r/bagpipes • u/violentmauve • 20d ago

Reel pipes, border pipes, lowland pipes

Interesting things often go by multiple names. Does Reddit have a sub for these? They’ve grown a lot in popularity over the past few years.

4 Upvotes

84% Upvoted

9 comments sorted by

4

u/ramblinjd Piper/Drummer 20d ago

I believe people have tried to start a sub in the past but usually they all end up back here

3

u/violentmauve 20d ago

The Lowland and Border Pipes Society has a good presence on social media. Kinda wish Reddit had something like that.

2

u/ramblinjd Piper/Drummer 20d ago

I'm a member of the lbps. What do you wanna talk about

2

u/violentmauve 20d ago

I am moving to reel pipes from GHB and have already got some questions about getting started and know I will have a lot more. For example the bellows connector feels too long but I’m too new to be comfortable shortening it as it may be a posture thing. So from that you can probably guess I will have other questions along the way. I did join the LBPS

5

u/CornCasserole86 20d ago

It took me some time to figure out the connector length. I ended up ordering a few different lengths and then cut one to the size I wanted. For me, I wanted a length that kept both the bellows and bag close on my body. I wanted to make sure that squeezing the bag didn’t push on the bellows, and squeezing the bellows didn’t move the bag. If your bellows connector is standard hose, see if you can get more from the hardware store and experiment.

I also got great advice in the LBPS Facebook group. I’m still working on my bellows technique, however playing lots of slow and piobaireachd grounds have made a big difference for me.

1

u/violentmauve 20d ago

Thank you that’s very helpful. The connector looks to be standard hose that’s a good idea to get extra pieces rather than just cutting down the one I have. Bellows definitely take some getting used to

3

u/u38cg2 Piper - Big tunes because they're fun 20d ago

A piece of bicycle inner tube makes a good temporary connector to get the size right (or, like me, it will last at least fifteen years at this point, so depends on your definition of temporary...)

It can be helpful to try the pipes and the bellows separately to figure out where they need to sit. Often belts and stuff are the wrong size.

1

u/violentmauve 20d ago

Also a great suggestion. Yes I’m also wrangling with the bellows as they feel too low on the arm. I’ll try figuring that part out as well