Obsessed
People have asked me how I learned to make pipes and I think the best answer is I became obsessed with the idea years ago. The information to make reeds, bags, pipes, all that stuff is out there just like the information to become a good player is out there. It’s not that hard to find good instruction if you’re serious and ready to work and I’d say the same for making the pipes. I took a day off yesterday and decided I’d work on the Hummelchen inspired pipe on my spare time, you know, for fun. I just finished it tonight at about 3:30 AM and I took a ton of pictures which might be up later. Truth be told I can’t find the usb interface for the camera and it’s too late to look anymore so I took a quick picture with the computer camera. Now this is not a historically accurate thing or if it is it was an accident. I used the hole spacing and reed idea from that instrument I worked on in Cincinnati. For the outside turning I did what I think they did in Medieval Germany….I made it up, screwed around, and just turned it like I thought would look cool given the time I had. I finished a practice chanter today too for a friend in Maryland. Tomorrow I’ll start on a set of C smallpipes that I’m psyched about out of Cocobolo with Olive mounts and only three drones.The playing on the Osage Orange set continues and I still need to make a drone switch for the Blackwood set.