All great advice! I had the chanter reed in the chanter and it made a sound like a sick sheep. Since they are from Pakistan I was ready to write them off, but as imrichmond mentioned the bag looked nicer than I expected, so I was perplexed, but I think I will follow expert opinion here. I will try again this evening to get a sound out of the drones, but my inclination at this point is take piperdbh up on his offer and then find a good piping instructor.

thanks for the help!

hylander