Any Fireside Pipes players here?

[Barry Taylor]

I play in a ceilidh band (guitar, harmonica, vocals) and have just purchased a set of Gibson Fireside Pipes. I'll be playing these with other instruments including fiddle, guitar, concertina and banjo. (Banjo and bagpipes: this should be interesting!)

I'd appreciate any tips from players with experience in this kind of mixed instrument setting. I'd also like to hear recommendations for tunes that work particularly well on the firesides / smallpipes with other instruments.

I ordered a set in the key of 'D' and I'm having quite a time adapting to the smaller finger spacing, though it's getting more comfortable each day. My first impressions of the instrument are great... 'love the volume, the tone and that baritone drone!

[Bmorgan]

I'd like to add to the above post, I came across a set of Parlour (fireside) pipes awhile back, and desperately need a bag and new reeds, any body know who makes these items specifically for this size pipes? Thanks, Brett :)

[Holly Taylor]

Hi folks,

Well, welcome to the wonderful world of the session band! :D
You should have some fun with this setup. I regularly play at a session with my Scottish smallpipes or borderpipes and others playing guitar, bouzouki, banjo, fiddle, accordion, djembe, more pipes...

Banjo and pipes is actually a great combo (is it tenor or 5-string though?) but I think it works better with Highland pipes; if you're amplified though it won't be a problem especially if your banjo player can contain him/herself at the fast bits :thumb:

Cheers

[John Dally]

Originally posted by Bmorgan:
I'd like to add to the above post, I came across a set of Parlour (fireside) pipes awhile back, and desperately need a bag and new reeds, any body know who makes these items specifically for this size pipes? Thanks, Brett :) Have you contacted the maker? If they are Gibson's Fireside pipes then you should be able to get everything you need from the man himself. These mouthblown smallpipes are fairly simple to set up compared to the bellows blown varieties, which are more specialized instruments. For a bag you should be able to use any hide GHB bag.
Hope that helps.

[John Dally]

Originally posted by Barry Taylor:

I'd appreciate any tips from players with experience in this kind of mixed instrument setting. I'd also like to hear recommendations for tunes that work particularly well on the firesides / smallpipes with other instruments.
Getting the right balance is the most difficult thing I've found. Unless you educate the sound man he or she will inevitably set the pipes so that only the loudest notes, that is the high notes, are heard. Sound people think that smallpipes are as loud as GHB, even after you have gone through a set. Some even seem prejudiced against the pipes and I would be surprised if they deliberately turn us off all together. :shrug: Professional, union sound people in very formal situations, like in an opera house or concert hall, are the worse this way. They treat folk musicians like children and don't listen to anything you say. At least that's been my experience here in Seattle the few times we've played in these venues. The best sound people are ones who work regularly with Blue Grass bands, in my experience.

One way I got around the sound problem was to mount a very hot accordian mic on a metal plate on the inside of the bag of my bellows blown smallpipes. This I plugged into an accoustic guitar amp next to me. Then I put a floor mic up against the speaker, and let the sound man deal with that. This way I had a full, balanced sound because the mic picked up the whole instrument. And I also had a dependable monitor. AND the sound guy's job was very simple.

The other problem in balance is making sure you don't get drowned out by the guitar, keyboards and bass if you have them. On the smallpipes in A you will be playing an octave below the fiddler, right in the midst of the guitar and keyboard range. You are effectively second fiddle. In D you will play in the same octave, but the brighter sound of the fiddle will still cover you up if your volume isn't boosted significantly.

Tunes that use the disappearing high A for syncopation, like "clumsy lover", do not work so well on the smallpipes because the dynamics are opposite those of the GHB. The lower notes are louder on the GHB, while the higher notes are loudest on smallpipes. My new Sloan SSP have surprisingly well balanced dynamics, however, compared to my last set of SSP.

That's probably more than you wanted to know. Do you ever play in Seattle? I would like to hear your band. What's the name of your band?

[Bmorgan]

No, mine are not Gibsons' they are an unknown make that appear to be fairly old, no markings, the chanter seems to be true so I want to set them up and see if they are worth anything, the bag is shot and I have no drone reeds and probably need to replace the chanter reed while I am at it. So, I need to buy these things to set them up, but haven't had much luck finding the stuff :shrug:

[Ian Lawther]

Without seeing what you have it is hard to advise but I know some makers made "parlour" pipes which were effectively a practice chanter with bag and drones (or a goose with drones). If it looks like this is what you have you could start by trying a practice chanter reed in the chanter.

Ian

[Graeme Roxburgh]

I can think of three options for drone reeds, having posted a question on drone reeds on this forum a few days ago, and having got some replies.

Gibson Fireside pipe reeds may work. These are basically a loud vibrant practice chanter reed. The main difference between the Fireside pipe reed and their practice chanter reeds is that the Fireside pipe reeds are adjusted for volume (lower volume by sanding down the blades) in order to balance the volume of each drone. Takes time therefore costs more; you could just buy Gibson Practice chanter reeds, and adjust them yourself. But they are wider than most makes of PC reeds and may not fit in the stocks. You could also try other makes of PC reeds.

Make your own. I've just received some fairly detailed instructions about how to start experimenting with this; which I can send on if I have an email address to send to.

Write to WR Hughes [raider79423@yahoo.com] as he claims to make reeds that might work for you.

Hope this helps.
Graeme Roxburgh
groxburgh@infoscience.otago.ac.nz

PS I own a set of Gibson Fireside pipes, and have on loan 3 other sets of mouthblown small pipes, made by MacDougall, Starck, and Henderson, in order to get reeds working in these.

[Bmorgan]

Thanks about the reed information, how about any pipebag info? I would like a canmore bag but don't know if they make tthem for parlour pipes, thanks again for the info. Graeme, I will look into this, the address you mentioned is a guy here in Texas, where I live! Thanks, Brett

[Barry Taylor]

Thanks for great advice from everyone in this thread! Here's a follow-up question that may be of interest to others, besides myself...

For those of you who play with other instruments, how do you start your tunes?

I note that, unlike the Great Highland Pipes, <i>everything</i> starts on strike-in with the Firesides, drones and chanter concurrently. As one might expect, a second or two to steady the tone is required. It seems to me that the standard introductory counts that work for the fiddler and other players probably won't work well for the Fireside piper.

How do you handle tune starts in <i>your</i> band? A few introductory measures by the fiddler, for example?

[John Dally]

Originally posted by Barry Taylor:
How do you handle tune starts in <i>your</i> band? A few introductory measures by the fiddler, for example?We usually start with one or two instruments, or with the dancers going without accompaniment, then add and subtract as the thing develops. When I start a set out with the fiddler or guitar player we just look at each other, say "1, 2, 3, 4" under our breath and start on the next "1". That's if the tune is in quarter note time.