Carbony Uilleann Pipes

A forum about Uilleann (Irish) pipes and the surly people who play them.
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red342
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Tell us something.: I am a GHB player and looking to begin playing the uilleann pipes. I am interested in your forum and sales pages.

Carbony Uilleann Pipes

Post by red342 »

Anyone have any experience with these? I saw a post about a set of Carbony Uilleann pipes for sale and it was basically people tearing into the original post, but that is all I could find.

https://carbony.com/product/uilleann-half-set/
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pancelticpiper
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Re: Carbony Uilleann Pipes

Post by pancelticpiper »

I have often encountered the Carbony booth at various festivals, and I've tried their Highland pipes, Scottish smallpipes, Border pipes, Uilleann pipes, Spanish gaita, Irish flutes, and Whistles (Low and high).

As it happens I play all these things, and I own/have owned high quality instruments of each sort.

My overall impression of that firm is that they don't understand how the various instruments are supposed to work. So their Highland pipes don't perform like pipes of ordinary quality by UK and North American makers do, ditto their Border pipes. Their Spanish gaita didn't play like gaitas from good Spanish makers do.

The Uilleann set I tried just didn't play like we expect pipes to play. It's hard to pinpoint because it's not just one thing. Everything is a bit off in some way, that's my impression anyhow. I don't think I'm being a pipe snob, just the opposite: with Uilleann pipes I've played a moulded plastic one by Boston Uilleann Pipe Works, a plastic one by Rogge, and one made from plastic pipe and brass tubing by David Daye, and I think all of them were perfectly acceptible.

The Carbony Scottish Smallpipes were decent players, I think that's their most successful instrument.

The caveat is that I've played the various instruments at their booth at various points in time, and I know that some makers continuously upgrade their designs. The things that I've played most is their Low Whistles (easier to pick up a whistle and give a toot, than strap on pipes) and they at least don't seem to have evolved over the years.

I've heard people rave about the Carbony Low Whistles and it's puzzling to me. Perhaps they're looking for different performance factors than I am. (I'm looking for good intonation, strong volume, sweet high notes, nimble action, good air-efficiency.) Or maybe they've not played a wide range of Low Whistle makes to get a sense of the average or standard expected performance.
Richard Cook
c1980 Quinn uilleann pipes
1945 Starck Highland pipes
Goldie Low D whistle
red342
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Tell us something.: I am a GHB player and looking to begin playing the uilleann pipes. I am interested in your forum and sales pages.

Re: Carbony Uilleann Pipes

Post by red342 »

Thank you for your review. I appreciate it.
highland-piper
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Re: Carbony Uilleann Pipes

Post by highland-piper »

pancelticpiper wrote:
The caveat is that I've played the various instruments at their booth at various points in time, and I know that some makers continuously upgrade their designs. The things that I've played most is their Low Whistles (easier to pick up a whistle and give a toot, than strap on pipes) and they at least don't seem to have evolved over the years.
He is definitely changing the whistle designs over time. I bought one of his mezzo G whistles many years ago and when I tried the current design it was night and day. He gave me 100% trade credit on the new one, which is pretty cool.

I have one of his low-d whistles and I really like it, but it is true that I haven't experienced many others, and none that could be considered high end.
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pancelticpiper
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Re: Carbony Uilleann Pipes

Post by pancelticpiper »

highland-piper wrote:
He is definitely changing the whistle designs over time. I bought one of his mezzo G whistles many years ago and when I tried the current design it was night and day. He gave me 100% trade credit on the new one, which is pretty cool.
That is cool!

I've played their Low Whistles at various festivals over the span of probably a decade at least and I didn't notice them changing. However that's hard for me to judge due to me picking a whistle up and playing it for a tune, then a couple years later doing the same thing at a different festival. So I probably wouldn't notice changes. What I do notice is how their Low Whistles compare to the ones I myself play, and to me none of the Carbony ones have been as good.
highland-piper wrote: I have one of his low-d whistles and I really like it, but it is true that I haven't experienced many others, and none that could be considered high end.
That's the thing, I went down the Low D whistle rabbithole several years ago and I ended up trying a large number of high-end makes.

The top ones all have a certain playing characteristics in common, so when I play a whistle that doesn't share those characteristics it doesn't seem like a serious professional whistle to me. Whenever I've tried Carbony Low Whistles they didn't rise to the standard baseline level of what I regard to be professional-quality whistles.
Richard Cook
c1980 Quinn uilleann pipes
1945 Starck Highland pipes
Goldie Low D whistle
highland-piper
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Re: Carbony Uilleann Pipes

Post by highland-piper »

pancelticpiper wrote:
(I'm looking for good intonation, strong volume, sweet high notes, nimble action, good air-efficiency.)
I take it from your signature that you've settled on the Goldie Low D. I listened to some youtube comparisons of it and others, including one with the Carbony. I can hear that it has a much clearer tone, especially in the 2nd octave. Based on the part I quoted above, it sounds like the Goldie is more responsive too (in your experience). Have I understood that correctly?

Maybe I'll need to get one. There's no way I can buy one of everything to try them out...
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