I was at a bagpipe get-together in sweden this weekend and got to try out a set of scottish smallpipes in E. Now i am smitten by this instrument and have to get one (yes. Have to).
Does anybody has any recommendations of makers and music? The one I tried was made by Shepherd, who are said to have invented the late development with plastic reeds, canmore reeds etc.
Better yet: does anyone have a reasonably new and little used set they want to sell? These sets are usually not too expensive, so I just might get a new one. Anyway. But there might be a near-bargain deal somewhere also
Best regards,
Eivind
PS. I know this is OT in an Uilleann forum. Please have mercy upon my sinful soul.
The most important link posted there is the bobdunsire one - there are some superb posters there.
A few thoughts for you:
Don’t go for mouthblown smallpipes or smallpipes with synthetic chanter reeds. Despite what makers will tell you, it is impossible to get acceptable tone with a plastic reed, and it is impossible to make a mouth blown cane reed. The only make of plastic drone reed I would recommend is Ezeedrones, and a few makers are selling them bundled with pipes now. Bellows have a slightly steeper learning curve, but you’re better off in the long run.
Hamish Moore is more expensive and has a far longer waiting time than his pipes justify. They are the best in the business, but there are a whole host of makers who are essentially as good as he is; the difference is not worth it, IMO.
Stay away from makers whose main business is Highland pipes. Their only interest with the smallpipes is to make a bit of money off it, not to make instruments.
If you’re looking for a decent cheap set, Iain Kinnear makes pipes in plastic at cheaper rates, about £600, I think. This is what I play, and the difference in tone between these and wooden pipes is so small I won’t be upgrading unless I get landed with a real bargain (more likely to salt it away for a full set of Uilleanns, I think). You can hear some (ropey) samples at callingthetune.co.uk/ezee
If you’ve any questions, feel free to PM me or (better) post them at Bob Dunsire’s site.
Calum’s comments are very good, but IF you do have the money to spend, Hamish’s pipes are second to none (I know he has a big waiting list and his pipes are expensive, but hell, he ain’t Alain Froment!). I waited nearly a year for mine and they cost more than I wanted to spend but they are worth every penny.
If you are looking for something cheaper, the Kinnear pipes sound like a pretty good deal. Somewhere in the middle would be Nigel Richard’s pipes which are very high quality but not as expensive as Hamish’s. Anyway, happy piping.
I think the expression is “damned with faint praise”.
They’re not bad smallpipes, in that they work, they go, they make appropriate smallpipe-like noises.
But bear in mind that Shepherd’s main business is manufacturing band chanters on a huge scale (most competing bands buy complete new sets of chanters every few years, and Shepherds sell about 90% of all band chanters), and smallpipes is very much a money-spinning sideline (in fact, most of Shepherd’s produce is money-spinning sidelines, but that’s neither here nor there). They’re not interested in providing people with nice smallpipes, they’re interested in selling you anything that’s economical for them to produce. You’ve tried the instrument, you know what you think of the noise they make, and I can’t better your own judgement there. I would suggest you try and see some other examples of other pipes in person before you set your heart on one particular brand, or try and get hold of some sound samples.
I have a Sloan African blackwood set I might consider selling, but they are not a bargain set in any way. 4 drones: 2 D, 1 A and 1 A/G. Two chanters, one in A and one in D, with chased ferrols and imit. ivory soles. Chased silver nickel drone ferrols/slides, imitation ivory caps. Removable chanter stocks for each and delrin chanter caps. Inlaid maple bellows and airline style aluminum case. All reeds in perfect condition and playing. $1900 firm.
Dave
If you want Scottish small pipes,Try Dave Shaw, I’ve heard his pipes there something else I’ll tell ya! he’s a honest & nice fella too,the
craftsmanship is excellent he’s more of a Scottish & Northumbrian pipe
maker than Uilleann,he is also one hell of a piper also,you will not go far wrong with Dave Shaw, or try Ian Kinnear also another great maker quality at its best.
