border/smallpipe tuning...

[ChrisCracknell]

Firstly, let me say that I can get the pipes in tune with themselves and play them. I follow the following steps:
1. Tune one drone to chanter low A. Make sure chanter is playing an octave at the chosen pressure, either adjust the pressure or move the reed.

2. Once I have the chanter playing an octave and the tenor drone playing the A in tune with it all at one pressure, I tune the other drones to the chanter and tuned drone. Using a "third hand" as necessary to make sure the low A is exactly right.
(all of the above done by ear...)

However, I decide to play with some friends, including a fixed tuning instrument (Keyboard and/or accordeon) and I need to get into tune with them. Now the tools at my disposal are:

1. Opening/closing chanter reed using bridle.
2. Moving chanter reed in seat.
3. Changing playing pressure within limits.
4. Modifying the reed. This I do not want to do, since the reed is new and has come from the maker as a result of a specific request for a reed that plays in his chanter at 440 Hz.

What would be the appropriate sequence to get the pipes setup in tune at the desired pitch, assuming I have a steady A tone of the desired pitch to work with as a reference?
For the sake of argument, lets assume I am using the border pipes.

Alternatively, does anyone know a border pipe player within easy reach of Hamburg who might be able to help me?

Chris.

[pancelticpiper]

So your borderpipes are not playing at A=440?

Are they sharp or flat?

[ChrisCracknell]

Sharp
About 20 cents or so is the closest I seem to be able to get them.

[elbowmusic]

Might be helpful to know the maker of the pipes. But I'd suggest that if pulling the reed out doesn't do the trick, you're probably going to need to open the reed a hair using the bridle.

[pancelticpiper]

Wow, 20 cents sharp is a lot.

With most bagpipes, and I'm guessing it would work with yours, to flatten off a chanter you have a number of strategies:

-raise the reed in the reed seat until the upper-hand notes are at the new target pitch. You'll probably find that the lower-hand notes are still too sharp. These will have to be lowered one-by-one with some tape at the upper edge of each tonehole. This happens because raising the reed in the reed seat doesn't flatten all notes of the scale equally. Rather the closer the tonehole is to the reed seat the more that note is affected by the moving of the reed up and down.

-open the reed up. It will play flatter overall but also louder and harder to blow.

-shove a "rush" up the chanter bore. A long pipe-cleaner will work. This will flatten all the notes because it makes the chanter play as if it had a narrower bore. This will probably have a greater effect higher up the chanter, because the Border Pipes have a conical chanter, which gets narrower as it goes up, and the pipe cleaner's diameter therefore becomes larger in relation to the chanter bore diameter the higher up the bore you go.

-if the reed has a moveable bridle (which Border Pipe reeds usually do not) you can move the bridle further down, closer to the staple end of the reed. Like opening up the blades of the reed, this not only makes the reed play flatter but also stronger and louder.

[ChrisCracknell]

Progress...

Getting into tune with A.N.Other instrument - I can now do this with the smallpipes. The sequence I use is this:

1. Play chanter (with drones turned off) to tuning note (A3 on my metronome's tone generator playing as loud as it can...) to get low A in right place - remember this pressure. This work much better for me with A3 than with A4.
2. Tune tenor drone to chanter low A while reference note is sounding and keeping chanter and reference in tune.
3. Check the high A is in tune at this pressure playing it against the drone and the reference tone (I find I need both the drone and the reference tone going to make sure I don't correct the note with bag pressure...) and correct by moving the reed if necessary. Go back to #1 if I have moved the reed.
3. At the same pressure add the bass drone - in my case strangling the chanter off while doing so since I cannot hear the bass so precisely when the chanter is sounding.
4. Play the lot together with the reference tone for a last check.
5. And off i go... (Probably leaving the baritone drone turned off.)

Tuning the other notes in between may come some day, but they all sound pretty good to me right now. Until the accordion player joins in that is...

Now, how do I persuade the other people in my session to hold a clean loud reference tone that long? (Naturally, the more often I do this, the closer I can start each time.)

Anything the experts out there would change with this sequence?

Now, next step doing the same with the border pipes...

(Still interested in borderpipe players within reach of Hamburg.)