Help (with "setting up" pipes)

[OC Richard]

I have a set of pipes but for the life of me I can't seem to get them to work.

Welcome to the crazy world of piping!

There's a vast amount of lore and skill in "setting up" the instrument itself.

You NEED to get together with an experieced GOOD player... just like a doctor or a car repair person, it is absolutely impossible to diagnose problems over the internet... we can give educated guesses, but guesses they remain!

An experienced player can easily get your pipes to play quite easily in 15 minutes flat. I know, I've done it dozens of times for people. An unknowledgeable person can mess around for hours and get nowhere.

There's an instructional DVD "Pipes Up" that might help... but you must get together in person with an expert!

For example, yes your issue could be with the bag, either the bag itself, or the tie-in of one or more of the stocks, or a crack in one of the stocks, or a problem with the valve, or any one of several other possibilities.

OR it could be the reed! When you mouth-blow a reed it's quite different from when it's just sitting inside the stock, with no lips on it to control it. The reed might be too open, or leaking, or improperly seated in the reed seat.

OR it could be none of these things! Many's the time I've handed my pipes, working perfectly and very efficient, to a non-piper to try, and they've blown and blow until they nearly pass out! This gives the impression that the pipes take a lot of wind, which isn't true. It's about having the correct technique.

An experienced good player could immediately identify your issue, we here online can't! There are just too many different things which could be going on.

Good luck! Richard