And don’t forget Nigel Richard, whose website is here. His stuff is excellent, he quotes realistic wait times, and he’s a pleasure to deal with.
Let me second the do-not-buy-smallpipes-from-a-highland-firm advice. It’s wrong. You want smallpipes that are smallpipes, probably, and not little highland pipes. If you want little highland pipes, then plastic reeds, mouthblown, blah blah, is just fine.
Hamish Moore pipes are excellent and his whole outfit is a pleasure to deal with. His pipes are really pretty, too; and I mean that. They’re nice to look at. Looking at his most recent webpages, it looks like he’s gone whole-hog into aesthetics, since the SONIC reputation of his pipes is second to none. I have a Moore smallpipe in C (boxwood), and a Moore border pipe in A (boxwood). Very nice stuff.
Nigel I contacted because I wanted to try something different. Nigel has made me chanters for both these pipes. The border chanter is a wonderfully stable thing, and he put a key on it for high B (pinching up border pipe chanters doesn’t really work). I had him make an aeolian mode chanter for my Moore smallpipes in C, and what a blast to play that is! Wow.
So, I’m happy that I have Moore pipes, and I also like what I’ve seen of Nigel’s stuff. I recommend them both without reservation.
I really seem to have hit a golden ore of good information here, and I really appreciate it
BTW, Robin Beck’s pipes; now there’s something else. The look kind of ‘techno’. Wish more makers had sound examples, though (Beck doesn’t - have contacted him to hear if he can make some).
Otherwise, I realize there are a lot of very nice looking instruments out there. Thing is I dont really care much how they look as long as I can play them under differing conditions, in good tune, sufficinet volume etc. It’s the playing experience that interests me as I am not going to parade with this instrument.
Anyway, thanks for your good tips and just keep’em coming should you have anything more to add!
Hmmm…
I really fancied a set of ‘D’ pipes but nobody seem to have samples of that. Ian’s ‘A’ sound very nice, but no ‘D’. Also, there’s no telling what pipes he plays on each track.
I have gotten a nice offer from Robin Beck, but then again there’s no sound sample. Also, the offer was for an ‘A’ - dont you guys LIKE ‘D’-pipes at all?
Playing he swedish pipes I certainly dont think the finger spacing will be too crowded on a ‘D’ pipe. What do you guys feel about this?
Hi Eivind,
no sorry I don’t have any experience with Beck Pipes, or any other for that matter. I had checked a lot of sites as I had at one stage considered getting a set of SSP’s.
Here’s the LBPS website. Oh, you said you found it. Well, there it is.
As for the finger-spacing in D, yes, it’s amazingly cramped on the smallpipes. Despite a lot of makers’ claims to the contrary, I have yet to try a D smallpipe chanter that I could play comfortably. C is about the limit.
It’s probably a function of the bore dimensions . . . well, I suppose it has to be a function of the bore dimensions of the SSP that the D chanter is so tiny.
My thoughts on D: the only real reason for the D smallpipe chanter is to give SSP players the ability to play with Irish session instrumentalists. For Scottish music, A is quite useful, and it has a nice tone on the smallpipes. Deep and resonant; nowhere near as bright as D.
I’ve heard not just a few people say that they think C is the “best” pitch for smallpipes. I am inclined to agree; the pitch just seems to work for the SSP. It’s about the least useful pitch in terms of playing with other trad instruments in trad settings, but they do sound nice.
I’d be inclined to give this pitch advice. If you want to play SSPs because you like SSP music, and you’re buying your first set, then I think A is the pitch for you. If you want to be able to play with Irish musicians, then D would be a better choice, but let me warn you that the limited scale (9 notes) makes playing anything Irish very difficult. If you can afford it, and playing with others is not so much an issue, then one of the other available pitches would be OK (like C or B-flat).
And don’t forget that a lot of makers do offer a combo A/D set, usually with an extra drone, which would allow you to play either chanter for considerably less money than two full sets of smallpipes.
