So, for the two players of pastoral pipes…if you bought from Geert, where did you get the bellows and how much did that add to the cost? If you didn’t buy from Geert Lejeune, who did you buy from?
I must say I’m intrigued by their ability to play two octaves and their versatility. I’m perfectly fine with walking a different piping path. 
Eric
Eric,
I have a question for you: How important to you is having the top end of the second octave?
For me it was very important, many of the tunes I’m drawn to go up to the High B, but if for you that’s not the case, then you might consider border pipes in low D.
Piping in North America is pretty dominated by the Highland pipes, and pipers. I’m of the opinion that most alternative pipes are in the key of A because of this. Border pipes in A are only a bit less in volume than the Highland pipes and sound very similar to them, but Border pipes in D are a fifth lower, and they sound less like the highland pipes and more in the keeping with Irish music. You would be limited to an octave and a forth, though.
There are some nice videos of pipers playing low D border pipes on YouTube. Jon Swayne, makes both pastoral pipes and border pipes. https://www.jonswayne.com/bagpipes In the US Banton & Woodson make border pipes, but I don’t know if they make them in Low D. http://bantonwoodson.com. There are probability a few others also.
Dave Rowlands has collected and arranged quite a few tunes for the Low D pipes. Three collections of Irish tunes, and a couple collections of 18th century music. But, I do find I like the ability to play the top notes the way I learned the tunes on my flute.
Geert made the matching bellows to my set. It’s been almost 8 years since i bought the pipes, so I don’t remember how much they were. At the time I thought they were expensive, but they are very nice and well made.
before regulator showing the bellows
https://photos.app.goo.gl/YpmSfL4vx9PPTNSY8
After the the modifications
https://photos.app.goo.gl/HemQQmKoBAfxbJpj8
to aphillips;
Occasionally I wish I had added the keys for Eb and C#, oh well. It sounds like you are going to have a very nice set of pipes!
I’ll give a listen to border pipes in D, but I’m pretty certain I’d like as large a range as I can get.
There’s no getting around the fact that the best pipes for Irish traditional music are the uilleann pipes.
I play the Scottish Highland pipes and the uilleann pipes, and something that these instruments and the musics played upon them continuously remind me is that the physics/mechanics of the Scottish Highland chanter make that instrument uniquely and perfectly suited for the Scottish Highland pipe repertoire but unsuitable for the majority of Irish traditional music, and that the physics/mechanics of the uilleann chanter make that instrument uniquely and perfectly suited for the Irish uilleann pipe repertoire but unsuitable for many Scottish Highland pipe tunes.
Ditto with the Bulgarian pipes, which are simply the best possible instrument for Bulgarian traditional music yet unsuited for Irish or Scottish traditional music. On it goes with instrument after instrument.
It’s not like these various instruments were randomly plucked out of some cloud they were floating in and applied willy-nilly to various preexisting musical genres. These various musical genres evolved on those very instruments, and the instruments and the musics are inextricably intertwined.
I suppose it’s being Captain Obvious to state these things, but I see all the time, in the Highland pipe world, pipers insisting on playing horrible garbled versions of Irish tunes because they refuse to face the fact that the Highland pipes aren’t suited to those tunes.
And I’ve heard uilleann pipers play the most godawful versions of Highland pipe tunes.
When I hear such things, I think of Samuel Johnson’s comment:
"it’s like a dog’s walking on his hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all.”
Richard,
There is no question which pipes are the best for Irish Traditional music, but I don’t think that is what was asked.
If someone is looking for a bagpipe that can play two octaves, and doesn’t feel inclined to learn the uilleann pipes, for what ever reason, there are only a few options that I’m aware of, as we have named earlier in the thread.
You are correct that most types of bagpipes match a tradition. I feel that in Highland piping the tradition is pretty much set, and hasn’t changed much over the years.
Irish music, on the other hand, is a living, changing tradition. If you go back in time, the pastoral pipe is part of that tradition. The fiddle and pipes are among the earliest instruments in that tradition, but the pipes were the piob mor. As the music changed, and with the demand for a more versatile pipe, you have the development of the pastoral pipes with 2 octaves. Both of these pipes require finger articulation to play. Grey Larson states that “The varied use of these fingering articulations became an integral and sophisticated element of Irish bagpipe music" Many of these finger articulations are used on the flute and whistle. The fingering of the pastoral pipe is similar to that of a flute or whistle, I feel that the uilleann pipe fingering to be quite challenging by comparison.
Grey Larson also states:
“Still, uilleann piping was deeply affected by the pastoral bagpipe and piob mor traditions. It inherited a fundamental and deeply held aesthetic from these ancestral bagpipe traditions, and combined it with its staccato capability to create a new synthesis, one that is also shared by the Irish flute and tin whistle. The music in all its variety, springs forth from an underlying foundation of Legato playing. The appropriate use of staccato playing exists in relation to the foundation and takes on its meaning in contrast to it.”
