Chiff and Fipple Forums

That Pizza Itallia session is legend! The mandolin player is a beast!

What a stroke of luck today! Who should walk into our session tonight but an honest to God Uilleann piper! I just about fell out of my chair. It was the guy who I had heard about just moving into town, and we exchanged numbers and whatnot. Unfortunately he doesn't make reeds, but who knows, I might ...

hoopy mike wrote:...try playing the whistle whilst jogging...

Wow, as if my neighbors don't think I'm weird enough already!

I don't know, Elf. I practically have a PhD in surliness. Perhaps the sarcastic tone didn't get through the net. The problem with point (a) is, why would you spend a gazillion pounds/dollars/whatever on a set of uilleann pipes and then deal with the hassle of keeping the damned things going if you ...

You seem a little too well balanced and surl-free to be a piper.

I think that it's probably worth while given the relative scarcity of the instrument. Particularly in cases of older sets by revered makers of the past. Maybe the whole idea is to gage what's out there? That’s where details could come in handy too, like what condition the sets are in, or who restore...

I would honestly like to know how any of you can tell that it's 'bad piping' or that he has no technique. Fair enough if you didn't care for it, or if you think the UPs should not venture outside of tradition or whatever. That's just taste and opinion. But what makes you so sure that he couldn't tur...

Well, I listened again and still like it. I may not know didly about the pipes, but I would like to think I've got a pretty good ear for music.

I admit I’m a little torn which way to go, but the fact that a piper local to me and willing to help out is advising me one way tilts me in favor of following his advice. Time will tell if that was the right course of action, I suppose. In the mean time I’m keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that...

What about the climate, though? Is there nothing to the the idea that a reed working fine in Ireland might dry out and not perform in a climate as different as Texas?

Amazing! Such pathos, and of a culture alien to the instrument even. Is that you, Carp?

Well the plot has thickened a bit. I was able to spend some time with a highland piper, who has UP experience, though he was forced to sell his set some years back. One thing he discovered was that the valve that keeps the air in the bag from returning to the bellows was missing. So even if I had fo...

Thanks everyone, I’ll let you know what happens. In the mean time I’ve got a gig a a kid’s birthday party blowing up the balloons. Can’t just let my bag and bellows lay around, you know. Seriously though, I've got a couple of leads on pipers in the area (San Antonio Texas), but I haven't managed to ...

Thanks, guys. Mr. Vignoles said that he would be glad to fix me up and that I should send the chanter to him. I’ve been wanting to play the pipes forever so I guess a couple more weeks won’t kill me. I think I’ll go ahead and get a couple of those unfinshed reeds too and see if I can get them in lin...

I just took possession of a used Vignoles practice set! However the reed appears to be a non starter. I can't get it to crow, and it's plastic besides. So where do I go from here? I know that eventually I'm going to have to start making them, but I would like to get something 'workable' a.s.a.p. so ...