SESSION PIPE NOTES

Garvie Bagpipes
Edinburgh

www.borderpipes.co.uk
Nigel Richard

email
garviebagpipes@zetnet.co.uk

Background notes:

For many years I have been thinking about how to make a low volume low pressure Highland bagpipe that could be used with other instruments by pipers who didn't wish to go the smallpipe/border pipe route involving bellows.

In order to keep the characteristic tone of the GHB a cane reed would be necessary, but the thinner cane blades of a lower volume/pressure chanter reed would be liable to deteriorate at a more rapid rate than the more robust Highland pipe chanter reed. It was clear that this would make it impractical to produce a set of pipes with this sort of reed because it would have to be replaced far too often.

A year ago I set out to find a system to protect the reed from the excess moisture. I decided not to use the Ross canister system for this particular type of bagpipe (good as many feel it to be for GHB) because of the build up of moisture (and various potentially harmful particles) within the bag itself. I looked at a number of other "water trap" designs, and felt that they also didn't really fit the bill.

One main consideration here was that I wanted the humidity control system to be swiftly removable and replaceable without having to unzip the bag, also the bag itself should be of a material that required no seasoning to avoid clogging up this system. The one I devised incorporates some ideas already around such as the desiccant canister, but uses them in a different way.

This system would be difficult to use in GHB because the additional restriction caused by blowing through the canister before the air enters the main body of the bag would add to the playing pressure of the Highland pipes making them quite taxing to play. The thin reed needs the protection, and this particular type of system is only practical with a thin (low pressure) reed, the two are linked together.

In looking at the specifications of the sort of pipes we might want, we made measurements of three other types of Highland pipes. These were not scientific laboratory tests, but the results give a clear picture of the differences between the pipes.

These readings were for comparison only. The instruments chosen were fairly typical, but there is a range of pipes available within each group.

Pressure, particularly, will vary within limits depending on the chanter reed strength. Loudness was measured in a room from a distance of four metres. The chanter end measurement is only broadly indicative of the different chanter bore tapers.

The half-size pipes were a fine set of MacDougall's; they were one of the first to advertise 'Half-size or Reel pipes' in the 19 century. The three-quarter size pipes were both Hardie's. All of these pipes were kindly lent to us by their owners.

When we first described our new pipes to pipers some said "you mean like half-size / reel pipes or three-quarter size pipes?" - we had to explain the difference. There is a difference in the volume, the pressure, the internal profiles, the standard pitch, the available notes (the session pipe chanter is chromatic by cross fingering), and the humidity control system.

The pipemaker who is completely satisfied would be like the piper who thought he had played all his tunes as well as he ever wanted to. There will still be plenty of things to learn about these new pipes, and some fine tuning particularly regarding the best maintenance procedure for different climates is bound to take place. However we are confident, after nine months of testing and adjustment, that the system is sound.

Also the sound itself has exceeded our expectations in its timbre and potential for expressive playing. Further research and development can only enhance what we believe is already an excellent musical instrument.

Nigel Richard, 2003

(patent pending)

Fingering chart.

Session pipes (in Blackwood) - click on image for more detailed version