Hello,
Do you know any maker who can make SMALL but efficient bellows? I own standard Kelleher bellows & bag which are just great, but for new practice set I want to try SMALL bellows. For the bag, I plan to build my own for start, using vinyl to experiment with shapes and sizes, but don’t know which maker template to follow - I heard Rogge are smaller bags. Am I right or any other suggestion who makes small bags? – on the photo of Benedict Koehler I saw he play with small one which he probably made himself?
Once a good pipemaker told me that smaller bags give better control, feel and posture, so I want to try it - I always believed bigger is better, not anymore.
Thank you for help 
I recently bought a Brian Howard practise set and the bellows are very small and very efficient!
David Quinn makes a small bellows. There is a video of his technique on the NPU source if you are interested. His theory is smaller is better.
Interesting. All of my bellows from different makers have been roughly the same size. Do you know about what percentage smaller Quinn bellows are? I’ll definitely check out his videos when I make bellows next year.
I heard Cillian O’Briain is using the same design, or mybe he changed something.
My bellows are apr. 135 wide and 255 long (measuring the leather part). How much smaller Howard bellows actualy are?
Can you post few photos of your bellows here, (PM if you prefer)?
I think David is making standard size bellows for customers, but he personaly prefer smaller example he made for himself. In NPU video he probably talk about larger version?
YES, it would be nice to get idea in numbers or percentage:
normal bellows apr. 135 x 255 mm
small bellows ??? x ??? mm
I would think small bellows are better for practice set, when you have small bag and easy to blow chanter reed, and bigger bellows for full set.
Here’s a picture of my Howard set. The beverage is only for scale… I promise.. I haven’t tried, but Brian Howard says these bellows can drive a full set. Anyone else playing Howard pipes? I’d like to hear what you think as this is the first and only pipes I have played.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/4lgdnsrcktrmhh5/Fil%2017.12.2016%2C%2023.36.34.jpeg?dl=0
I have a Gordon Galloway full set, and he uses the same bellows design as Cillian O’Briain. Not at home, but hey are roughly 3/4 the size of my other bellows, and they work fine to drive a full set. I don’t know why they are so efficient, but with my other bellows I have the feeling that a lot of energy is wasted collapsing the leather folds because I don’t feel air entering the bag until after my elbow for a while. With the the Galloway bellows, as soon as I move my elbow I feel air coming into the bag. Highly recommend.
Hugh
I don’t know where they rate size wise but I have a set of hope bellows. They seem small and perform very well, they drive my half set no problem
Kelleher makes a smaller bellows. They are efficient and inexpensive.
Just remembered that Leo Rowsome made small bellows too.
John Rutzen’s bellows are very small, very efficient and beautifully made.
I had some on a set of his smallpipes a couple of years ago and they were about a third smaller than my Hope bellows but did the business.
I believe he retired this year so you probably won’t get a new set, but there’s quite a few sets of his pipes out there and not everyone belongs to the “small is beautiful” camp so you might well pick some up second hand.
Cheers
DaveL