Chiff and Fipple Forums

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You might have to assassinate the present owner...

And once you have it, I'll be hunting for you until another comes for me...it's a vicious cycle.

Why can't we just focus on a more humane way? Live Piper trapping!!!

You could use synthetic drone reeds as bait. And afterwards you can always release into the wilds of any local pub.

BadPiper wrote:Does anybody know where I might find a full set in D by Cillian O'Brian. Thanks

Did you try Cillian O’Briain’s workshop?

Yup. Probably very, very unlikely. His sets come up for sale once every other blue moon and as far as I'm aware he's not taking orders for any new sets, nor will he be any time soon.

He has been pretty good, as far as pipemakers go, in "sharing the love", so to speak, design-wise. Both Mickey Dunne and Gordon Galloway have drawn from his work and adapted it into their own. I've tried both Ó Bríain and Dunne reeds in my Galloway chanter, and they worked pretty well...If that's the sound and the look that you're after, I'd try contacting either Mickey Dunne or Gordon Galloway.

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As far as I know, no-one else is making the "buckle" style keys Cillian made. He did publish good information about their construction in the Pipers' Review, but I think the main issue is that they are very labor intensive and so unattractive to most makers/customers.

On the topic of Cillian-derived designs, I am also happy to give a plug for Andy Faden's work - the Faden chanters I've seen have been very nice. I don't know what Andy's timetable/plans for regulators looks like - it is always possible that he could be talked into making some Cillian-style regulator keys (and I expect that Cillian would be happy to facilitate the use of the molds used to cast his buckle keys, etc.)

good luck,

Bill

The difficulty of fabricating "buckle--style" regs is obvious So what are their benefits? Ease of use while playing? Durability?

I think that one of the main advantages is that it allows the piper to slide down the regs (eg. going from A to G on the bass reg without raising your hand - sort of open style reg playing ).

Most sets allow you to slide up a rank of keys, but not down. The touch on COB's regs is angled downwards which allows for sliding back.

Buckle keys share another advantage with other key systems such as Taylor-style regs which have a "wide wheelbase", as it were; there are two pivots set far apart, which resists side-to-side play in the key. They also have a rather short "throw", that is, the distance traveled when activating them is short. Lastly they permit wide, plectrum-shaped springs, which give a really nice feel to the action (I think this last point may be the one Cillian likes most about them).

Disadvantages (besides labor-intensiveness) include the need, at least with Cillian's original design, for the regulator bodies to be clad with metal (the pivots are attached to the metal sleeves which cover the bodies of all but the bass reg - if memory serves). This presents some difficulties with aligning a nice seat for the key pad with the metal bits. If one tries to seal the keys against the metal then serious problems with leaks arise (this has been a problem with the various fully-clad regulator designs used over the years, for instance I think it was a problem with the Felix Doran "silver set").

The Taylors dealt with this issue by dovetailing brackets into wooden reg bodies, which held the key pin - again, labor-intensive. Some Taylor derivitives dealt with this by using a sort of "U-channel" shaped metal bit in place of the dovetailing, which greatly simplifies the attachment problem... I think Gordon Galloway is doing something a bit like this with his recently debuted reg design (if I were less lazy I'd hunt for the old thread and look closely at the photos again )

The metal cladding is the thing that most deters me from trying the buckles. With an alternative attachment technique for the buckle pivots, I might give them a go...

Bill

billh wrote:...(if I were less lazy I'd hunt for the old thread and look closely at the photos again )

If I were less bored, I probably wouldn't bother hunting for old threads

http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php ... start=1575

Hi PJ

Just beat me to it lol.

The one example of Galloway regs I have seen, looked and sounded lovely IMO.

David

Bill is right that nobody else seems to be doing Cillian's reg design. My reference to Mickey and Gordon's work being in a similar vein had more to do with the playing characteristics of the chanter seeming similar to me.

One person that I'm surprised hasn't gotten into the pipemaking racket is Cillian's old assistant, Maurice Reviol. He currently lives in NZ and mostly makes flutes, but it appears that he's now making low whistles in the style of the ones that Cillian used to make. I think he churned out a few sets of pipes under Cillian's direction--there's a pic somewhere on Pat D'Arcy's page of Mick O'Brien playing one of Maurice's full sets with the Ó Bríain-style regs.

The design certainly has its advantages and disadvantages. Before the dollar began to tank and I was still considering ordering regs from Cillian, I talked about the design with him a bit. Apparently, he won't do them in boxwood. One of the first sets he made with that design was in boxwood and bad things happened. I'd be a little bit uneasy about the long-term effects of encasing wood with that much metal, but damn, they sure do look (and sound) amazing...

The Sporting Pitchfork wrote: I think he churned out a few sets of pipes under Cillian's direction--there's a pic somewhere on Pat D'Arcy's page of Mick O'Brien playing one of Maurice's full sets with the Ó Bríain-style regs.

"Mick and Niall Lyons in the class at Fitzgerald's house. Handy enough as this just so happened to be the B&B I was staying at aswell! In this shot Mick is playing a set made by an apprentice to Cillian O'Briain whose name escapes me (tell me and I'll correct this). The set belongs to a fellow student in the class, Elvin Moynagh from Dublin."
I think this is the one...