anyone have an opinion on the pipes available at Harp & Dragon out of New York?
http://www.harpanddragon.com/uilleann.htm
Thanks!
Just about everyone has an opinion about those pipes. They’re made in Pakistan and distributed in the U.S. by Mid-East Mfg. Search the forum for “Pakistan” and you’ll find plenty of opinions to digest.
Check out the topic entitled “anyone know anything about these pipes” on the UP forum page.
Cheddar, please check your PM’s.
To All,
Thanks for the heads up, and the PM John. I didn’t see on their site anything about Pakistan, but the price did seem to good to be true. Guess I’ll have to keep trolling Ebay.
Thanks again, this board is a great resource.
-Cheddar
i’ve heard that Pakistani sets are often of quite acceptable quality for getting started, and they’ll cost you a lot less than a handmade set from someplace else. i have a Pakistani chanter now and i’m going to get one of these starter sets so i can start working on my coordination without having to spend $1500.00 to do it.
basically, those prices aren’t at all too good to be true unless you have illusions about what you’re buying - in fact, you can get the same equipment for a little bit less by going here</a](http://stores.ebay.com/Other-Worlds-Ethnic-Instruments">here</a)> and putting “uilleann” into their search thingy. a Wooff set it ain’t; get you started it will.
w.
I really have to disagree with you on this plaintiger. Do you work for these guys or what?
I have seen a couple of these sets and they are beyond doubt, the worst, most unplayable sets I have ever had the disappointment to hear… disappointment from the owners that is, whom were very upset that these pipes they bought were completely useless. With one guy the scale on teh chanter actually seemed to get lower as you went UP???
I think to buy one of these sets to simply get your bellows coordination going is rediculous. You’d be better off buying a whistle and learing a few tunes. The bellows coordination will come in a very short time with practice.
I can’t speak for the overhauled sets that Tim Britton is doing as I have no experience with them.
If there are experienced players out there that have good things to say about these sets please ‘pipe up’. I can’t believe anyone would consider these sets when there are good makers out there that will get you a good set within in a few months. These things just aren’t worth the heartache.
Patrick.
Patrick,
Although I’m far from experienced, I do have to say that Brittonized gear is quite playable, plus he gives great service (as if he made them himself) Tim himself seems to think they are quite adequate, once he has worked his magic on them, and given them proper reeds. I can’t really speak to their ability to give a really nice tone, as I’m still only a handful of tunes in with no teacher yet, but mine does play fairly easily and well in tune with itself and concert (A=440)pitch. It would definitely be best to order from him directly, but he is willing to work on these if you get them elsewhere.
No Pat he plays a mouth blown chanter with a plastic reed. Sums it about up i would think.
You can lead a horse to water…
guilty as charged. i guess i’m speaking too freely here, from not enough experience (though in fact i never claimed to be speaking from experience). i’ve heard from one player that some Pakistani equipment can be of acceptable quality; the truth is that i don’t even know what kind of player the guy is who told me that. and for my part i’m glad to hear the indignance with which Mr. D’Arcy says the pitch on some of these things goes down as one plays up the scale: my Pakistani chanter does that sometimes on a note or two and i thought that was just the nature of the uilleann pipes, or that it was because i do mouth-blow an instrument that’s not intended to be mouth-blown.
i’m also glad to finally hear a directly-expressed opinion of Pakistani stuff (besides that one guy’s who apparently misled me). i haven’t seen one before in all my cruising around on Chiff & Fipple - even in this thread, that started with someone asking about the quality of Pakistani stuff.
so now i just have to wonder - would it follow that, if someone could learn the basics on one of these Pakistani practice sets, when they then got their hands on a real practice set they’d find them incredibly easy to play? or would playing the bad stuff just instill bad habits?
thanks again, Patrick. i feel like i have a little perspective on the Pakistani stuff now.
walt
hey, now wait a minute. i’ve thought about this and i stand by what i said. first i said i’ve been told that Pakistani sets can be of acceptable quality. do you have a problem with that statement, Patrick? do you have reason to believe i haven’t been told that?
second, i said that $300.00 for a practice set isn’t too good to be true unless you have illusions about what you’re going to get for your $300.00, and i stand by that statement as well. if you spend $300.00 on a practice set expecting a $1500.00 set, or even a $700.00 set in return, well then you’re a damn fool and you deserve every bit of the disappointment you suffer as a result. if you spend $300.00 expecting a $300.00 set, you get what you pay for and what you expect. and that’s simple objective truth as well.
don’t be jumping down my throat for speaking the truth.
that said, i’m still glad somebody finally spoke up about the relative quality of these sets because i didn’t know about it before. i’ve since looked at Patsy Touhey’s Hints to Amateur Pipers and seen that he too recommends buying the finest practice set one can afford. sadly, that’s what i’ve done in buying my bellowless, bagless Pakistani chanter (i’m not exactly reeling in the cash these days) - but at least that, along with Patrick’s comments, has convinced me that my next step has to be a quality practice set, rather than whatever sorry bag and bellows (or stolen duck) i’ll be able to afford before then. and so now, with my newfound knowledge, that’s what i’ll recommend to others who ask.
and you can scoff all you want at my mouth-blown Pakistani chanter with the plastic reed, but at least when i do get a practice set i’ll know what my fingers need to do to produce scales and a few tunes, and i think that’s a lot better and smarter - and that it says more about my dedication to learning the instrument - than not playing at all because some arrogant elitists - oh, excuse me: purists - disapprove of my equipment.
