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Uilleann Pipe Drone Resonator
Uilleann Pipe Drone Resonator
As part of my regular work and continued research, I spend a lot of time browsing pictures and information on musical instruments, especially variations and unique examples. This not only helps to build my knowledge base, but has largely served to help develop my sense of aesthetic and personal style, as well as how I approach different aspects of my work.
One of my particular fascinations is the Uilleann pipes. There is a lot of room for variation in bagpipe instruments, including material, design of the turned components, configuration (number of drones, etc) and other stylistic and ergonomic designs. My set of concert pitch Uilleann pipes (key of D) were made, by my request, with a resonator on the bass drone. This is essenitally a hollow circular box with a hole in the center of one of the cicular ends, and a hole on the side to connect it to the end of the open drone pipe. The "function" is to influence the tone of the bass drone, although it is debated how much this actually audibly occurs in the sense that it is an "improvement" or a listener can tell any difference when all drones and chanter (and regulators) are played. True enough then, the resonator (also casually called a "puck" by players, due to its resemblance to a hockey puck) is largely a stylistic choice of the maker, and for many a hallmark of the Uilleann pipe's construction style.
After looking at (and collecting a photo archive of) many different modern and historical sets of pipes, it struck me that most of them have relativly plain drone resonators, save for a faceing of particularly pretty wood, or a few concentric circles carved in or glued on. It seemed to me that the face of the resonator would be an ideal place for some tasteful artwork, perhaps making use of the hole in the center. I spoke with my friend Kelly, a very tallented tattoo artist, about an idea I had for art on a custom resonator. She did a few sketches for me, and after discussing the design, I set about making a resonator I could send her to paint.
My design idea was inspired by woodcuts of old depicting storm clouds as the face of an angry, bearded old man puffing out his cheeks to blow a gale, and by the German "smoking men" figures. Kelly did a masterful job reconciling my ideas, and an absolutely stunning job on the painting work itself.
The finished artwork came out so well, that I asked Kelly if I could use it as a logo for my work, and she generously agreed. The "man" was named Wolfgang by one of my piper friends John, as a reference/joke to chef Wolfgang Puck...
This gallery shows the making of the drone resonator "puck" itself. It was a fun little project, and something that I feel a semi-handy piper could easily do to add a little unique personalization to their instrument. More pictures of the complete instrument can be seen in the "instruments" page of the site.
As part of my regular work and continued research, I spend a lot of time browsing pictures and information on musical instruments, especially variations and unique examples. This not only helps to build my knowledge base, but has largely served to help develop my sense of aesthetic and personal style, as well as how I approach different aspects of my work.
One of my particular fascinations is the Uilleann pipes. There is a lot of room for variation in bagpipe instruments, including material, design of the turned components, configuration (number of drones, etc) and other stylistic and ergonomic designs. My set of concert pitch Uilleann pipes (key of D) were made, by my request, with a resonator on the bass drone. This is essenitally a hollow circular box with a hole in the center of one of the cicular ends, and a hole on the side to connect it to the end of the open drone pipe. The "function" is to influence the tone of the bass drone, although it is debated how much this actually audibly occurs in the sense that it is an "improvement" or a listener can tell any difference when all drones and chanter (and regulators) are played. True enough then, the resonator (also casually called a "puck" by players, due to its resemblance to a hockey puck) is largely a stylistic choice of the maker, and for many a hallmark of the Uilleann pipe's construction style.
After looking at (and collecting a photo archive of) many different modern and historical sets of pipes, it struck me that most of them have relativly plain drone resonators, save for a faceing of particularly pretty wood, or a few concentric circles carved in or glued on. It seemed to me that the face of the resonator would be an ideal place for some tasteful artwork, perhaps making use of the hole in the center. I spoke with my friend Kelly, a very tallented tattoo artist, about an idea I had for art on a custom resonator. She did a few sketches for me, and after discussing the design, I set about making a resonator I could send her to paint.
My design idea was inspired by woodcuts of old depicting storm clouds as the face of an angry, bearded old man puffing out his cheeks to blow a gale, and by the German "smoking men" figures. Kelly did a masterful job reconciling my ideas, and an absolutely stunning job on the painting work itself.
The finished artwork came out so well, that I asked Kelly if I could use it as a logo for my work, and she generously agreed. The "man" was named Wolfgang by one of my piper friends John, as a reference/joke to chef Wolfgang Puck...
This gallery shows the making of the drone resonator "puck" itself. It was a fun little project, and something that I feel a semi-handy piper could easily do to add a little unique personalization to their instrument. More pictures of the complete instrument can be seen in the "instruments" page of the site.
Click picture for more detail
Click picture for more detail