i have a practice set from charles roberts
how would pakistani drones fit?
they worth looking into? i assume not, but maybe just drones could be ok?
maybe…
I posted something about this a while back. I’ve a half set and a practice set. I was thinking about adding Pakistani drones to the practice set and making it into a cheap half set.
The feedback I got was, obviously, mixed. However, most of the negative feedback was instantly dismissive of Pakistani drones, although none of those commenting seemed to have owned Pakistani drones.
The positive feed back I got was very interesting. I was surprised at how many people PMed me to say they had bought P drones and were very happy with them. They specified that there was some minor work to be done to the drones, such as adding hemp etc., but nothing major.
Indeed, one of our forum friends (whose name escapes me) has published a very interesting article on Pakistani fullsets which are refinished by a well reputed pipemaker. What I noted from that article was that the chanter and regulators needed substantial work to make them playable, but little or nothing was mentioned about the drones - whether that means that little or no work was done to the drones is anyone’s guess.
Although the debate is far from over, it seems to me that P drones are probably the least offensive of the P sets.
That said, if you’re considering buying drones from Other Worlds or similar online shops, you must buy the so-called ‘Stock Cup’ separately.
If you do buy the P drones, I’d be very interested to hear what you have to say about them.
I tried using the P drones for a while, and they do come with some significant problems. The most sticking was that the reeds that came with them were just useless. I replaced them with composite reeds by BC Childress, and after a bit of fidgeting, I was able to get pretty good sound out of the tenor and baritone drones, but the bass drone was just not happening. If you can make your own reeds, then you can probably mess about with them until you get one that works well with it. Otherwise, I would advise against the purchase.
I have been one of the lucky ones to have purchased a good set of P-drones. At first, the reeds were tough to use, but after adjusting them, the drones rang out rich and clear. I then, in search of stability, switched to composite reeds made from the directions provided by songsea.com. Instant gratification, though they were a bit quieter than the cane reeds, especially the tenor reed. So I reinstalled the cane tenor reed, and it was back to ‘cool’.
But, down the road, I wanted to get a larger sound off the bass and baritone drones, so I ordered a set of composite drone reeds from David Boisvert, and that was exactly the sound I was looking for… bold, rich and yet never louder than the chanter reed.
But I agree, that it really may be a ‘crap shoot’ when buying the P-drones, as it usually is when purchasing an instrument that is mass produced and seemingly not subject to quality control. The best bet when forking over a good sized chunk of change for anything, is to try it out before purchase… and that is a lot easier to say than it is to do… hence, buying from a reputedly good pipemaker would be the wisest choice.
On a side note - P-pipes, P-drones, P-chanters are suitable abbreviations to describe Pakistani-made pipes.
They avoid the offensive word, and ensure that the excessive typing required to produce long words such as ‘Pakistani’ does not erode our delicate piping digits
Furthermore, most of us would not P on a P-set if it was on fire.
Mukade
P-Drones. I like that. I have a set of them that were purchased through Tim Britton. He said they required little or no real work to get them going (reed adjustment, re-hemping). I too replaced the reeds with homemade brass ‘n’ styrene and am more than satisfied with them. In fact, I am in the process of building a “real” fullset around them. YMMV.
Out of curiosity, has anyone ever fitted a P-stock to a bag - i.e. taken a set of P-drones and added them to their own practice set? I’d be particularly interested to hear from non-pipemakers (in other words, people with more or less the same skill level as me).
I have, it is a piece of cake. But before you do it, if that is your aim, make certain that you mark the area you will be installing said drones… trace around the bottom of the stock cup onto the area of the bag you wish to tie them in. Then, with practice set strapped on and inflated, hold the entire drone assembly to where you have marked and see if it is a fit.
Good idea. Measure 1,000 times but cut only once!