photos by Don Martin
photos by Don Martin
The first time I met Chris Mullinder was at a gathering in Pretoria, South Africa, at the end of March, 1984. It was on a Saturday of an unseasonably cold and wet South African weekend. I had decided to begin bagpiping again after a respite of almost nine years, and I had accompanied my teacher, John Farmer, to meet other pipers and perhaps to find a pipeband that needed an extra player.
Having seen my bassoon reed making equipment, John was quite keen on my meeting Chris, who also acted as the local reedmaker, in order to possibly exchange some information which could benefit the piping world. Chris, a tall chap with a great sense of humour and quick laugh, agreed to the idea of getting together to have a look at my myriad of tools and appliances the following week. He was especially interested in seeing how "The Profiler" worked.
On the following Friday, I arrived at the Piper's Training Center, tools in tow, ready to do some experimenting. Chris greeted me with his usual grand smile and newest joke, and took me back to his workshop, where, as in any other reedmaker's area, there were tubes of cane, machines, instruments of every sort, dowels, and other objects relating to piping - bits of leather, pieces of drones, chanters, all strewn with bright yellow hemp!
Chris explained that he had been playing the bagpipe since 12 years of age, and he opened the Center in November of 1976, mainly as a place for instruction. Over the years, however, he saw reasons to branch out into the sale of Scottish materials such as tartan fabric, piping music, chanters, blets, clothing, reeds and pipe bags.
Because orders for reeds took such a long time to be filled from Scotland, Chris started making his own drone and chanter reeds. The drone reed is a tube of cane, about 8-10 mm across, which is split in such a way so that it has a single, beating tongue. The pitch of the drones, "A" for the bass and "a" for the two tenors, is matched to the "a" of the pipe chanter. Drone reeds were easily mastered by Chris but the chanter reed seemed to need more experimentation.
Chris has been working on his own style of chanter reed off and on for close to 8 years. Chanter reeds ordered from specific houses in Scotland seemed to work best in their particular chanter. Additionally, reeds constructed in humid Scotland weren't made with sunny, dry South African weather in mind, especially in Johannesburg, which is the highest city in the country, at 5700' above sea level. If he could make a good, consistent chanter reed, Chris knew that he'd have more control over his situation in Jo'Burg and not be reliant on the overseas suppliers.
As we began to work, I first asked Chris to show me how he made a reed. Pipe chanter reeds look very similar to bassoon reeds yet are smaller, thicker, and use a staple like the oboe.
Taking a piece of cane out of water, Chris shaped it first. The next step was to take wood off for the blades. The step for which we would make use of the profiler. Imagine my surprise as Chris used a chisel to form the blades! Certainly, pipe reeds need not be as finely sculpted as bassoon reeds, but how on earth could a degree of consistency be achieved? (I must mention at this time, that Chris had also mastered this "Chisel Art" because his reeds were already excellent!) He then proceeded to bend the shaped and "profiled" cane in half, insert the staple and wrap the lower bottom with tar covered hemp.
[click to enlarge]
We then went to work with the profiler and tried making a pipe chanter reed with a piece of my bassoon cane. It made a reed, but the gouge was much too thin and the blades tended to collapse while playing. The cane Chris uses for chanter reeds is thick and looks like this:
Experimenting further, Chris taped a piece of soaked pipe cane onto the barrel of profiler. The cane pieces were too small to enable the clamps to cover the ends. (I have a Pfeifer profiler with a Skinner template.) After profiling, shaping and wrapping, he cut the tip and said with expectancy; "Well, let's see how it works..." He popped it onto the chanter, played the scale, tried a few pipe figures, then broke into a few quick tunes. The next few moments were ones of total rapture and complete happiness as he exclaimed: "It works! It works!" The profiler, with the addition of the Skinner template, had enabled him to make a workable reed for the bagpipe chanter - and he could make countless more with the same consistent result! Ahhh... the sheer joy of having a good reed is a feeling with which all bassoonists are acquainted.
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Chris made a few dozen reeds that day for his pipe band, the South African Irish regiment, of which he is pipe major, to perform with that evening at the Rand Show. (The Rand Show is comparable to a huge "State Fair" in the USA). When I saw him, his comments were joyous. The reeds made with the profiler were "... not hard to blow with a true pitch and sound that I'm very much pleased with."
Today, Chris has a Pfeifer profiler with the Skinner template of his own. "What I like about the profiler is that it is a consistent device. It turns out blades the same way every time and if you want to make a lot of reeds, you know that you're working with a known quantity. If I want to make a change, I can adjust the profiler and the reeds will all be the same. Now I can make fine changes and experiment for further perfection. "
Pipers in South Africa can all breathe easier, that's for sure!
Chris is very interested in any response to this article - questions, ideas, cane samples for him to try. You can write him at:
Mr Chris Mullinder
Piper's Training Centre
210 Louis Botha Avenue
Orange Grove
Johannesburg 2191 South Africa
About the writer...
Tracy McGinnis is an American bassoonist playing in the South Africa Broadcasting Corporation's National Symphony Orchestra. Her article on the life of a bassoonist in South Africa appears in the Winter issue of The Double Reed, Vol. 7, No. 3, pp. 32-33.