Practice Chanter by McCallum Bagpipes in Scotland – Extended Length (Reed included)

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.

This seems like a decent practice chanter, and it's very durable. I took off a star since there was a manufacturing flaw. One of the holes still had some plastic flash from the drilling, which affected the intonation. I was able to fix the problem, but it wasn't easy.

Don’t cheat yourself and buy a cheap no name practice chanter from some questionable dealers. Put in the money and get a quality chanter. I’ve been playing on a cheap chanter for years and the difference between my old cheap chanter and the McCallum chanter is night and day. McCallum is a well known piping name in the piping world. You definitely get what you pay for here. A durable low maintenance plastic chanter and a reed. Ready to play out of the box. If I had bought a quality changer earlier in life, it would have saved me a lot of time and frustration.

The supplied reed was a little shoddy. But replacement reeds of a different brand worked better.

Without a bag to force air through the reed, your lungs become the bag. Be prepared to blow your brains out, figuratively speaking, to get a sound out of this. I was able to practice a few musical phrases at a time before running out of breath, at which time the notes fall away. Play this canter enough and you’ll achieve greater lung strength, for certain. It’s still a good practice aid.

The quality of this chanter is great!

I’ve been playing highland bagpipes for over 40 years. This practice chanter is perfect. Feels great. Had to replace a very old wood practice chanter that has cracked beyond repair.