I picked these up in a second-hand shop in Tokyo of all places. I have no bagpipe experience whatsoever.
They have no reeds, but seem to be in good condition. The bag cover looks like it might be made of mink or some similar animal.
I have no particular expectations for them, but would like to know what they are. If they’re not complete junk then I might consider getting reeds and trying to get a sound out of them. Otherwise, I’ll put them on the wall.
Any info would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Matt
The chanter looks like a typical SSP chanter, possibly a practice chanter.
(OK, let’s not get distracted yet again, for the umpteenth time on the PC-SSP connection.)
The fingerhole size/spacing is typical. The drones are not typical of anything much, but then, it doen’t mean they will not work. Don’t try normal SSP reeds, though, because they are supposed to be played dry (With bellows), and this Aardvaark seems to be mouthblown. So plastic reeds are indicated, like the Gibson Fireside or similar. The drones will function probably on most normal drone reeds, it’s just a matter of finding the best sounding. The workmanship actually looks quite decent.
Another thing. The chanter goes into the foremost socket, the one that holds the blowpipe at the moment. The drones go into the sockets towards your left, as you hold the pipe, and the blowpipe into the socket most towards the right.
Good luck.
make sure it’s spayed/neutered or you’ll end up with 20 of them!!!
Yuri’s call is a good one, the best bet for working reeds would be the composite PC/SSP/firesides type route.
And switch the pipes around in their stocks.
I hasten to add, the integrity of your blowpipe valve is crucial.
Disenfect that thing before trying to inflate it.
Iv e never seen anything like this before. Very interesting.
Before assambling, take a look down the bores. If they are nice and smooth, that’s perfect. If there are some inperfections, try to smooth them down . The easiest way is to get a metal rod (thick stiff wire) of about 3mm, and attach to it a bit of steel wool. (you can simply superglue on a bit.) then rotating this, make passes up and down the bore until the imperfections disappear. (then check the fingerholes, as the wood bits often simply get dislodged from the bore into the fingerholes, thereby altering the tuning.). If you can hardly see the light at the other end, weeelll, you have a lot of spadework to do. Basically, it’s the same as in previous, only very much more so.
Good luck.
Yep, Yuri - just in the same stupid arrangement - one right, one left. The inner bores were pretty rough. The bag though, underneath the velveteen cover, was good - some kinda artificial leather, not like Gore, but yet quite promising. I used it (corking one of the side-droneholes) for an old Djura-Gaida, and it still works fine!
…but that could be misleading. There are a great many Japanese in the merchant container sailing fleet. This may be a souvenir picked up by a Japanese sailor from the African coast. Bagpipes are native to northern and eastern Africa and have been since Egyptian times. British ocupations have also influenced native African types as well.
I’m quite sure, the gazelle-hide is not the bag itself, but only the cover. Even more, bagpipes would be indigenous only to northern Africa, and they’d be doublechantered and droneless. As I told You: I do have exactly the same as these, same stupid drone-position, exactly the same wood, the same turning, in the chanter, there’s a PC-reed, dronereeds are cane, valve is the usual piece of leather nailed to the tube, chanter’s (more or less) tuned to “A”. They were made in Sialkot/Pakistan, for sale in different online-stores from 100 Dollars onwards. If the bag underneath the hide-cover is leather, the pipes were made rather first half of the 90ies, if it’s some synthetic fabric, it’s somewhen from since 2nd half 90ies on.
Charlie, I have to confess that unlike you guys, I NEVER EVER had any dealings with Pakistani pipes. The nearest I came to it is when I cleaned up a set of pipes made of sheesham, but of very high quality, with ivory mounts. It pre-dates the creation of Pakistan, so must have been made during the British Raj. Other than that I never even seen a Pakistani set, so I’m in no position to speak. But then you know, I’m not really into GHB or even SSP, or UP, which is what the Pakistanis seem to concentrate on.
Padre, that’s a very good tactic. To start a sermon shouting, that is. Gets their attention. Unlike here, but then you can’t really shout. There is no program for sound here, what a pity. But you can try capital letters. Like this:
THIS IS A PAKISTANI SET OF BL***Y SMALLPIPES!!! YOU DEAF HEATHENS!!!
