Hello from Majorca.
A friend of mine who is a Galician pipe maker (mostly Galician and Majorcan pipes, but recently also whistles) has tried for the first time to make a practice set of uilleann pipes. And he’d like to ask where he could buy a cheap bag and some reeds on the internet (he lives here in Majorca). He also told me the chanter is done now but he’s having some problems with the high D as it sounds like a C sharp, like when all the holes are uncovered. Do you know what could be causing this?
Thank you.
Hi PJ tinwhistler, welcome aboard!! as I read in your post I assume that the maker is not using the proper fingering for theback D (the Hich D) as he is more familiar to the galician pipe fingering that is uncovering the holes up the scale as you do on the whistle, BUT the uilleann pipe chanter fingering for back D is all holes covered and only the back D hole uncovered.
If you need a cheap bag you can make your own of vinyl glued with silicone (although I dont like them) and the reed is something that the maker must make for the chanter; theres no generic reeds as with GHB or gaita galega.
Best of luck.