Norden Folk's Domain

texasbagpiper · Joined: 24 Oct 2006 Posts: 201 Location: Texas

It must be the flash on the camera that lightens the resin. It actually comes out of the mold looking like ivory, but picture makes it look almost white. I would like to make a casting with some darker swirls, amber or brown in it, but that will come with experimenting. Cheers, Seth

texasbagpiper · Joined: 24 Oct 2006 Posts: 201 Location: Texas

The first sets are being put together today. I will post pictures as soon as they are ready. Seth

texasbagpiper · Joined: 24 Oct 2006 Posts: 201 Location: Texas

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hm6Vh8OJqZE

I made a recording of the pipes with my digital camera so you can get an idea of how these pipes sound. They don't sound any different than my wooden pipes. I do need to get some professional sounding recordings done so the true sound of these pipes can be heard. Any yes, I do need to work on my playing. I spend so much time making, I don't get to play as much as I would like and that's on top of the fact that the Scandinavian tunes are more difficult for me to play, compared to what I'm used to: Traditional Irish and Scottish tunes.

texasbagpiper · Joined: 24 Oct 2006 Posts: 201 Location: Texas

favrepipes · Joined: 26 Oct 2006 Posts: 43 Location: Vancouver

That was a great idea to make resin sets, Seth. It will make pipes much more accessible to people on a budget. Was it easy to get a nice fit for the tenons?
_________________
www.myspace.com/pastichefolknouveau

texasbagpiper · Joined: 24 Oct 2006 Posts: 201 Location: Texas

Tex · Joined: 28 Oct 2006 Posts: 87 Location: Syracuse, New York

Hi Seth, just wanted to let you know I have been using the resin chanter A/E you sent me a while ago. I want to say that there is little difference between my wood chanter and the resin chanter. I do feel like the resin chanter is a little brighter but, that could be in my head. One thing I really noticed about the resin chanter is that it vibrates at the sound holes. When I play the wood chanter I feel air coming out of the sound holes but, no vibration. When I switch to the resin chanter I feel a very noticeable vibration at the sounds. Overall the resin seems to work fine and if resin molded pipes are cheap to build and a buyer wanted to a cheaper alternative you would have some thing to offer. Good job.
_________________
Luck follows the generous.

texasbagpiper · Joined: 24 Oct 2006 Posts: 201 Location: Texas

Hey Tex, I hadn't noticed what your talking about but it may be too subtle for me to notice. I wonder if your reed is harmonizing with the resin trolls that live under the tone hole bridge resulting in a free minature finger massage, lol. Seth

Tex · Joined: 28 Oct 2006 Posts: 87 Location: Syracuse, New York

I'll be sure to check under the 'tone hole bridge' for trolls, thanks for the tip. Should I use a hammer or a torch?
_________________
Luck follows the generous.

MatthewVanitas · Joined: 01 Mar 2010 Posts: 5

I've been messing with my cast sackpipa for about a week now, and overall really pleased. I'm still getting used to reed tweaking, and I think I'm going to have to use some tape to adjust the octave back-hole which is always just a little off (unless there's a reed tweak for that). Got most of the rest of the chanter in-tune to itself without tape/wax so far. The leading tone is rather soft compared to the other notes, so not totally sure what the story is there, but still getting used to a lot of this.

I have only really basic piping experience from before this, mainly mucking around with some PC-based Practice Pipes, and an old Lerwick Zetland set. But I'm finding these sackpipa really easy to use. Having very little trouble maintaining even breath pressure, and can get a good 5-10sec of play out of the little bag even after I stop blowing.

I did untape C# hole so I can play Amaj, so I've mainly been playing Anglo-world tunes, either in Amaj or E myxolydian. As a minor critique (and this maybe matters little to other than me), it'd be nice if there were a little more tuning slide (that is, further down) so I could cinch the drone all the way to F# in order to play in F# minor (Aeolian).

The only Swedish tune I know so far is one dimly-recalled of a Vasen album, but once I get fully up and tuned I'll look up more Scandinavian tunes on Olle's site.

As a tinwhistle player, I'm still using purely open fingering on this chanter, though I'm not noticing any pitch difference, and very little tone difference, when I play left hand notes with the right hand closed. Will have to experiment with that more. Also finding out, contrary to my expectations, that I can get some decent pitch shadings with partial holing, as well as some neat glides, so I'll work with that more too.

I'm not really coming into this from a Swedish background (though I do want to learn some of the popular folk tunes), but mainly just trying to see what variety I can get out of a very simple and mellow-sounding bagpipe.

Major props to Seth for coming up with this clever way to get more affordable student sets out there. I'm working up some plans to maybe put some banner ads on some websites, and maybe do a little bit of local busking with these pipes (or even just practice them out in the park) to get some more visibility for the instrument.