I’ve always found Uilleann Pipes amazing, not just for their sound, but also because they can be stunning to look at, so here I am asking all of you seasoned and well travelled pipers - what is the best looking set of pipes you’ve ever seen? Who owned them? Who made them?
Share your stories, and preferably, your pictures!
I may be biased (although I don’t think so), but my personal favourite looking set is my B flat set that was made by Joe Kennedy. Ebony, nickle silver, and moose and deer antler mounts.
It’s a tough question, and difficult to reduce it to one, but the following set would certainly appear in my top 10:
(photo by Colm Hogan and borrowed from NPU’s website)
Of course I’m biased. They sound pretty good too.
Uilleann pipes are like your children, your own are always the most beautiful.
RORY
I never thought my D set was the most beautiful… I’m a terrible parent.
I almost agree with Rory. My Roberts pipes are gorgeous and I have lived with them for 15 years.
However, I am still a big fan of Alain Froment and Michael Hubbert pipes. Amazing craftmanship.
So, if I had to order a new set someday, I would probably buy a set from Hubbert unless someone had a nice used set of Froments for sale.
Cheers! Richard
Sound great! Do you have a photo you could share?
i like my hunter chanter, the curly bits at the top and bottom (forgive me for my overly technical description)
cillian o’briain’s chanters are pretty striking too as well as sounding powerful
i think there’s some chanters that sound great but aren’t much to look at
I fully agree with Nicomoreno , he is a terrible parent.
RORY
ps.Hey Richard ,really enjoyed the interview you’re doing great things for the Pipes.
recommended viewing…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QR3hFDcFSFo&feature=youtu.be
For a new set, this is hard to beat
"This video has been removed by the user. "
I don’t even have any kids… Don’t know what happened to them.
That Kirk Lynch set is just tacky.
I don’t have any photos of my set for use here, however another gorgeous set (albeit in a slightly different way) is Cormac Cannon’s Kennedy B set. The lines are amazing: http://source.pipers.ie/Gallery.aspx?id=768
(From living makers) I’ve seen some really gorgeous sets. Joe Kennedy, Derrick Gleeson, Geoff Woofe, Sam Lawrence, Makoto Nakastu, Mickey Dunne, Quinn/Koehler are a few that come up for me.
I know this is a bit off topic, but since Rory mentioned the interview, the earlier one has been removed.
A newer version, which was edited to remove some errors is up at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IW1yLHY6E0
It is still probably not final, so this is a preview.
It will air locally here in March.
Cheers! Richard
Heres a nice set. I’m in the more is more camp.
RORY
The bellows for that set must be big enough to drive the steel mill down the street from me.
I think that is the steel mill down the street from you. 
Michael Cooney’s C# Coyne set is right up there for me. It’s so elegant. And I love a lot of the new stuff – especially K&Q, Froment, Wooff, Hubbert and Makoto Nakatsui.
I also should add that Mr. Fitzgerald’s new chanter from Tim & Stephanie Benson is topnotch in the looks department, too. Not a full set, but the chanter knocked my socks clean off and into the washer!
With all that metal you would have thought the missing keys on the chanter would have been added 
