Hello, I'm returning to the piping scene, I used to play GHBs for the Umaine Mens Rugby team back in 2007-2008, just coming back from a 9 year pause on piping. booooo I know. So I thought to myself, you know how to use a lathe, how hard can turning a set of small pipes be? certainly not easy, but have learned a lot in turning my practice set. I have a gibson practice chanter so I made myself a set of bellows and a vinyl bag, thank you David Daye for your youtube videos, and a reed cap to mount the chanter in (I'll post a photo at some point). It works great but reed blows out a lot, I think it needs to be replaced, not in good physical condition. So I've got some questions and wondering if anyone out there might know some answers.

#1 Could I buy a smallpipe chanter reed in A and throw it on my gibson practice chanter and expect anything good?

#2 My next project on the lathe is a main stock and drones. I have some rough ideas but would love input if anyone is willing to give
- using a set of eezedrone smallpipes drone reeds for "A"
- I'm doing black walnut or african blackwood with copper fittings, maple and/or purple heart mounts and brass tube tuning slides
- thinking 3/16" bore through most sections and using 1/4" brass tube for tuning slides
- not really sure on the overall length, any known free resources on this would be greatly appreciated
- thinking iron wood or african blackwood for main stock

#3 does anyone have any proper bag size measurments for a tall large man? I made a bag but it just seems not right.
- I made it like an uilleann bag but maybe to deep?
- its 11" deep and 23" long, and rectangle shaped
- I'm thinking i just made it too big.

Anyways, I would love to start some conversations so let me know your thoughts!!

Cheers, Warpwookie

Can't help you with your smallpipe questions, sorry - but on the set of uilleann pipes I have handy and am playing most right now (a flat set pitched in B), the bag (minus the neck) is only 16" long and 10" deep. The neck is another 12". I am 6'2" and 16 Stone (225 lbs.), and this bag has always been comfortable and plenty of air for the set. I can't imagine that smallpipes would take more air or need more bag volume than my flat set.

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Deartháir don phaidir an port.

Thanks for the reply much appreciated, the 23" is from neck to tail with the neck being about 3-4". It's short because I made a long chanter bag stock it's about 4.5". Give your measurement though I could definitely make it less deep by 2" and probably take off like 1-2" in length on mach2 model

Hi Warpwookie

Detailed instructions for making a smallpipe chanter reed yourself here:

https://www.evansbagpipes.co.uk/images/ ... dprint.pdf

Eric Reiswig's pvc smallpipes here. Drones and mainstock measurements might be useful?:

http://www3.telus.net/ereiswig/ssp_make.htm

A wealth of information on making Northumbrian smallpipes here. Some application to the Scottish version?:

http://www.machineconcepts.co.uk/smallpipes/pipe2.htm

Hope this helps.

wow thank you so much for the info, much appreciated!

Hey got a picture together, check it out

https://imgur.com/3sDnMhX

Nice work. Good onya as they say down here!

Years of experience suggests that this is much too wide. Our bores are: High A, 3mm: Baritone E 3.5mm: Bass A tenon 3.5mm, slide 11/64 inch (sorry, don't know the metric conversion!). The modern SSP were derived from Northumbrian Pipes in D (which also play in A, same pitch as SSP and same reeds). Much useful information on Mike Nelson's Northumbrian Pipe making website, including detailed drawings. The Northumbrian D chanter will give you a good starting point for the SSP chanter in A as far as bore and hole spacings are concerned, although you will need to tweak the spacings a bit.

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www.evansbagpipes.co.uk

Sorry, there was a mistake in the bore figures in my previous message. The tenor A drone is 3mm tenon/3.5mm slide.

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www.evansbagpipes.co.uk

is this Mike's page?

http://www.machineconcepts.co.uk/smallpipes/pipe2.htm

Yes, loads of useful information there.

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www.evansbagpipes.co.uk