Ray Sloan's Pipes

Uilleann Pipes
1

Does anyone have an opinion on his pipes?

2

i know ray and have great respect for him as a pipemaker. i do not have his u-pipes but do have a set of his smallpipes. his craftsmanship is excellent. his waiting times on practice sets are short. the limitations on his pipes are:

  1. he does not have a trackrecord on full sets- his regulators have just recently come out of the experimental stage. in practice they may not be available for a while. if you want regs fairly soon, someone else may have to make them. some would say this is not ideal.
  2. he is not local to most of us. i believe that if one can get an excellent local maker thats the best way to go. he is however, quite local to you.
  3. his work is not cheap, so maybe not the best set for someone who is not sure they want to continue on pipes. although i must say they seem to retain their value when traded on e-bay or on forums like this.

i would encourage you to pay him a visit if you have not already. its worth the several hour drive. he is in a beautiful place, has a nice shop, and loves visitors. he will let you see his set, replete with his new regs. he will show you sets he is working on and probably let you try one.

then go by your instinct.

good piping

meir

3

I have one of Ray’s Uilleann practice set’s. The machining quality and general craftsmanship seem very good to me.

4

I have no experience of his union pipes, but I’ve had the chance to fettle several of his Scottish and Northumbrian Smallpipes over the years.

I have always been extremely impressed by his workmanship, and the infrequency with which his pipes are offered for re-sale (SSP = rarely, NSP = NEVER) are a testimony to how their owners regard them.

5

I too have not had a chance to check out Ray’s Uilleann pipes. However, his Scottish smallpipes are just about the best I’ve ever heard and the quality was outstanding.

6

Doc Jones, at the Irish Flute Store, has a half set of Sloan’s for sale at the bargain rate of $1775 US.

7

Ray’s work is awesome, and his post-sale support is excellent. I own a D practice set, and the tone is wonderful. It is a lovely piece of work. Definitely not cheap, but worth the money, imho.

8

I play a 1/2 set of Ray’s pipes with Bruce Childress regs.
I also own his SSP. I love both sets of pipes. The drones are very steady on both sets with great tone.
I really like my chanter too. It does everything I need it to. I have the original chanter reed still rockin’ in it.