I just got my new practice set. I have had a lot of playability problems. Including but not limited to one of two reeds that really doesn’t make ANY sound whatsoever, no matter how much air pressure I put through it. This led me to realize that when I close ALL of the holes on the chanter, air is escaping from the top of the chanter (the part that comes off to reveal the reed). Should I wrap this with some more twine of some sort to tighten up the seal? There is quite a bit of air escaping!
Yes, you should definitely wrap it with more twine, and/or teflon tape. When the finger holes are closed and the chanter is on your knee, there shouldn’t be any air escaping anywhere. If you have leaks, be it in the bellows, bag, connection hose or chanter, you’re going to have problems getting notes, particularly in the upper octave.
Good luck, and welcome to the addiction! 
I wouldn’t recommend teflon tape because it shreads easily and gets very messy. Use some hemp thread (available from your local cobbler) or failing that, some nylon sewing thread.
The reed that doesn’t sound probably needs to be adjusted - it may be that the lips are open too far. What type of bridle is on the reed? Is it a copper strip or are there a few wraps of some sort of wire? If it’s wire, have a look at the following link on reed adjustment from Nick Whitmer:
Good advice, but don’t touch the reed until your certain you’ve got all the leaks dealt with.
Who made your pipes?
Doc
I would like to thank Pat Sky for answering all of my rookie questions. I ended up ordering the Deluxe practice set with C nat. and F nat keys added.
Frae an earlier posting of trey73 
Uilliam
Oh no you di’n’t!!! 
For the record I did not mention Mr Sky’s name in this post because I am not criticizing him and I didn’t want it to be construed that way. Mr. Sky has worked with me to make quite sure that I am happy with my purchase. I am in no way unhappy with Mr. Pat Sky.
I also understand that when a handbuilt musical instrument goes from 1000 ft above sea level to 30,000 ft in air transit, back to 400 ft above sea level, and then spends a couple days in trucks where the cargo areas aproach 120 degrees Farenheit, and then gets delivered into a 70 degree climate controlled room…(wow what a run-on sentence)… that things are going to expand and contract quite a bit.
I am simply asking fellow pipers some advice on how to adjust and maintain my instrument, and see what needs adjustment specifically. I cant give you a real review on the quality of the pipes compared to others because I have only ever tinkered with one other set. Admittedly that other set was MUCH easier to get notes out of, but it was also properly adjusted by it’s owner who told me their value was approximately $4000.00
Trey - Everyone has to add binding to their sets from time to time. The tenon section on the chanter, bellows, bag, stock drones, even the bass drone slide section, even the regulators. No matter how tight to apply the binding, it will get more compressed, and hence loosen, when ever you move the reedcap. I don’t think it has anything to do with the shipping of your pipes.
The reed doesn’t sound like it’s a problem - it just needs adjustment like I pointed out in my earlier post.
These are all normal issues. Uilleann pipes are not like an electric guitar which you plug and play. They’re more like a living thing, constantly changing, adjusting, and needing attention.
I had my practice set about 3 months before I knew you could remove the reed!!
Thanks for the replies!
I have another question…and er …I am going to sound like a fool because I don’t know the proper names for the parts of the chanter and reed yet.
My chanter connects to the bag on the side, not the top. Is there a proper orientation of the duckbill looking part of the reed in relation to where the air from the bag enters the chanter? I have only tinkered with adjusting the reeds height in the chanter and nothing else ( I can’t play ANY notes in the 2nd octave!). It does bother me that when I put the top of the chanter back on and turn it so the orientation is correct in relation with the finger holes, I can hear part of the reed scraping on the inside of the brass tubing, it seems that the maybe the bridle or something is scraping against the walls of the brass. hmmm.
I do understand that this instrument takes years to be fairly proficient with them, and that they need constant adjustment. I am just getting overwhelmingly discouraged that tuning everyone claims to be the bane is not the problem yet. Half of the time the damn thing wont even make a sound! 
Trey, the reed has a wooden portion where two halves of a grass-like reed material (arundo donax) are pressed together like a pair of lips (your “duck bill”) and a tube coming out the other end. The tube must be inserted firmly into the top of the chanter, so that the reed lips are facing the incoming air from the bag.
The whole reed must be perfectly centred in the top of the chanter so that it does not touch the inner sides of the chanter top (wind cap). The whistling/air rushing noise you hear is the reed not sitting firmly in the top of the chanter in an airtight fashion
Please get yourself the NPU DVD Volume 1.
djm
Thankyou for your response. I think you may possibly be misunderstanding my question, or I may possibly be misunderstanding your answer
I have the video. The staple of reed fits very snugly into the top of the chanter. There is no possibility of axial movement. The air that I hear is definitely not coming from where the reed staple fits into the chanter.
Imagine that you are looking down from a birdseye view to the top of the chanter. Now imagine that the point where the bag connects to the chanter is at 12 o’clock. Does it matter if the lips of the reed span from the 3 o’clock position to the 9 o’clock position for example?
No, it should not matter, unless there is a projection or foreign object inside the chanter top.
djm