What is the History of Pakistani Uilleann pipes?
Posted: Tue Sep 06, 2022 8:22 pm
There seems to be an interesting anthropological/ethnographical story hidden in the universally decried Pakistani pipes. We all know about them and take them as a regrettable fact of life, but I have become interested in how we ended up with this particular, highly specific pariah on our instrument of choice.
So we all more or less know the story behind the Sialkot GHB makers: colonialism, Scottish regiments, and now a (seemingly) thriving interest in GHBs (with, erh, different tuning standards) in the city. Moreover, GHBs do a big trade worldwide, most people seem to be aware of them, and they are comparatively simple to turn on a lathe and to assemble. No need to re-hash all that. It makes perfect sense (commercially) that the Sialkot makers are churning them out to unserious buyers.
What I am interested in here is how we ended up with Pakistani made uilleann pipes, how they have changed over time, and where they are going (bear with me). This is much more mysterious, both because the market is so small for something that obviously required a fair bit of tooling-up in Sialkot, and because to make something even resembling a set of uilleann pipes as they do, they must have had a real set to poke around with at some point.
So, in the early 2000s, when I first became aware of Pakistani-made UPs, there was one choice, and it looked like this: https://www.ebay.com/itm/144604222308?h ... SwsCliqfXX
We've all seen that picture many times, and the rectangular regulator keys, trumpet bass drone, and unmounted chanter are still, in my head, the "standard" Pakistani pipes. Interestingly, this aesthetic is now rather hard to find, and for a while I understand they weren't making it (a lot of the whops that once carried those regulators and drones listed them as discontinued).
More recently, a new Pakistani half set has turned up, with rather bulbous drones, as here: https://www.ebay.com/itm/255008256992?h ... SwEz1gCqed
These seem available in both "rose"wood and "black"wood and are considerably cheaper than old reliable (above) ever was. They also seem to have switched to some sort of silver-coloured metal from the brass above.
Alongside that, in the last few years, a third model has crept in - in both a simplified "rose"wood version and a more elaborate (but still simpler than the original) "black"wood, at really very low prices, as here: https://www.ebay.com/itm/175226651178?h ... Sw5oVif3uX
and
https://www.ebay.com/itm/255299499127?h ... Sws4RhyW7B
Perhaps most interestingly, the seller of that first one, Rehan's, does seem to be making a try of producing a better product, swapping out the old plastic regulator reeds for cane "chanter" reeds, and sending spares and all that. The prices are so low now that, out of morbid curiosity, I bought a single tenor regulator from him to see what the reeds and workmanship looked like in person. It's roughly made, and even the cane reeds don't work well as they come, but they are a far cry from the GHB practice chanter reeds they used to pass off as UP chanter and reg reeds, and the cane reeds look like UP reeds in terms of size and shape. I suspect a good reedmaker could almost use them as a "blank". He also offered to send more reeds when I told him the first batch didn't work, though I haven't taken him up on it - I mainly wanted to see whether he was a scammer in his own head or would try to help. He tried to help, earnestly, so, experiment over. (Disclaimer - I DO NOT recommend buying from him - my point is this is a very different level of knowledge and attempt from where we were with the Roosebeck's 20 years ago).
Finally and most interestingly is this chanter: https://www.ebay.com/itm/185281157546?h ... SwQ0xh~NjO
This is a recent arrival and is a VERY different looking thing from the old ones. I have no doubt that the same old not-right reamer is being used to make this thing, but the mounts, shape, and key-ing are all suggestive that sometime in the last 5 years or so, they got hold of another chanter, at least, and perhaps a better one.
So this leaves a number of questions:
1) What is the ultimate basis they started this enterprise on? Whose set did they get hold of to make the old Roosebecks based on (at a time when sets were like hens teeth)?
2) Did they buy a set to start their copying? Seems a huge investment (if they could even find one) for the size of market.
3) Did a qualified maker ever try to help them? I sniff some of that. Some of the details seem too close to be a naive copy.
4) Are the original Roosebeck's still being made or are we just seeing new old stock - when did they shift to the three new designs?
5) What is going on with this last chanter - visually, its a world of difference. What has changed? Is there someone driving the attempt at improvement? Seems an odd time for it given the Riverdance/general public uilleann-mania is behind us.
