I don't know about the chanters, but I can say that I've played several Soutar reeds, my instructor plays Soutar reeds, my son has a Soutar practice chanter, and none of these products has ever been faulty. In fact, given a choice between Shepherd reeds (great sounding if you get a good one, but they are generally in need of a bit of work when you get them) and Soutar reeds (very good sounding every time so far), I'd go for the reliability of the Soutar every time.

I'm not trying to endorse any particular product or maker, nor am I saying Dunbars are bad pipes. My experience with them is limited to the band sets that were not at all satisfactory and I don't know what they've done to improve things since then. I am only saying that if cost is the primary factor, there are other choices in the same price point. I see that MadBag is a fan of the P1s, everyone can see that I am not. Any purchase should be based on actual playing of the pipes if possible.

Again, the P1s are a starter or back-up instrument, not really the best for a main instrument. It isn't any harder (or substantially more expensive) to start with a good wooden instrument, so don't think that delrin is going to make your life any easier if you want to be a piper! It just means one set that you don't have to oil (gee, that's a total of less than an hour out of every year for me, what a hardship that is!) in exchange for which you paid as much as a blackwood set of similar or even much better aesthetic appearance.

Your money, your choice. I'd put my McCallums against the P1s in a sound-only comparison any day. And, as I showed above, McCallums are only $45 more than Dunbars (with decent reeds factored in) for real wood. I'll play my pipes in any weather I would be willing to play pipes in at all, so the weather-resistance of the plastic pipes isn't a big deal to me. And I bet I can play my wood pipes longer in wet weather than others can play the plastic ones!

Good to have the full range of possibilities discussed.

Hey, Kyp, what do you think of the Soutar 3/4 sized pipes? Been thinking of a set for my boy, as his blackwood pipes are too heavy for him right now.

-Patrick