Anyone familiar with these pipes?

[Nighthawk]

http://www.sulshi.com/

They look decent, and have a good reputation. I was tossing around the idea of getting a set of pipes from them. Are they worth the $400?

[JS Sanders]

Familiar? - "yes". And under no circumstances purchase them.

There're ain't nothing but heartache written all over 'em. They're made in Pakistan.

Save your money for a quality set... something your piping tutor recommends.

Slainte,
steve

[Nighthawk]

Familiar? - "yes". And under no circumstances purchase them.

There're ain't nothing but heartache written all over 'em. They're made in Pakistan.

Save your money for a quality set... something your piping tutor recommends.

Slainte,
steve

So- what is it that's wrong with them (other than where they're made)? What should I look out for?

[JS Sanders]

<< So- what is it that's wrong with them (other than where they're made)? What should I look out for? >>

-------------------------------------------
Nighthawk,

Pakistani pipes are marketed to those who know no better. Take a look at ebay.com, or check out at a touristy-kitschy shop in Scotland.

Their construction is shoddy, and all the sets I've seen are practically un-playable. The chanters aren't tuned, the wood is often checked, loose fittings, and the leather bags don't hold air. I don't even like to contemplate their state of cleanliness.

IF they could be made play-able, it'd take just as much money to refurbish them as already spent. For decoratively wallhangers, there's none better.

Ask your instructor what he plays - that's a good start. A quality set can be had for about $900 and up. There are used sets out there, but it's like buying a horse - you better know what you're doing.

Don't enjoy bursting bubbles, but I have several people annually contact me with the same question, except they've already purchase the 'pipes'.

Best advice of all is to locate a piping instructor.

Slainte,
steve

[Nighthawk]

<< So- what is it that's wrong with them (other than where they're made)? What should I look out for? >>

-------------------------------------------
Nighthawk,

Pakistani pipes are marketed to those who know no better. Take a look at ebay.com, or check out at a touristy-kitschy shop in Scotland.

Their construction is shoddy, and all the sets I've seen are practically un-playable. The chanters aren't tuned, the wood is often checked, loose fittings, and the leather bags don't hold air. I don't even like to contemplate their state of cleanliness.

IF they could be made play-able, it'd take just as much money to refurbish them as already spent. For decoratively wallhangers, there's none better.

Ask your instructor what he plays - that's a good start. A quality set can be had for about $900 and up. There are used sets out there, but it's like buying a horse - you better know what you're doing.

Don't enjoy bursting bubbles, but I have several people annually contact me with the same question, except they've already purchase the 'pipes'.

Best advice of all is to locate a piping instructor.

Slainte,
steve

Really?!?! Holy crap!! Actually, I'm taking my first lesson in ten years tomorrow. I'll ask him about where I can get a good starter set. Thanks for the information. I am the guy who know no better and I know it- thats why I posted here, so you people (who do know better!!) could stop me from wasting $400!! Thanks a lot. I'll let you know how my first lesson goes. I taught myself the scale and have already started figuring out the gracenotes all on my own. Yeah, I'm excited. With my wife working again, we can afford to do things! I never got back to playing because I broke my chanter and I never was able to replace it- until a week ago.

Again, Steve, George- thanks for the advice!!

[SteveB]

That is the great thing about this board. TRUTH.
Now does anyone know of a tutor in the Boston area??. I do want to learn correctly from the beginning. Starting with the chanter. I am not looking at pipes until I get the chanter down right.

[george7]

I got a set... our members use them for photo ops such as scuba diving. They're not even decent enough to use as decoration, but seem OK for distant and underwater photography.

[Mr. Woolery]

Specific things that can be (and often are) wrong with Pakistani bagpipes:

-Poorly seasoned wood (means shrinking, which will often result in cracks, will certainly throw off the stability of the tuning)

-Inaccurate boring (so the pipes won't tune properly in the first place - proper relationships of drone bores are vital to a good tone and also a big part of just remaining in tune and stable)

-Hairy bores (wood fibers sticking up in the bore, which create turbulence that will interfere with the sound your drone is supposed to produce)

-Greasy bag (the hide bags could probably work fine if they didn't come with slimy grease oozing out of them - one set I saw last week had a plastic wrapper over the bag under the bag cover to keep the brown mung from staining the bag cover)

-Bad chanter (as already mentioned, even slight faults in the reaming of the chanter can play havoc with the tuning and the finger holes are often not in the optimal positions - very small differences in measurement make a very large difference in functionality)

So, presuming the drones were capable of being salvaged, a set of Pakistani bagpipes would set you back $200-400. A new bag (trust me, that grease is disturbing) is around $125 (hide, a synthetic will be more). Decent chanter will be about $150 new, but used chanters can be had for $100 fairly easily. All new reeds (the reeds with these sets are generally pretty bad) will be at least $100 (that's for one chanter reed and a fairly cheap set of drone reeds, but you can push it higher easily enough). Then, time spent smoothing the bores and oiling the wood will be needed. The stocks need to be retied into the new bag, the blowpipe valve will probably need to be replaced (another $5, not a big deal), some time with hemp to make the joints secure. And that all assumes your Pakistani drones work in the first place.

