configuration among our friends here now and they all have this beautiful tone quality. Sometimes I tune one tenor ever so slightly off the other (heresy to Highland pipers, I know) which enhances the shimmering. There is a very fine line between "enhanced shimmer" and "out of tune."

[Klondike Waldo]

John, very expensive piano accordions have a setting for that "shimmering" sound, called, I believe, "wet." If you have a sound editing program, you can add in the effect as "chorusing"