I've been working on getting some distributed tasks working via RabbitMQ.
I spent some time trying to get Celery to do what I wanted and couldn't make it work.
Then I tried using Pika and things just worked, flawlessly, and within minutes.
Is there anything I'm missing out on by using Pika instead of Celery?
I’m going to add an answer here because this is the second time today someone has recommended celery when not needed based on this answer I suspect. So the difference between a distributed task queue and a broker is that a broker just passes messages. Nothing more, nothing less. Celery recommends using RabbitMQ as the default broker for IPC and places on top of that adapters to manage task/queues with daemon processes. While this is useful especially for distributed tasks where you need something generic very quickly. It’s just construct for the publisher/consumer process. Actual tasks where you have defined workflow that you need to step through and ensure message durability based on your specific needs, you’d be better off writing your own publisher/consumer than relying on celery. Obviously you still have to do all of the durability checking etc. With most web related services one doesn’t control the actual “work” units but rather, passes them off to a service.  Thus it makes little sense for a distributed tasks queue unless you’re hitting some arbitrary API call limit based on ip/geographical region or account number... Or something along those lines. So using celery doesn’t stop you from having to write or deal with state code or management of workflow etc and it exposes the AMQP in a way that makes it easy for you to avoid writing the constructs of publisher/consumer code. 
So in short if you need a simple tasks queue to chew through work and you aren’t really concerned about the nuances of performance, the intricacies of durability through your workflow or the actual publish/consume processes. Celery works. If you are just passing messages to an api or service you don't actually control, sure, you could use Celery but you could just as easily whip up your own publisher/consumer with Pika in a couple of minutes.  If you need something robust or that adheres to your own durability scenarios, write your own publish/consumer code like everyone else.
RabbitMQ: What Does Celery Offer That Pika Doesn't?