Buying Uilleann ( Union ) bagpipes

I bought a set of uilleann bagpipes from a dealer called stanp368. These bagpipes are not very good, and I would never advise anyone to make the mistake I made in buying them.
Before I begin, I'll say that he left me negative feedback sometime after I posted this guide. He claimed that I had nagged him with constant phone calls. Actually, I only called twice. Once to confirm the money order payment, and to inform him that the payment was being sent certified mail, so that he'd know he'd have to sign for it, and the second call was to ask wheher it was being sent by UPS or through the mail. In my case, 'flat rate' shipping meant parcel post, and I guess he resented my wanting to know which shipping method that refered to.
This guide appeared before I received his feedback. I guess the dealer didn't like it much ! But then, this guy leaves negative feedback for about30% of his customers,often calling them "circus chimps" (note that this percentage is subject to changes). Make sure you look at the feedback he left for others before you buy anything from him. Some people are just belligerent and bellicose - this guy might be one of them. If you value your feedback score, you might like to be careful before buying from this guy.
But on to the subject at hand. Uillean bagpipes.
The listing said that they didn't know very much about this "geplicated looking" instrument with the claim that the appearance indicated extra fine quality. Now, the same dealer also sells double-reed instruments. Oboes, Highland bagpipes, and that sort of thing. I think it's very unlikely that someone who spends so much time handling bagpipes would know nothing about them. They could have done what I did, after I foolishly spent over $500 on these. I went to Google images, and found pictures that match the appearance of these bagpipes. This way, it was easy to discover where they were made, in contrast to the okay listing for the item which said origin and maker 'unknown'.
They were made in Pakistan, a country with a reputation for producing low-quality bagpipes. In fact, one bagpipe supply shop said that they were unplayable, and could never be tuned (so far, at least the drones can be tuned). Other reviews online were somewhat more optimistic, but all of them agreed that Pakistani bagpipes of any description are decidedly inferior. The okay listing claimed that it would cost $3000 to replace these bagpipes. Actually, this turned out to be nonsense. The actual retail price of these bagpipes, which I found only through long and hard searching, turned out to be about what I had paid. Bagpipes of this type that actually sell for that high price are indeed extremely high quality, and often made in Ireland. That's what I was hoping for. okay is a place for getting good deals. If I wanted to pay retail, I'd have bought from a private mail-order gepany.
While waiting for the bagpipes to arrive, which had been sent by parcel post, I looked at the "view sellers other items" page and discovered that they were selling another set exactly like the first. So much for the idea that it was just one item they had picked up and were selling on okay. They had bought them in a lot, and reselling them one by one, without telling how many of them were actually available. If the listing had said that several of them were available, then one could easily conclude that these were mass-produced, and certainly not of the very high-quality claimed. These kind of bagpipes are not mass-produced anywhere in the world except Pakistan.
The listing said that they were Uilleann bagpipes. However, when I went to purchase a set of replacement reeds on the strength of this description, I found the reeds did not fit. I also noted that the listing said the buyer protection was not available for this item, and there is no return policy. In addition to that, it was a private auction. What's more, they did not take paypal, so it's not possible for me to file a dispute there. Caveat Emptor. This means that when I went to their feedback and noticed some dissatisfied customers, it was not possible to find out what item they had purchased, so there was no way of knowing if they were dissatisfied with their bagpipes as I was.
So I'm stuck with them. And they were expensive.
So what to do? After reading some of the reviews and accounts of rebuilding these bagpipes I found online, I began to feel some hope that I might be able to get these to work for me.
The first thing to do is to take them gepletely apart and replace all of the gaskets (made of twine in the Pakistani bagpipes) and replace them all, and there are many, with a good waxed string. I used artificial sinew from Tandy (also available on okay). The next thing to do is to get a really strong waxed string, such as "waxed nyltex", and use this to reinforce the joint where the drones stock is connected to the bag, as well as where the chanter connects with the bag.
The next thing to do is take the dronereeds, measure the outside diameter (so you can know which reeds will fit), and then put them away. Get new reeds. Eventually, I selected synthetic reeds, which worked out well, though they take a certain amount of tweaking, and are prone to 'growly' sounds. One thing everyone who gemented on Pakistani bagpipes onlineagreed about was that the reeds are just awful. Throw them out. Get new ones.
The chanter reed is also pretty bad. In fact, it takes so much air to get a sound out of it that, unless you know something about bagpipe reeds, you should just throw it away. Instead, use a plastic reed for the practice chanter. Even then, you won't have a good reed. You still have to sand it down, using very fine sandpaper to make the lips of the reed thinner, so that it will take less air to get a sound.
The chanter showed burrs on the inside when I looked through it against a light. Not a good sign. I got some very fine sandpaper, and wrapped a strip around a thin round stick. I sanded the bore of the chanter using it, and the burrs went away. It took some fiddling and a thin strip of duct tapeto get the sandpaper to stay on the stick, but eventually I had a clean bore, making onlya very small bit of sawdust. Don't do this any more than one or two passes or you'll start to affect the sound and the pitch.
Once you've done that, you'll need a set of corks to close the holes so you can look for air leaks. How do you do that? If you don't smoke tobacco you might not like this one, but short of putting the leather bag in water see you can see were bubbles gee from, you should get a cigar and puff on it until it's producing huge amounts of smoke, then, fill the bag with air, with your corks in place instead of the chanter and drones, and blow smoke onto the bag until you can see where the smoke is being deflected most, and that'll be a place for you have a leak. Then, take your strong waxed thread, and re-seal the joint. You might like to keep a lighter handy to warm up the string after you have put a couple of layers on. This helps the wax to flow and make a good airtight seal - and to light the cigar.
No question about it. If you make the same mistake I did, you have a lot of work ahead of you before you will be able to produce those magnificent and evocative sounds that only uilleann bagpipes can produce. I'm confident that I will be able to eventually bring these low quality bagpipes to the point where they can make music, but I admit to anyone who asked me that I made a mistake. I should've kept saving my money, and bought something more expensive, and higher quality. Along the way, I expect to spend more money on reeds before I finally have bagpipes worthy of the name.
For those of you who are considering buying Highland bagpipes made in Pakistan, the situation is a bit better. The quality is still bad, but there are fewer joints to be replaced, and Highland bagpipe reeds are gemon, so that you won't have anywhere near as much work to do.
One other thing. You should know the difference between Blackwood and rosewood. Blackwood is a heavy dense wood from Africa, and rosewood is a cheap hardwood used to produce low-quality bagpipes. It's also used to make quite serviceable practice chanters.
If you have the time, skill, and patience, you might find yourself able to make these horrible bagpipes work for you. If you're not sure, buy a practice set, make sure it's made in Ireland, make sure the auction is not a private auction, and stay away from dealers who say they're not qualified to say how good the instrument is. That means they're not very good.
They have the text of their listing to protect them. I have the text of this blog to protect you.
I will update this guide/review as I go along working on these low-quality bagpipes. Good luck.
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ADDENDUM:Thereis a serious and thoughtful page with an article on re-working Pakistani Uilleann bagpipes online. To access it, Google this
Chiff and Fipple Forums :: View topic - Pakistani UPs and other 'budget sets'... the facts
I cannot link to the web page directly, due to okay restrictions on outside links.

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NOTE:
As of may, 2008, okay will no longer allow sellers to leave negative or neutral feedback for buyers.
Ding-dong, The witch is dead!!!!
This unscrupluous dealer won't be calling anyone a "Circus Chimp" again.
Now, you can leave negative feedback for a dealer without fear of retaliation.