I have two sets of recordings on my first impressions of a Ray Hughes bagpipe. African blackwood pipes, plain turned, with satin wood button mounts in what Ray calls the Gordon style (no cord guides, banner ribbon used instead, chalice type top).
1 – My first practice with them:
No name bass drone reed (gray body, don’t like this reed), 2 older style Henderson drone reeds with big thick carbon fiber tongues. No name chanter reed in Ray Hughes chanter. Only one tune recorded before kid went to sleep:
2 – My second practice with them:
All MG reeds, tenors had A440 extenders on them as the drones were tuning pretty sharp. African Blackwood Naill solo chanter with no name reed. Same drones as above:
March I don’t know the name of
Both recorded with a Zoom H2 sitting on a dresser in the bedroom. All my broken in reeds were in other chanters so I kind of suck in these recordings as I was blowing like crazy to keep everything going. Keep that in mind!
Peace, Patrick