I think I can relate to this. Years ago, when I began to consider playing pipes, I bought set of cheap Pakistani parlor pipes. All I wanted was to find out if I had any aptitude for playing - I wasn’t even sure that I would like it. I was perfectly willing to chalk up the price of that set as the price of an education. The pipes were crap and I knew it, but I messed around with them long enough decide that piping was something worth pursuing. It wasn’t long after that that I ordered a set of Sloan smallpipes. The parlor pipes went into the trash bin and life hasn’t been the same since then.
That answer will ensure a lot of help from people here in the future will it not?
Arrogant elitists…, hmmm..
Let me turn that one on you, clueless n00b! 
I think you are only fooling yourslf into thinking your are learning the pipes. You’re NOT. You’re playing with a chanter and with the idea you may become a piper that way. I see it in the young pipers I teach, they never struggle with the fingerings, they all struggle with the bag/bellows/blowing coordination to begin with. You can’t separate the chanter from the bag.
You are not in any way doing anything that will help you further. You would, in my opinion, be much better off learning irish music on the whislte and then, once you have the money, follow Touhey’s advice and buy the best practice set you can afford. And please note he said a practice set and not a chanter with a p[lasic reed and a few feet of rubber hose. Arrogant elitist that he was.
no, i understand that i’m not really learning the instrument the way i need to; i’m not even learning the instrument. what i’m doing is only a little less extreme than “learning the saxophone” by buying a mouthpiece and changing the pitch of the squawk by covering and uncovering the end. i’d just much rather be playing something, learning some aspect the pipes right now, rather than doing nothing until i can afford a good practice set, because it’s going to be a while before i can.
the alignment of the planets, or whatever you want to call that feeling, told me now was the time to get off my butt and start learning the pipes; the only hitch is that my bank account disagreed.
and Rick, my intention was not to alienate the people on the board in general. there are basically two ways one could respond to what i’m doing: by saying, “well good for you - learn what you can with your cheapy chanter, but just be aware that you can’t learn much that way and you need a good practice set ASAP,” or by ridiculing my approach, offering discouraging words, and generally sitting in judgment. anyone who takes the first approach i consider a friend, and i’ll always look to them for answers and advice. anyone who takes the second i’d simply rather not hear from. what they have to say is not constructive. i’d rather be clueless about the pipes than clueless about what they’re clueless about any day.
Plaintiger,
Good for you - learn what you can with your cheapy chanter, but just be aware that you can’t learn much that way and you need a good practice set ASAP. 
No E
And as I said above, you’ll be much better off if you just learn to play the whistle well and then kit yourself out with a workable practice set. But that’s obviously not what you want to hear so good on you and work away to your hearts content !
thank you for the sage advice, my friend!
yes, Peter, you’re right - there is definitely an element of not wanting to hear that at work here. i have a whistle, and i was delighted (and a little surprised) to discover i could play The Dawning of the Day on it just fine after learning it on my chanter, even though the whistle only has six holes (i’m still just a little mystified by that), and i think it’s great that i can take a tune from one instrument to the other…i’m just so hooked on the sound of the pipes that…hmm. well, you know, i’m not sure i know what all is going on there - why i resist going that route even though Todd Denman told me the same thing years ago. i guess that’s something i need to get over, huh?
okay. i’m going to do that. i’m going to fend off whatever faceless demons are telling me the whistle is a second-rate instrument (even though i know it’s not) and that the fingering is too different from that of the pipes (even though i know it’s not) and just shut up and learn the freakin’ whistle. has anybody else here gone through this? overcoming an unfounded resistance to learning the whistle first? and i guess there won’t be any big obstacles to surmount as far as fingering goes when i do move to the pipes, huh? i know Willie Clancy’s friends said he was an even better whistle player than he was a piper…
okay, wait: i’ve figured out what’s at the heart of my problem. it’s emotional. i’m in love with the pipes, such as i’ve never been with any of the numerous instruments i’ve played before…and i’m just not in love with the whistle. playing the whistle feels like i’m settling. and when you’re talking about love, settling never feels right.
but it’s good for me to get past that, right? and would anyone care to recommend a really good beginner’s whistle book? 