Perhaps you, reader, don't care about these questions - these instruments cannot be played and prey on the unsuspecting, so why give them the time of day. Fair points, but I think there is an interesting economic and cultural story here and I would like to understand it better.
So we all more or less know the story behind the Sialkot GHB makers: colonialism, Scottish regiments, and now a (seemingly) thriving interest in GHBs (with, erh, different tuning standards) in the city. Moreover, GHBs do a big trade worldwide, most people seem to be aware of them, and they are comparatively simple to turn on a lathe and to assemble. No need to re-hash all that. It makes perfect sense (commercially) that the Sialkot makers are churning them out to unserious buyers.
What I am interested in here is how we ended up with Pakistani made uilleann pipes, how they have changed over time, and where they are going (bear with me). This is much more mysterious, both because the market is so small for something that obviously required a fair bit of tooling-up in Sialkot, and because to make something even resembling a set of uilleann pipes as they do, they must have had a real set to poke around with at some point.
So, in the early 2000s, when I first became aware of Pakistani-made UPs, there was one choice, and it looked like this: https://www.ebay.com/itm/144604222308?h ... SwsCliqfXX
We've all seen that picture many times, and the rectangular regulator keys, trumpet bass drone, and unmounted chanter are still, in my head, the "standard" Pakistani pipes. Interestingly, this aesthetic is now rather hard to find, and for a while I understand they weren't making it (a lot of the whops that once carried those regulators and drones listed them as discontinued).
More recently, a new Pakistani half set has turned up, with rather bulbous drones, as here: https://www.ebay.com/itm/255008256992?h ... SwEz1gCqed
These seem available in both "rose"wood and "black"wood and are considerably cheaper than old reliable (above) ever was. They also seem to have switched to some sort of silver-coloured metal from the brass above.
Alongside that, in the last few years, a third model has crept in - in both a simplified "rose"wood version and a more elaborate (but still simpler than the original) "black"wood, at really very low prices, as here: https://www.ebay.com/itm/175226651178?h ... Sw5oVif3uX
and
https://www.ebay.com/itm/255299499127?h ... Sws4RhyW7B
Perhaps most interestingly, the seller of that first one, Rehan's, does seem to be making a try of producing a better product, swapping out the old plastic regulator reeds for cane "chanter" reeds, and sending spares and all that. The prices are so low now that, out of morbid curiosity, I bought a single tenor regulator from him to see what the reeds and workmanship looked like in person. It's roughly made, and even the cane reeds don't work well as they come, but they are a far cry from the GHB practice chanter reeds they used to pass off as UP chanter and reg reeds, and the cane reeds look like UP reeds in terms of size and shape. I suspect a good reedmaker could almost use them as a "blank". He also offered to send more reeds when I told him the first batch didn't work, though I haven't taken him up on it - I mainly wanted to see whether he was a scammer in his own head or would try to help. He tried to help, earnestly, so, experiment over. (Disclaimer - I DO NOT recommend buying from him - my point is this is a very different level of knowledge and attempt from where we were with the Roosebeck's 20 years ago).
Finally and most interestingly is this chanter: https://www.ebay.com/itm/185281157546?h ... SwQ0xh~NjO
This is a recent arrival and is a VERY different looking thing from the old ones. I have no doubt that the same old not-right reamer is being used to make this thing, but the mounts, shape, and key-ing are all suggestive that sometime in the last 5 years or so, they got hold of another chanter, at least, and perhaps a better one.
So this leaves a number of questions:
1) What is the ultimate basis they started this enterprise on? Whose set did they get hold of to make the old Roosebecks based on (at a time when sets were like hens teeth)?
2) Did they buy a set to start their copying? Seems a huge investment (if they could even find one) for the size of market.
3) Did a qualified maker ever try to help them? I sniff some of that. Some of the details seem too close to be a naive copy.
4) Are the original Roosebeck's still being made or are we just seeing new old stock - when did they shift to the three new designs?
5) What is going on with this last chanter - visually, its a world of difference. What has changed? Is there someone driving the attempt at improvement? Seems an odd time for it given the Riverdance/general public uilleann-mania is behind us.
Perhaps you, reader, don't care about these questions - these instruments cannot be played and prey on the unsuspecting, so why give them the time of day. Fair points, but I think there is an interesting economic and cultural story here and I would like to understand it better.