Offered 50 USD

[mbhandy]

I made a offer to StarryNightRecords/ETC on Ebay of $50 for his CAMERON TARTAN KILT
http://cgi.ebay.com/CAMERON-TARTAN-K...QQcmdZViewItem
I am starting to Jones... I have read the post about their kilts and I got my wife for her birthday a cameron skirt from Scotland and it looks great thought their kilt would match (looks the same).

But my Question is does anyone have any knowledge about their Practice canters.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ROSEWOOD-PRACTIC...QQcmdZViewItem

For that price how can I go wrong??? :confused:
Unless some of you pipers out there have an old used canter???

MrBill

[haukehaien]

For that price how can I go wrong???

Easily. You can spend $15, plus shipping on a piece of junk chanter that isn't in tune with itself and that sounds like a mutant duck call rather than an instrument. After that, you can buy a real practice chanter for $50-75 and actually start to learn to play.

Do not buy one of the chanters from Asia; they are (at best) inadequate, and at worst garbage. If you want to learn the pipes, get an instructor and follow his/her advice on which chanter to buy. But whatever you do, don't buy a cheap chanter and expect to learn very much. The pipes are not an instrument that you pick up over the weekend, or even in a few months. If you intend to be any good (and I don't mean "Winning the gold at Oban" good; I mean "Not making everyone in earshot want to be violently ill" good) then you'll be on the chanter for at least a year before you start on the bagpipes. And you'll continue to use the chanter to learn new tunes, to practice embellishments and so on for the rest of your piping life. A good chanter isn't an expense, it's an investment. If you buy a good one and decide the pipes aren't for you, then you can sell it and get most of your investment back.

A bad chanter, on the other hand, will make it even more difficult to learn, or possibly even impossible. And if you decide to sell it, you'll be lucky to see a tenth of your initial cost - unless you rip off someone who doesn't know any better.

[michael steinrok]

Easily. You can spend $15, plus shipping on a piece of junk chanter that isn't in tune with itself and that sounds like a mutant duck call rather than an instrument. After that, you can buy a real practice chanter for $50-75 and actually start to learn to play.

Do not buy one of the chanters from Asia; they are (at best) inadequate, and at worst garbage. If you want to learn the pipes, get an instructor and follow his/her advice on which chanter to buy. But whatever you do, don't buy a cheap chanter and expect to learn very much. The pipes are not an instrument that you pick up over the weekend, or even in a few months. If you intend to be any good (and I don't mean "Winning the gold at Oban" good; I mean "Not making everyone in earshot want to be violently ill" good) then you'll be on the chanter for at least a year before you start on the bagpipes. And you'll continue to use the chanter to learn new tunes, to practice embellishments and so on for the rest of your piping life. A good chanter isn't an expense, it's an investment. If you buy a good one and decide the pipes aren't for you, then you can sell it and get most of your investment back.

A bad chanter, on the other hand, will make it even more difficult to learn, or possibly even impossible. And if you decide to sell it, you'll be lucky to see a tenth of your initial cost - unless you rip off someone who doesn't know any better.

WOW Dude tell us how you really feel

[haukehaien]

WOW Dude tell us how you really feel

[include rant.h]

I went the Pakistani chanter route when I first started, and I'm still mad about it. Having learned the scale and practiced it often on a chanter that was not even close to being in tune with itself, it took me months to learn how to tune my pipe chanter - I had gotten so used to the wrong sounds and I had to relearn how to hear the right ones. Plus it was cheap (the mouthpiece, ferrule and sole fell off within a short time) and it sounded awful.

When it split and I bought a good PC, I was astounded at the difference. Seriously, the Asian pipe equipment is almost entirely crap. Check out this thread to see some other opinions on them. They're a waste of time and money, and what's worse is that they contribute to bad habits - so you lose not only the time you spend futzing around with them, but the time it takes you to unlearn.

I just hate seeing the things for sale, because I know that somebody, just like me, is looking at them and dreaming of becoming a piper, little knowing what lies in store. Somebody is going to buy them, become disgusted, and quit; whereas if they start out right, they have a chance of becoming a good piper. It's as though there were people selling cigar boxes with yardsticks nailed to them as "learner guitars". It's just not right.

Rant is now off.

[mrpharr]

Is the chanter model that was on a previous thread worth the duckets?
see site for details.
http://www.hotpipes.com/pract3.html
s

[David Thornton]

Don't play, but I would love to have that kilt. They are just too long.

David

[haukehaien]

I haven't bought anything from Hotpipes, but I believe that others on this forum have, and were quite happy with them. Dunbar is a good company, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend one of their chanters. One of the advantages to Dunbar for those of us living in the US is that shipping is often cheaper than for companies across the pond.

[efer]

Hi Bill,

I hope you get the kilt for your offer. I couldn't stand waiting though I would have sprang the extra $8 for the "buy it now"....But, I'm not the barter type :rolleyes:

When you get let us know how it is. Kilted KT seems quite happy with his Black Watch kilts from them.

I like the tartan and my son's name is Cameron.

Cheers,

[mbhandy]

Haukehaien,
I don't think it is a rant because I did ask for advice and I feel it is good advice.
When I was a Kid I wanted to play Guitar. My father said it was not a band instrument and he did not want to spend good money on some thing that would not get me into band. He got me the cheapest Silvertone from Sears and I could not figure out why it sounded so bad when I or some of my friends, who had Fenders, tried to play the "Guitar".
I saved my money and got a Fender but I did get a Sears twin 12 amp and formed a garage band and started playing at parties and at some of the bars in Houston.
So I know how you feel about instruments and Quality. Have read all the links and now my head hurts. :rolleyes:

and as far as the Kilt goes I will let everyone know what happens.

Thanks,
MrBill

[Colin]

I like the tartan, but the pleats look kind of weird to me. Based on the picture, you can see at least 2 dozen pleats, and that is only half of the back. It looks like they have tried to jam as many pleats as they possibly could into the back of the kilt. It also looks like they were desperate to pleat to the stripe and this may account for the look.

Maybe this is just an example and the kilt you bid on does not look like this, but maybe it does.

As I said, it is a cool tartan and likely worth $50, but the pleats still look weird to me.

As for the practise chanter, I too would spend money for a good one. There was a thread yesterday about this. Kiltstore has an affiliate store that sells chanters and offers the Xmarks discount.