OK, here's a personal evaluation then:I, as a newbie, am sorry that my friend chose an Angus Bb set. I and my friends, and a very experienced uilleann piper who is also very good at making reeds, were unable to get it in tune. I thought it was the makers fault.
"When reeded correctly they are simply in tune. It has been my experience that Mr. Angus is especially generous with extra reeds when delivering a set so that the player can fool around with adjustments for climate etc. without worrying about ruining their only reed. " Don
Good for you then.
Yes, the Bb set sent to Denmark came with at least 20 reeds!!!. Very generous indeed. The set looked very nice indeed. It arrived in the summer and the weather was not dry or cold. Trying various reeds at the Tönder folk festival, one of Ireland's finest pipers could not get the set to play in tune with itself. Also interesting was the fact that when we put the chanter reed that was working best in the Angus chanter, albeit out of tune, into a Williams Bb chanter, the Williams Bb played very well and in tune with itself.
At the time I made discreet enquiries on the serious piping forum, where it is allowed to both praise, and discuss the faults of uilleann pipemakers like adults, without 1950's style Sovjet/Bush censorship. It transpired that another experienced piper in the US & A had had considerable difficulty trying to assist the owners of 4 Angus Bb sets in getting their pipes to play in tune with themselves. Prehaps there was just a one-off batch of Angus Bb's made at some point that were simply hard to reed for some reason?
Otherwise from what I've heard folks are well pleased with Brad's instruments, and he's said to be a nice guy only too glad to help out. The then owner of the Danish set attested to this, that Brad sent reeds and was anxious to get the set going.
An experienced English pipemaker reeded the chanter in 2006, and it was playing in tune with itself. This was the basis for my remark regarding newbies to be "wary". It seems that this chanter and the 4 Bb's in the US are not that easy to reed and get in tune with themselves. This would also seem to be the root of the problem, the reeding. As Don stated "When reeded correctly they are simply in tune". I have no argument with that, but some chanters, drones and regs are easier than others to reed and get in tune hence my statement "newbies be wary....".
The set is, I believe, in Scotland now, and hopefully making a "hive of honeyed sounds". Most uilleann pipemakers are human, and it is human to err sometimes. I know even Dave Williams has made at least one chanter back in the 1980's that was not up to his usual high standard. As Peter L. remarked there are no absolutes in the world of uilleann piping.
