Hummelchen, Sackpipa or other for a complete beginner

[memling]

a friend of mine wants to start to play the bagpipe, he never plays reeds instruments (he plays the baroque recorder), so, he's looking for a good , cheap but not bad, beginner instrument.
Hummelchen is probably the best pipe, because it has the same fingering of recorder. But, an italian piper we know, suggested the swedish sackpipa because it's easy to play and tune
He has a low budget, 450-550 euros.

A good choice, always in the opinion of the italian piper, is children plastic pipe, called WeePipe

[MichaelLoos]

It all depends on what kind of music your friend wants to play.
The WeePipe has scottish bagpipe fingering (AFAIK - strange enough, the homepage doesn't give any information on that) and should therefore be suitable for scottish music in the first place. It seems to me that it is basically a practice chanter fitted with a bag and a single drone.
The säckpipa is made to suit Swedish music, as can be expected. Neither scottish nor säckpipa fingerings have much iin common with recorder fingering. Both these instruments play diatonic scales.
The Hümmelchen suits Renaissance music very well, and indeed uses recorder fingering, although lately instruments with french bagpipe fingering have also become available. Most Hümmelchen are capable of producing an almost fully chromatic scale.

[maki]

Have you looked at Seth Hamon's cast poly pipes for decent, affordable Sackpipa?
http://www.swedishbagpipes.com/Plastic_ ... pipes.html

[memling]

Have you looked at Seth Hamon's cast poly pipes for decent, affordable Sackpipa?
http://www.swedishbagpipes.com/Plastic_ ... pipes.html

This sackpipa is what we search!!! Many thanks maki!

[bepoq]

Hi All,

As an alternative, here is a wee set made by Ian Corrigan of Deerness pipes. He calls them his Dunholm pipes, and they are basically a Scottish smallpipe in a sackpipa body (he built them for Paul Martin to take into schools and teach with—fairly sturdy etc.). Similar price to the ones mentioned above, though more if you want the fancy version. Very nice little pipes and super sturdy and portable (see below). Fairly versatile too: you can have the leading notes sharp or lowered, or both with a rubber band to shift, he'll put in a minor third with right thumb hole if you like, mouth or bellows blown or two inputs for both, and he can sort them out in most fingerings for you. Anyone interested drop me a line and I'll put you in touch.


DSC07327 by bepoq, on Flickr


DSC07329 by bepoq, on Flickr

Ben

[anima]

What are they made of?

[memling]

has Ian Corrigan a website, or a mail address? Is he american or european?

[bepoq]

@anima. Not sure, some reddish wood with antler mounts.

@memling. no website I'm afraid. Both Ian and his colleague, Paul Martin, (together, Deerness pipes) a very fine piper, are from County Durham in the Northwest of England. He usually works through Paul, who sets the pipes up and fine tunes them before they go out. If you search for him on youtube, you'll see a couple of videos that say x type of pipes for y. These are ones that are put up for prospective buyers once their pipes are ready to see if they are sounding right for their expectations. You can also send a message to Paul through that, though also at horsaATfsmailDOTnet I believe is his public email address.

Let me know if you have any trouble, I'll be glad to run as go between. Just tell me what you think you might be looking for and I'll give Ian and Paul a call and get you in touch directly. You can email me with details if you like benpowerDOTinfo@gmailDOTcom or PM me.

I cannot recommend them highly enough, great lads, and fine pipes. (if you search on here in the pictures of pipes thread you'll see a really wonderful looking set of Border pipes Ian made)

[bepoq]

@anima

turns out they're made of Anjan, a timber from India also known as the medical tree.


Ian says "The price would have to be 250 -350 (pounds sterling) + case + p&p + any extra for exotic timbers, mounts, + bellows if wanted in addition to or instead of mouth blown (he's not enthusiastic about the bellows but will do them if anyone is really interested—I think I'd recommend getting them from a dedicated bellows maker and just asking for a bellows blow hole on the pipes to be honest, if you went that way, you'd probably get just as good a set for less money). Timbers- Pear, Lemon wood (bit like boxwood, but not as good tonally), Apple,Cherry, Yew, English Wallnut, exotics Blackwood, Box, Mopane, Bocote, Mugurure, Cocobolo etc." Can't remember if I mentioned, but the mounts on mine above are antler. He could do that, or wood, or brass, or none for the least expensive sort of set.

Says he's happy to sell through me if anyone is interested (I'll not be taking a cut, don't worry—he's a good mate, just be doing it as a favour, so you'd get his price and he'd get all the money). I can be reached through my website in my sig, as well as by PM.

[bepoq]

His Yew wood and fuming process make for very nice looking pipes. And it is local, indigenous, sustainable (etc. etc. etc.) wood. Here is a border chanter in yew he did for me.


DSC07331 by bepoq, on Flickr

[Doogie]

Nice, it looks like it has a foot joint.

As for the Sackpipa. You will want a set of my synthetic reeds regardless of the set you buy. All sackpipas have cane reeds and a many of piper has given up on the Sackpipa because they are known to be a terrible instrument to tune. I spent a year developing these reeds and they work so well that i no longer use cane and i supply some of the big namr makers in Sweden too. Not to prop myself up but ive seen a lot of disappointed pioers with nice pipes that were constantly frustrated with their pipes until they went with synthetic reeds. This problem is corrected with my reeds although they probably won't work in the instrument shown above as it's a Scottish Smallpipe made to look like a Sackpipa. Cheers, Seth Hamon. SwedishBagpipes.com

[bepoq]

Hi Seth,

Does a bit doesn't it, but no footjoint actually.
I'll be after one of your reeds shortly for sure—fantastic stuff—I just had a chat with Mike McHarg about them.

I wouldn't say it is quite fair to say that those above were made to look like a sackpipa—I mean they don't entirely in a number of ways, do they?—it kind of makes it sound like Ian wanted to disguise a set of smallpipes as them, or that he likes the sackpipa look better or something, whereas they were actually designed to be a sturdy instrument that would stand up to rough handling in schools or travel. Now without doubt, Ian took some inspiration and ideas from the construction of sackpipa which seem to be sturdy wee things in comparison to spindly smallpipes, but it had to do with solidity and function, rather than look. (not speculating here, I've actually talked with him at length). His usual Scottish smallpipes which are also very nice are, well, relatively normal looking for smallpipes.

cheers,

Ben

[bepoq]

Just in case anyone is interested in those there Dunholme pipes (the smallpipes that look sackpipaish up above), I've just put in an order for a couple of sets for students of mine that Ian is going to do in the next couple of months. He says he can easily add in a set or two more, so if you'd like to get in on it, drop my a pm or email (you can get me through my website in my sig). He says he may send an extra set or two over anyway, so if anyone is around Socal, you can try a set, or possibly the Northeast in December. Nifty wee things and relatively inexpensive. He just priced out one in cocobolo with antler mounts and two blow pipe stocks for mouth blown or bellows at £370. The same in yew was £340.