Bagpipes

[416 Rigby]

One of my pals has the Gibson long PC in African Blackwood, and it sounds amazing. Not like a kazoo, but an actual musical instrument. Of course, they're something like 300 bucks.

[KD Burke]

I own a Gibson long PC. I like it, but I still wouldn't consider it a performance instrument.

Of course, adding a virtual drone the way OCRichard did does spice it up considerably!

At about US$100 each in Polypenco, the Gibson is priced on a par with its competitors.

[OC Richard]

I picked up both of the Gibson PCs you hear there on Ebay, used, for around $50 to $70 each as I recall.

I also have a couple McCallum PCs which as I've said sound very nice with John Walsh reeds.

Those four are all the "long" or "fullsize" type.

That type is fairly recent, being introduced by the English Highland pipemaker Alexander around 1960 IIRC.

I also have a 1950s Hardie PC which is a perfect example of the traditional style, which most makers call "standard length" or some such nowadays.

The main advantage of the "long" PCs, for me, is the extra length below the bottom fingerhole, with the side vent-holes, which allows the PC to rest on the knee with the hands and face in comfortable positions. The traditional PCs don't have vent-holes and if you rest the bottom on your leg it prevents Low G from sounding.

[HighlandPark]

I have three 'long' practice chanters in rotation, a poly Dunbar, a blackwood Naill, and a cocobolo Gibson. I use Walsh reeds in the first two and the apparently proprietary Gibson reed in the Gibson. All three are excellent practice chanters but are used for different purposes.

The Naill has a very true scale, very warm tone, and sounds superior to many other makes, in my opinion. The workmanship and design is just about the nicest I've seen. It is my go-to chanter for band now. However, the winner for musical tone and volume is the cocobolo Gibson. I don't know if is the design, which appears to be a little different than the other two, or the resonant cocobola, but it is just a pleasure to hear the tone. It is the most musical of the three and one can feel the wood vibrating with every note; it is very enjoyable to play from a tactile sense. Unfortunately, the pitch is a little off from the other two and what most others play, it is comparatively loud, and it is the hardest of the three to blow. I use it, with immense pleasure, at home to practice with or to play a little ditty for someone. The Dunbar is a solid chanter with nice tone but is, more or less, relegated for travel and back-up.

With respect to practice chanters, and pipes for that matter, IMHO, material does make a difference, not better or worse, just different. I would love to hear cocobolo Dunbars sometime. I am a big fan of the maker and have a set of blinged out poly Dunbars for travel. Even with poly the tone is fantastic. Underrated pipes.

[OC Richard]

When I first heard and played the long Gibson PC I too felt it was a different animal somehow. In looking at the reed I saw it was designed more like an NSP reed than a Highland PC reed. About the bore I don't know, I've not measured the bores of various PCs. But whether due to the reed alone, or a combination of the bore and the reed, the Gibson to me sounded and played more like a mouthblown NSP chanter than a traditional Highland PC.

For those who've not played NSP (Northumbrian Small Pipes) the bore on an NSP chanter is much like the bore on a Highland PC, a straight (cylindrical in music-speak) bore, quite narrow.

The reeds are very different. The traditional Highland PC reed is narrow and long, the NSP reed is short and wide, more square. The Gibson PCs I have came with short wide NSP style reeds, though plastic. NSP pipe chanter reeds are nearly always cane.

About my Cocobolo Dunbar pipes, I've owned two ABW and one Poly Dunbar and all were great. I don't have those others any more, so I don't have an ABW Dunbar to hand to compare to my Cocobolo Dunbars. My PM does have ABW Dunbars so I need to get together with him sometime for an ABW/Cocobolo comparison.

As presently set up our pipes sound very different, his with Rockets, mine with Kinnairds. He's getting the sound he wants, very bright, and I'm getting the sound I want, warm.