Years of hunting, searching are over. My first set of Uilleann Pipes arrived this morning. What are my first impressions of the SIMACK set? Very asthetically pleasing and the chanter read is easy to blow. The upper octave requires slightly harder sqwees but not extreamly difficult.
The read also sounded a bit sharp…mind you it’s gone through a bit of a climate shock coming from the rather cool temperate climats of Lithgow, to the hot and humid climate of North Queensland. I’ve decided to leave the reed alone for the time being and see how it settles down. I haven’t tried tunning the drownes or reg’s yet as I’m only a beginner .
The set is extreamly air tight, no leakes at all. Everything fits me perfectly (being second hand). All in all I’m very impressed with the set, now I know why people speak highly of the SIMACK pipes
For pictures, “See Pics of Your Pipes Thread”. One happy piper.
Welcome to the world of Simack pipers. I’ve been playing one of Ian’s sets for the last three years and have come to really appreciate his workmanship now that I’ve got a really good reed in it.
If you can get a back-up reed incase something goes wrong, I suggest that you have a go at reed adjustment (with the use of a reed adjustment guide) because reed adjustment is something that you are going to have to do at some point in your piping life. Maybe even delve into reed making (if your sanity is up to it!).
Give the read a bit of time to settle into the new climate and bingo perfeclty in tune without any mucking around. They sound beutiful (the pipes) . My hands are all tired after practicing scales (off the NPU video). I’ve even managed to get up to the high D in the second octave .
Orriginally Posted By Goldy If you can get a back-up reed incase something goes wrong, I suggest that you have a go at reed adjustment (with the use of a reed adjustment guide) because reed adjustment is something that you are going to have to do at some point in your piping life. Maybe even delve into reed making (if your sanity is up to it!).
Ian made me three extra reeds plus extra reeds for the drones. Out of interest Goldy who made yours? Since things are all running smoothly now I’m not going to be touching the read in a hurrey (unless I really have to;).
congrats.
the sharpness is common. much easier to flatten notes (by taping) then to sharpen.
i concur with the “don’t touch the reed if it is in tune with itself” school. if you have a nice bottom d, a nice back D and a fair middle octave E you are doing well.
i would, however, try each of the spare reeds, say a few days each.
why?
first of all, if your main one misbehaves, you want to know which is the best alternate.
secondly, if any of the extra reeds are too closed (look closed to the eye, blow to easily, easy but shrill and ugly second octave, no good bottom D) you need to know that. i have been told by people on this forum that you do not want to store a reed in the closed condition.
so although i would be against reed tampering this early in your career, i would deal with a closed reed now.
how to do this depends on the reed. some you would move the bridle every so slightly toward the top, some you would give a gentle squeeze on the ends of the bridle. ask your maker what he recommends.
seth says on his web site that he thinks it should be called a starter set.
i would be all for calling it a uilleann chanter, it proper name. the song-of-the-sea stick not withstanding, if you say you are playing a chanter, people should understand that the bag and bellows are there. after all, we way we play a fiddle, and the bow is kind of assumed. same deal.
The reeds have started to adjust to theire new climat and seem to be getting more mellow and less sharp. I now I’m repeating myself, but Ian is an excellent maker and these are an excellent set of pipes. Beets the L.Dunne set I played at NPU hands down.
Out of interest Goldy who made yours? Since things are all running smoothly now I’m not going to be touching the read in a hurrey (unless I really have to;).
I made my current reed with some Medir cane. I found Ian’s reeds a little too loud and too stiff for my liking so I took to making my own reeds after over scraping a few of his reeds. The reeds that I have played of Ian’s are good and in-tune so don’t feel like you need to take up reed making to get a better reed than Ian can make, because you won’t.
The cane from Reeds Australia, (which I imagine Ian is still using), I have found to create very bright sounding reeds that can only be quietened to a point that is not quiet enough. Plus the cane is difficult to work with due to its hardness.
If you get into reed making, I suggest you buy from Medir - you will be better-off for it!
Actually, I’ve just found out that you can get soft cane from Reeds Australia but you have to specifically ask for it. Adrian Jefferies told me he has purchased this type of cane from them and it has been quite soft plus the reeds he has made from it have not been that loud at all.
On the subject of loudness - I’ve found that we can be easily deceived into thinkting that our chanter is too loud because of our position with respect to the chanter plus the environment we are playing in. I for a long time thought my chanter was too loud but when I asked Adrian to play it for me, I heard it’s sound for the first time from in front and about a meter and a half away and it was very mellow indeed. When I took it from him and played it mysef it sounded much louder again. The same happened with his chanter - to me it sounded mellow and sweet and not loud, but as soon as I plugged it in a played it myself it took on a whole new characteristic.
Ausdag,
You’ve probably got a point about loudness in close proximity. I’ve experienced my chanter sounding really loud in a small or echoed space due to sound bouncing back at me, and when I played it in a large space for the first time, I thought that the reed had closed up because it sounded so quiet.
When I ordered my cane from Reeds Australia, I ordered a 50/50 mix of hard and soft cane. The softer cane was still much harder than Medir’s cane. I asked Ian to make me a couple of soft cane reeds a couple of years ago, which played at a much lower air pressure and so were probably quiet playing. However, due to me living in a small apartment at the time, they sounded loud and so I scraped them to make them quieter which stuffed them up. I still stand by what I said about Medir cane being better. I’ve only made two reeds with it so far, but it is definately easier to work with (softer) and has produced a much sweeter tone to all my previous reeds (For those who reading this who don’t know, Ausdag introduced me to the World of Medir with some of his cane from an old crop).
I suppose it’s all a matter of taste. Some like a louder, brighter sounding reed for playing in sessions and some like a mellow, sweeter sounding reed for playing at home. I’m with the latter.
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I would like to add drones soon.