The main difference between the uilleann pipe and the pastoral pipe is the ability to play staccato. This, to my way of thinking isn’t the same as playing Irish tunes on a GHP chanter, or the other way around. The pastoral chanter plays legato, in the same range as the uilleann chanter, but with finger articulations similar to playing a flute without using throating, or tonguing. It may not have quite the richness of an uilleann chanter, but they are more similar than other chanters.
Ray Sloan recently posted this on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lr94PBuHg0Y
Not to taking anything away from Ray, but I feel he hasn’t learn to play it as a pastoral chanter. But this shows how close the chanters are to one another.
Hey Richard - I should have my pastoral set from Geert Lejeune in about a month. Let me you if you are ever going to trek up to Santa Barbara and you can come check them out.
So aphillips ~ Have you received your pastor pipes from Geert? How about some pictures and sound clips
You have just described the uilleann pipes. Hope no more! The suitable instrument exists, and is in fact being used by nearly all Irish folk bands that use pipes 
BTW reading between the lines it seems like you might be assuming that the Northumberland Smallpipes play at a lower volume than the uilleann pipes. I don’t think that’s true. Of course NSP chanters and uilleann chanters are each made in a variety of different pitches, but taking the typical NSP in the traditional key of F, they’re easily as loud as many uilleann Concert D chanters.
Perhaps the ideal solution is a “narrow bore” uilleann D chanter, which has a softer darker tone than a big-bore Concert D chanter.
BTW the uilleann chanter has a unique commonality with the flute: they are the only woodwinds that leap the octave without using an octave key, register key, or special fingering. You can finger F# and play it in either octave using the same fingering, only changing your blowing, on both flute and uilleann pipes.
Northumbrian pipes are smallpipes, they’re called The Northumberland Smallpipes. I’m not sure what distinction you’re making there.
I dabbled in NSP for a few years. As you say they have a unique charming tone.
The basic “9 hole” fingering couldn’t be simpler: you just lift one finger at a time.
The fingering is diametrically opposed to the Boehm “open fingering” system, so if you’re looking for a flutelike fingering you couldn’t get further from it!
The tricky part is when you get into using all those keys for tunes with a wider range.
I think it takes FAR more skill to play a full-speed full-range Irish reel on the NSP than it does on the uilleann pipes, where, as on the Irish flute, all the notes are right there under your fingers without having to use any keys (for most trad Irish tunes in G and D).
I’m no piper, but as someone who’s also done research to try and find the best pipe to go to as a whistle/flute player whos interested in dabbling, my best findings were UP, and virtual. There’s a video of Fred Morrison talking about how people use his BP’s for Irish music because BP have good tuning. I’ll let the others here shoot down that concept, but it may be worth considering.
I ended up getting a Warbl (virtual) and buying a used practice UP set. But its setup is questionable at best so I’ve had minimal success or enjoyment playing it. With whistle I know that if I buy a good one any issues are my playing. But with a used UP set there’s no way for me to know what issues are me and what are the set being setup wrong. So morale of my little story, make sure you buy a set from a maker you can interact with and make sure its setup well for you. And ideally have a UP’er you know try it. I’ve never met a ITM person so I can’t do that one so I’m kinda screwed lol. But theres so much going on with reed placement, the reed itself, bridle position, rushes, taping, etc that theres no way for a non UP’er to figure out whats the proper setup. But if you know all that is setup right, then you can just play and get better. A reason I’ve looked into SP and BP is that it will probobly be a lot easier to get a set working as intended haha. what I’d give for a good synthetic UP reed that always works and plays in perfect tuning.
Not sure what Fred Morrison meant there.
Any species of bagpipe has good tuning if you play it in tune. I don’t think any species of bagpipe is inherently more in tune than any other.
It takes a chanter that’s made right, reeded properly, and played well.
Border pipes are far from ideal for ITM. Their range is too limited and they’re much louder than a typical uilleann chanter.
I just went and re found the video, he said ideal for playing with other instruments, not ITM. So my bad. But he does mention tuning stability and how they play better with other instruments multiple times, so my memory is at least partially good haha. It was somewhere else, I think some makers website saying people were buying BP for ITM or something. But that could also be wrong lol. But I agree that its not the ideal instrument for ITM.
The video for anyone interested
This says reelpipes but I thought reelpipe and bp are interchangeable names.
I play reel pipes and pastoral Pipes . The reel pipes are perfect for big sessions . My pastoral pipes are quite , ok for small sessions . On pastoral pipes there are few tunes that cant be played . On reel pipes there are a surprising number of standard tunes that can be played .
Pastoral pipes are The old Irish pipe , thst developed into union pipes by removal if the foot joint and sharpening of the C . So a tune like king of the pipers can only be played without mangling on the PP .