by Tim Rolls » Tue Sep 17, 2013 5:50 pm
I'm working at the same level as Richard Heard, I have little theoretical knowledge, mainly gleaned from the generous souls around who have more, and precious little practical experience. So far I've turned a piece of ready bored blackwood to a 7 key outline, and wanting to run before I can walk I thought I'd look at hole positions. I had a look at Mike's site, his dimensions are for an F chanter, and I'm looking for F'n'a bit. I measured the Burleigh chanter I have, and as expected, the holes are closer up than the F one. I measured up the holes on another chanter by a different maker, Henry Knox of Shilbottle, and there are small but noticeable differences. Cox and Bryan, the copy I have, isn't 1:1 so I'll need to get the calculator out. The C & B on the NPS website has dimensions indicated on the Dunn chanter, which is 5/32 bore, and whilst different, they're not consistently different. Measurements tend to be from the shoulder, but the shoulder may not bear any particular relationship to the position of the reed, Mike appears to show a parallel reed socket, my burleigh set is conical. Hole distances are given to the centre of the holes, but many holes are elliptical, and undercut. Is it the topmost edge of the hole that determines the pitch, or the internal break in the tube which undercutting suggests it is?
I seem to remember that, I think, Malcolm Sergeant did some work comparing hole positions.
Discuss.