Practice Chanter by McCallum Bagpipes with Reed (Regular Size) Made in Scotland - Ideal for Beginners to Advanced Players, True Tone, Durable Material

I absolutely love this chanter. Great quality, good feel to it.. I’m brand new to this and i love this

I'm a 62 year old "Beginner". I've had the "Piping Kit from Bagpipes of Caledonia"... some sort of wooden mess of a chanter, with crooked holes, for about 20-years. Went to Scotland recently and caught the bug to start trying to play again. Well let me just say that after a little research and this purchase, it's like I've gone from a rusty 10-speed bike with flat tires to a Mercedes Benz. I LOVE IT, sounds great and has made me have hope of playing again and on to the pipes. Love the larger holes and spacing. Spend the cash and learn (the first time ) on something of quality from a first rate, family run company. Started to save for McCallum pipe set.. figure it will be a few more years but, no time like the present ! Thank you

Correction: chanter Reed was found.

Worked very well for the college class I took. Entry level class, and this was perfect.

This chanter is what got me into pipes. It has nice counter-sunk holes, it's durable, the reed is nice. It's a cheap way to start learning. The tuning, however, is very inconsistent. The high G especially is incredibly sharp. I ended up taping nearly 4/5ths of the high G just to get it within passable tune. This got it back into better tune, but the amount of tape needed threw the airflow off for G grace notes, which are kind of common... I get it, it's a practice chanter, not a solo instrument. It's there to help you learn fingering, ornaments, and help practice tunes. For fingering and ornaments, this is just fine. When you get to tunes, however, the tuning will start throwing you off, esp the high G. Fixing the tuning then messes with your ornaments. When I reached tunes, my instructor recommended that I get a new chanter.

I have been quite pleased with the practice chanter, but I did have to replace the hemp with dental floss as it kept swelling from the moisture, making it difficult to take apart and put back together. I am a wet blower, and need to drain it frequently. I have been less than thrilled with the reed, as it is not tuned well for the chanter and the low notes sound horrible, especially after a bit of blowing gets it fairly damp. I am taking pipes back up after a very long hiatus and don't recall having that problem before. The reed also takes a pretty hard blow to keep it going, which I suppose is good for helping to build lip strength.

I love leaning new instruments. With the idea of getting a bagpipe some day, I bought this chanter. A few weeks in and it seems like a good quality instrument. I can get a decent tone out of it and can already fumble my way through a few songs. Definitely find some resources to get started. Even assembling it for the first time was a surprise (the reed goes inside the instrument). The promoted website card that was packaged with it does not have free resources, so unless you're looking to pay, don't bother signing up for them. I've also read that double reed instruments can help throat and lung muscles, so I'm hoping it may improve my asthma. If not, at least I've learned the pipe.

Excellent quality. The beveled holes are nicely sized and easy to feel with your fingers. The chanter has a wonderful mellow sound and is not hard to blow like some of lesser quality. Wirth every penny. If you want to be proficient then this is a great chanter for the beginner.