Hello,
I received an email from a guy who bought a set and wants me to help him for the first steps.
His set seems to be one of those:
http://www.hobgoblin.com/local/products/GR2654/Uilleann-Practice-Pipes/
They say they are made in UK.
Anyone knows the maker?
Any advice on those sets?
Hi Peter,
I was following the thread on “another” forum 
so he hasn’t wasted so much money (yet!).
Ask him to get in contact with me, as that set will be unplayable from the start.
Mike, though I suspect you to be correct, would it not be fair to explain your experience with the set to back up the statement “that set will be unplayable from the start”?
Buying pipes from any shop is a bad idea.
I agree. Wouldn’t a member’s experience be of value to fellow members of this Forum?
OK, to expand somewhat…
Someone local bought one of these things, and could not get it to play in tune, even in the first octave. When he brought it to me he had attached a piece of copper tube to the bottom ferrule, to get the bottom D into tune. As you would expect, this affected all the other notes in the scale, and you could not know after taking off the copper extension, that the chanter had all its holes drilled in the wrong position. I noted this when I put down my chanter beside it; all my toneholes were over half an inch lower.
The only solution was to drill out the throat to take an extension tenon, make a tenon, glue it in, ream the reed seat and put a proper reed in it and give it back to the player, minus the extension tube.
It played in tune, but still didn’t sound much good. The bellows and bag were functional, up to a point, but he could have saved himself a lot of grief by getting something decent in the first place. Rubbish is dear at any price and this thing was not worth its’ space in a skip.
Thanks to all of you for your advices. Specially to Mike. I’ll meet him within a few weeks to have a look to his set and try a few reeds. I agree with all of you: buying this set was not a good idea but that’s done. When he contacted me it was too late.
Although I do not disagree that the chanter was most likely drilled improperly, wouldn’t it be a risky assumption to draw this conclusion by matching the tone holes to one of your chanters?
I have (2) Concert Pitch chanters by (2) very reputable makers and when I compare the tone holes, there is a very distinct difference in tone hole placement. I would suspect the reason for this would be the chanter design, which is not standard among pipe makers.
do you think that hobgoblin are telling the whole truth in stating that it was made in the uk?
it’s like they’re perhaps trying to differentiate the chanter from what’s made in Pakistan even though from what people are saying it belongs in that category
After removing the extension the whole chanter was playing sharp. The owner thought that by lengthening the chanter that this would lower the whole scale relatively. It was obvious when the chanters were side by side that the toneholes, although “correctly” spaced, were collectively higher on the other chanter - which was only just over 14" OAL. Adding the extension to the top of the chanter lowered the whole scale by a semitone, and brought the toneholes further down, while maintaining the relative tuning of each interval. The visual comparison merely showed where the fault lay. Measurement, and comparison with known data for tonehole positions for other chanters, made it possible to calculate the approximate length that the chanter needed to be - 14.5".
However, the point of all this is not how to fix a chanter, but not to buy one that needs fixing in the first place. The OP asked the questions that the buyer should initially have asked. Had he done so he would have saved a bit of money and time. The fact that he did not is money in the bank for the “pipeshifters”.
Hobgoblin openly states that many of the flutes they sell are from Pakistan. It doesn’t seem likely they’d be truthful about Pakistani flutes but not about Pakistani pipes.
The chanter is made by Bagpipes Galore in Edinburgh, not sure about the bag and bellows.
David
i was wrong obviously
Am I mistaken in my impression that the word “Galore” should give one good reason to exercise caution?
I found 2 clips of this uilleann pipes chanter made by www.bagpipe.co.uk Bagpipes Galore uilleann pipes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0dwtutv32E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNWua3a0_nM
Cheers
Ferg