Grand total? About double the cost of the pipes alone (that's minimum - you can make these things cost more than a starter level Scottish pipe).

Compare that with a set of McCallum AB0 pipes from John Higgins (best price I know of at the moment) for about $900. Already set up and essentially ready to play. The Scottish Piper has Wallace student pipes for about $750. Also in real blackwood.

I'm not endorsing any particular brand or retailer.

Seems to me the Pakistani pipes should be possible to make a little better. There are apparently some companies capable of doing proper work over there. However, the results I have seen are rather nasty. It would be nice if someone could oversee quality control and turn out student pipes that would work for beginners for half the price of good pipes. Sort of like how Stillwater kilts can be had (from Pakistan) to make kilts a lot cheaper for poor folks. They sure aren't the same as a tailored kilt, but they work well and are exactly what they claim to be. Why someone hasn't done that with bagpipes is beyond me.

-Patrick

[Jack Daw]

There's no such thing as bargain-priced on bagpipes. I suspect even well-known maker pipes priced lower than $1,000.

[Kiltedfirepiper]

as a mostly self-taught piper I need to chime in.

it IS possible to teach yourself pipes, however I don't recommend it. mind you I was/am SUPER critical of my playing and will practice the same movement over ad nausem(sp) till it sounds perfect. I've played with alot of pipers who tell me I sound great. and I have friends who play that teach me something new all the time. I have good tone, and play in tune tyvm
I'll tell you what....I'm gonna make a video of my playing and put it up here.
and you can tell me if my playing is so bad BECAUSE I'm self taught

I've been playing for about 8 years, and I would probably be a grade one piper now if I started out w/ a teacher. of course I've never wanted to compete so that doesnt matter to me anyways.

i started out with a pakistani set that I got for 400. the drones were ok, the bag was workable, the chanter was shyte. add 100 bones for a new chanter, add having to buy a big roll of "hemp" to rehemp all the joints, new reeds all around ( another 150-200).
I also retied the bag and that made it better.
eventually I spent about 750-800 george washingtons to get an "ok" set of pipes. but I did get compliments on the sound " for a pakistan set"

now if I would have just held on to my $ a little while longer I would have found bobdunsire.com and found out what you're finding out now. cheap pipes (mostly) are just that......cheap

sometimes you can find a gonga deal if you look . I recently saw a 70's set of robertsons on craigs list for 300... real Ivory/silver ( I wish I had the $ to get them at the time )
for a good starter set that would eventually be a good "pub/beataround/outdoor/backup" set I would say Dunbar Polypenco pipes. you can get them just as fancy as blackwood w/o the price OF blackwood. the set I got (dunbarP2's, banatyne bag, omega drone reeds,and adjustable blowpipe) was 1400 from Thompson's and son in Flagstaff. I went up to his shop when I bought them, and he set me up great! my next set will be dunbars as well... just the sticks as my banatyne is still in great shape.

no offense to the other pipers, but for a while i stopped going to BDF's because when someone tried to get an answer to a question on anything having to do with learning the knee jerk answer was " get/ask an/your instructor" with no actual help given to the person asking the question.
sometimes you dont have the option on an instructor. be it distance
( and yea Ive heard the " I know a guy who drove (enter time greater than an hour)one way " stories) or money (the excuse of well if you cant afford lessons then you cant afford the instument and you shouldn't play....believe me I've heard it) if everyone helped everyone else then the collective "ability" of the pipers out there would be elevated. instead of looking down the nose of self taught pipers ( and Ive heard the bad ones too)
help them or at the very least let them know you play too( the real bad ones will refrain from playing while you're around) and sometimes you have to hit them over the head with a stick and tell them that 1 you play as well 2 they sound like processed hay fed to a cow 3 give them a card to an instructor.
anytime I met another piper and I maybe fell out of tune a little they would give me the universal sign for " want me to tune you?" ( which loks like you're mimeing turning a pepper mill btw) I always said yes and took any advice/help that was offered. that happened alot in the beginning when I would find a park to practice in....now it never happens

anytime I see a question asked (if it hasn't been answered already) I try to answer it to the best of my ability, or at the very least send them to somewhere where the answer may be found.


ok ...story/rant over I guess

FKP