High Grade Pipe with Filter...Will It Smoke Well Without It?

[iajaffe]

Thanks guys for the input. A little back story is I bought a pipe and fell out of love with it the instant I opened the box! Now I have a credit and was looking for a way to spend (burning a hole in my digital pocket). Not like I just bought 2 new pipes in Vegas!
I think I am going to pass on the Bang and hold my credit for something that catches my eye...if my will power holds out.

 

[drezz01]

I would hold off. As others have said, spend the money on a pipe that was intended to smoke as you intend to smoke it.
You might not feel a difference in the draw without the filter installed, but fundamentally as moisture laden air expands it cools and condenses. Granted, I'm not sure if this problem scales down to the difference between a ~3mm bore and a 9mm filter cavity, but I find my filter pipes smoke wet. This may be due to any number of other factors however. I'm assuming a reverse calabash has enough additional briar to absorb the moisture; a filter pipe is limited to the stem material.
Bottom line, and my $0.02, a filter pipe is designed to be smoked with a filter. If you dislike using filters, I would avoid them. Even an adapter can be ill-fitting and provide little pockets for moisture to accumulate causing gurgles. They're also more problematic to clean. Others may not have problems with their pipes, or they may even work exceptionally well for them - but I would think those are the exceptions to the rule.