Challenging Tradition

TUNE QUICKLY

The tuning dial on the Campbell Tunable Chanter allows for quick tuning while you play your pipes. You will not even need to deflate your bag! The perfect solution to tuning a bagpipe chanter quickly has arrived. Now you can tune your chanter very quickly by simply turning the tuning dial to raise or lower your reed - while you continue to blow your pipes!

CRAFTED BY McCALLUM

The perfect collaboration between McCallum Bagpipes and piper/inventor, Kyle Campbell, has brought this innovative new chanter design to fruition. Drawing on McCallum Bagpipes’ experience of producing top quality instruments and some radical thinking from Kyle, this chanter will provide any piper with quick tuning and a sweet, bright, high quality sound.

QUALITY SOUND

The Campbell Tunable Chanter is based on McCallum’s Mark III design that offers a winning combination already recognized throughout the piping community. With comfortable round holes, this chanter presents a bright sound with brilliant projection and stability.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE CAMPBELL CHANTER

From a concept on a dinner table napkin to multiple prototypes, this chanter has taken a long and exciting path to what you see here.


The idea came about after a long band practice where the chanter tuning process took much longer than expected. With so many variables in the tuning process (moisture, blowing pressure, reed used and many more) a quicker way to tune a bagpipe chanter had to be possible. The solution was to allow a piper to tune while playing - a tuning peg and some special internals were be added to a chanter.


Over 8 years of development and a multitude of prototypes were manufactured and tested. In 2006 patents in the USA, UK and Canada were granted for the design. While a small group of solo players were using the chanters with great success by early 2010, the first band played a set of the chanters in early 2011 and were quite thrilled with the results.


The basic design criteria:

  • Fit all highland bagpipes
  • Allow tuning while the bag is inflated.
  • Offer tone qualities equal to the best pipe chanter available today.
  • Reduce the amount of time required for the tuning process.

SPIT PROOF

With completely sealed internal components, this chanter is safe from saliva while you blow into it. This chanter is made with corrosion free materials.

THE REED WON’T MOVE

Tone adjustment is gradual so bumping the tuning dial will not change the pre-set pitch. The tuning dial is secure so that it will not be tweaked while it is in your pipe case, or when pick up your pipes.

DURABLE

All of the components that make up this chanter are precision manufactured for many years of use.

BROAD PITCH RANGE

The Campbell chanter has a rather broad pitch range because of the reed seat design. Expect a range of 5 - 7 Hz on both the Band Chanter and the B-Flat Chanter.

PROTECT YOUR REED

No need to remove your chanter to change the height of your reed effecting pitch, thus providing less risk of damaging your valuable chanter reed.

VISUAL PITCH GAUGE

Every Campbell chanter includes a visual pitch gauge that will indicate how much adjustment is available for future pitch changes.

PURPOSE OF THIS CHANTER - BALANCE PITCH

The goal to using a chanter with an adjustable reed seat is to quickly adjust the chanter reed to balance the top and bottom hand of the instrument. The real benefit is that once you have your chanter set-up properly, you can fine tune your pitch while playing. This means that you will not have to stop playing to balance your chanter, which equals quicker tuning!

INSTRUCTIONS

The instructions below should give you the head start you will need to use your new Campbell Tunable Chanter.


REED PROBLEMS?

Should you run into issues after you have looked at the instructions, you can open this huge resource.