W&D
I'm now totally confused - as a beginner and asking people about tuning, the stock answer seems to be -"oh its somewhere about 20cents sharp of F".
Having just read your linked passage has confused me even more! - thats not difficult to do!. It reads;-
"There was a time when the pipes were tuned this way" (i.e. to the drones) "and the normal pitch of a g note was set at some indeterminate amount above concert f (usually a bit under a semitone sharp of f).
Nowadays the standard pitch set plays a g note exactly a tone below concert g thus sounding a standard f note". So is it concert pitched F or is it F+20cents?
My own set (2012) I'm fairly sure are F+20cents but if you are saying that there are pipes out there playing at F+20cents and others playing at F its no wonder that a large group sounds horribly out of tune!
If I had all the information I've gleaned from my involvement with northumbrian pipes over the last few years (not many) I would not have bought my current set and instead opted for a Concert pitched G fully chromatic set. Anybody up for an exchange?.
Its really quite sad that the makers and professionals can't get together and bring the NSP into the 21st centuary by standardising the pitch of these things. Perhaps a recall to retune!!.
Its no surprise that the popularity of the instrument seems to have fluctuated over the years - resigning the instrument to a life in the F+20cents league is one of isolation which can't be great!.
All in all the message I seem to be getting here is when it comes to pitch, there are lots of singers all with different hymn sheets!
So what was the point of this fantastically accurate chart again?.
W&D