GlenCoe Bagpipes Electronic Chanter

I love this. My wife is a napper, which was simultaneously the best weekend opportunity to practice and the worst time to make noise. The GlenCoe made that time useable. It is not a total replacement for a normal PC, but it does have a huge number of benefits. A lot of the 'pros,' of this item are just features of a digital chanter, like practicing silently, so I won't include those in the review. TL:DR: This is not a replacement for a traditional practice chanter, but it does what it does well and costs way less than anything else like it. Buy it to memorize music, practice tempo/expression, and do it silently. Don't buy it to practice technique or to make a lovely musical sound. Pros: -It faithfully responds to my fingerings, if anything it is less forgiving (in a good way) than a normal PC. The battery life is awesome (I don't know if it is 80 hours, but I know I have gone 20 or so before charging. I have yet to hear the low battery noise) -It is compact and feels sturdy. -I've compared this to a few pipe chanters and practice chanters. It's basically within the range of all of them in terms of spacing. There is no more deviation than between the traditional PCs Cons: -I have to use lotion for it to work properly. Not a ton, but if I haven't used lotion in the hour or so before playing I'm going to get weird noises and false fingerings. It was an easy problem to solve, there is now lotion in my practice bag. -This is not a place to practice technique. The contacts are raised instead of being sunken holes, the PC isn't held into place by your teeth, so it moves more than a normal PC. It just has a different feel than a normal PC or pipe chanter. It is not going to help you keep your embellishments perfect. It is however an amazing place to memorize tunes, and work on expression. -I use a 7 birl and it never sounds quite right. I think this is because where my pinkie strikes is a bit less fleshy than the other areas on my fingers I use, but that is just a guess. If I want to get a good sound out of it I have to hold the PC tighter, and I'd rather have the birl sound a bit weird than develop a weird habit of tightening when I do my birl so I just let it go. It's mostly just annoying. When I come to a particularly fast birl I just assume it hit more or less correctly then practice the technique of it later on the full pipes or traditional PC. Like I said, these aren't a good place to practice technique. Thoughts: -The sound is about as good as a normal PC, which is to say it's god awful. It is true to the scale though, which is honestly all I ask. I gave it a 5 for 'sound quality,' because it made the sound I think we all expect, but the thing sounds like a digital sine wave, which is basically what it is. -I saw someone say this hurts their fingers. I have no clue how that could possibly be. I guess if you were gripping the PC tightly while you played, but I have yet to experience that at all. The poles are raised, but they aren't sharp or uncomfortable, just a bit of a bump. -I got a rubber chair foot cover to fit onto the bottom of mine to keep it from sliding when I rested it either on my thigh or on a table, and that has made it feel much more like a typical PC. I recommend the makers add a feature like that in the future. A 10 cent piece of plastic really improved the overall experience. -Don't get this for a beginner. It is not a good place to pick up fundamentals or the feel of the pipes. A PC is one step removed from the pipes, this adds another step. This is great for someone with experience, but it is just going to confuse someone who is still working on getting their embellishments down. Get those rock solid on a normal PC first. -This PC is absolutely not as good as a Blair, it is also 1/5 the price. Make of that what you will.

This is a fantastic practice tool. You do need to make sure your hands are moistened (lotion works fine) to maintain good electrical contact, but the ability to do quiet practice in a variety of settings is very helpful. I was able to really accelerate learning tunes by using this during lunch breaks, plane flights, and in hotel rooms. For the price, it's an excellent quality as well. It is not a solo instrument. There is an electronic hum that is really noticeable by headphone or a small speaker, but pretty harsh if you put it on an amp. It's not for that purpose though. This is for accelerating the memorization of tunes - and works great in that capacity.

I love this thing, I have been able to practice so much more(even when the kids are napping/sleeping). It was a little quirky at first to figure it out but now that I did it works like a champ!

Very pleased with my purchase and highly recommend. Bought it to replace an old Fagerstrom electronic chanter that uses the same technology... which you have to be aware of, otherwise there's a chance you'll be disappointed (see negative reviews). To produce the tone, the fingering relies on something called body capacitance, and to make that happen your fingers have to be moist enough to conduct a signal between your finger and the contacts (notes). Same science as a touch controlled light dimmer, touch controlled lamp, etc. So if your hands are really dry, you'll need to moisten your fingers. I live in Southern California and have to do this all the time, no biggie. My routine is to get my hands wet, let the water soak into my skin while my hands air dry a bit, towel dry, then apply a dab of hand moisturizer. I may have to reapply during my session, depending on how dry the air is. Yeah, a little inconvenient, but the benefits of this chanter far outweigh the hassle. You just have to know what to expect. To my knowledge the only other technology out there is optical contacts, at about 4x the price.

This chanter is terrible. The sensitivity is so bad as it does not pick up notes when you're playing. That might be okay if you're playing slow tunes, once your tunes start to get a bit faster, the chanter misses half of the notes (all grace notes are gone). This is horrible practice as it also ruins your finger technique for actual pipes. Their website recommended using a hand moisturizer and tightening some screws, neither was a viable solution. The chanter also has a noisy static fuzz playing at all times no matter what type of headset is in use, really poor sound quality even when fully charged. I reached out to Glencoe more than once and they didn't bother respond, essentially zero support or customer service. Get yourself the electronic chanter from ross, similar pricing, more functionality, better customer support.

This is a great practice chanter for learning new songs or practicing when you can’t use your regular practice chanter.

I get a higher quality practice with this electronic chanter than with my regular practice chanter. The earbuds had a problem, but customer support was super helpful and they made sure I ended up with a product that worked well.

It is just okay. Nothing to jump and shout about. Buy a real chanter and find a spot away from everyone. You will enjoy it more.