Hi all.
Please do not throw stones to me ) That’s about Pakistani pipes again. I’m from Russia and there’s only one piper around in my city. Who couldn’t answered me, so I’m stucked with this. Please help me.
I have a practice set. But the subject is reed.
Own reeds are quite almost unplayable. BUT when I tried some reed of the other piper the chanter was playing well.
So I started to hmm.. make my own reeds playable. Note I’m a girl and I don’t know how to adjust reeds so I tried to press, pinch, make clamps etc. with my reeds. And what a miracle. There were minutes I could play almost every note in both octaves. But the tone wasn’t clear D and when I started to tune it up everything crushed. That’s why I can say my chanter is COLD BE playable but not with own reeds.
Pipers from russian forum told me that anyway I should throw my chanter out and buy some good one. Of course they may be right but I don’t have so much money now.
Please give me advice. Where can I buy reeds, what price they should be? I don’t want purchase too expensive reeds because I don’t sure 100% they will be suitable..
Why don’t you start with Martin Gallen at Banba Design? He seems to be having success reeding a lot of different chanters, and his prices are very competitive.
Brian Howard also makes reeds, and I’ve heard good things about them. They’re a little more expensive, but I’m sure you’ll get lots of help and support. Here’s their website:
Welcome, and good luck! It is tough, and we’ve all shared your pain. There was a fellow in Moscow who had a tionol going there for a few years, but I haven’t heard anything lately. If I get time later I’ll see if I can track down his name for you; he’s a member here on this board. I know Russia isn’t a small country, but hey, at least it’s someone on the same landmass!
Welcome to the board. Pakistani chanters have challenges; there is a dedicated sticky post that describes this. That said, there are options for budget chanters such as Pat Sky, David Daye. Brian Bigley has also started making budget chanters. If you are feeling adventurous, you can also build a penny chanter. Many people have done this including myself, and it sounds just fine.
Correct, as mentioned before there is a very good Russian pipemaker near you who also makes uilleann pipes → Alexandre Anistratov. www.pipesland.com
perhaps you could ask him for advice and/or help concerning your pipes. If you decide to buy a new practice set or set of pipes, i’m quite sure alexandre can help you out too.
Other than that there are some good reed makers around as well. Banba has already been mentioned. There is also a facebook page for uilleann piping and uilleann pipe reed (makers). Perhaps you can join that too and look around a bit?
Dobro pozhalovat’. Mozhet byt’ Nanohedronu nado skazat’ “v chuzhoy monastyr’ so svoim ustavom ne suysya!” (po moemu skromnomu mnieyu esli vash rod vam vazhen to, vazhen i vse).
Ya predpolozhil by, chto vy khotite igrat’ s drugimi lyud’mi, to est’, vam nuzhen D chanter, ne tak li? Sprashivayu potomu, chto u menya est’ lishniy chanter, no on na C#. Tak kak mne ochen’ nravit’sya russkaya kul’tura i ideya, chto tam est’ lyudi, kotorye lyubyat igrat’ na irlandskoy volynke, mozhet byt’ my mozhem torgovat’ ochen’ deshevo. Mezhdu prochim, ya zhivu v SShA.
Poshlite mne, pozhaluysta, “privatno soobshchenie” esli vas interesuet.
Sure. I wrote, "maybe you should tell Nanohedron ‘Don’t bring your own codex into another group’s monastery!’ (in my humble opinion, if your gender is important to you, then it’s important and that all there is to it).
Well, it’s apparent to me that at this point you and I are running on different assumptions as to why she brought it up. If she cares to, she can tell us. Otherwise, time to move on, I’d say.
I agree. I was making a joke about the deixis of cyberspace, poking a little fun cultural differences (the rough English equivalent of the expression is “When in Rome do as the Romans do”). No harm intended, Nanohedron. I am a Russophile and am delighted that there are Russians who are into the pipes. Forgive my Bulgakovian opportunism.
I apologize for getting this off topic, but I used deixis in this context to describe, for example, that when you are on the Forum, you are in a different place (physically) than when, for example, I’m on the Forum (again, physically speaking). The deixis of cyberspace is bewildering because it seems to encompass everywhere and nowhere at once, sometimes. Or something like that…
Russian pipers - I wrote them. And I didn’t find anyone who could (was ready to) make reed for MY chanter. But maybe if I lived in Moscow, who knows.. Of course if I’d order chanter they could make it. But anyway I’ve decided to reanimate my own chanter first and got new reeds.
Then I wrote banbadesign. He replies and even asked me to send measurements. But there is silence then about 2 weeks. So I’ve been to this forum. Next time I’ll try your offers.
One more maker, Allan Moller, offered me to send my chanter him. It is quite good variant for me except the price - 65 pounds per reed (it’s quite like 1/4 chanter’s price). What you’d say about it?
P.S. adding a “girl” note was to mark that I couldn’t do some things as all of my known men could - to saw, to polish, to shave etc. or to make my own reed
I have some reeds that I dont use and I will send them to you ,and maybe other members of the forum could do the same . You should at least get a reed that works until you get a better chanter. Whats your name and full postal address.
And thanks a lot again for your greatest interest.
The idea with sending some unneeded reeds is very good. I’d recommend it for the same unlucky fellow with pakistani pipes as me.
For myself I’ll take help from gentleman Ceann Cromtha.
Hope this saga is coming to happy end.
.