Question for Pipers

[MacGumerait]

I'm a new piper and have been trying to learn everything I can about piping and such.When I go to Piping competitions I like to ask pipers I chat with what brand of pipes they play and half the time the answer is "I don't know they're the ones the band gave me".

Crash , I think perhaps the key here is that you were asking pipers questions at " Piping competitions " . Depending on the piper and the competition , some may be reluctant to answer questions in that setting .

Other than that , ( as others have said ) most pipers will be more than glad to share info about their pipes .

Cheers , Mike

[OC Richard]

I'm a new piper... when I go to Piping competitions I like to ask pipers what brand of pipes they play and half the time the answer is "I don't know they're the ones the band gave me".

I don't think I've ever heard that, in 40 years of piping and going to Highland Games. Thing is, there aren't any bands that I know of around here that supply the pipes, the sole exception being a High School that used to have several old beat-up 1960s Lawries they would loan to students who didn't have their own pipes. Few kids used the school sets. The kids I talked to knew that they were old Lawries.

I did see back at the West Virginia Highland Games in Bridgeport a school band fully outfitted with polypenco Dunbars. Very smart! They're practically kidproof.

No, usually it's the other way around: pipers know all about their pipes and are eager to brag about them if you give them the chance. Even pipers with dodgy old orange catalin mounted pipes will tell you how great their pipes are.

Two things to be aware of:

1) In the "classic" period of pipemaking (say, 1880 to 1940) there were loads of makers, but 99% of the modern pipers who play old sets will tell you that their pipes are Hendersons. Kinda like the deal where if Washington slept in all the places that claim such he would have to have slept in several different places every day of his life, and if all the pieces of The True Cross were gathered in one spot you'd have enough wood to built the Ark, if all the old pipes claimed to be Hendersons were such, Peter Henderson would have had to pumped out dozens of sets a week and all the other makers would have made one set a year, combined.

Obviously Henderson was making pipes at about the same rate as many other makers and the pipes of all the various 'classic' period survived in more or less equal proportion; so that of the present pipes claimed to be Henderson many (or most) are not. Once I ran into a piper playing a very old (early 19th century) set and when I asked him who the maker was he told me "Henderson". I nearly spit out my beer! Henderson hadn't been born when that set was made and it looked absolutely nothing like Henderson pipes. "Henderson" has become like people calling all vacuum cleaners "Hoovers" and calling all adhesive bandages "Bandaids".

2) 99% of pipers will tell you that their 'classic' set is made from African Blackwood, probably because that that wood has been the standard wood since around 1940 and many pipers don't know that any other wood was ever used. Most 'classic' sets are not, in fact, ABW, but are Cocus or Ebony. The 'classic' 19th makers used the latter two woods nearly exclusively and African Blackwood wasn't mentioned or offered on their price lists. When ABW does begin to show up on makers' price lists, around 1900, it appears as a third choice, often at the bottom of the page in a footnote.

Ask me about my pipes. I'll tell you more than you want to know!

[crash]

Crash , I think perhaps the key here is that you were asking pipers questions at " Piping competitions " . Depending on the piper and the competition , some may be reluctant to answer questions in that setting .

Other than that , ( as others have said ) most pipers will be more than glad to share info about their pipes .

Cheers , Mike

Just to be clear, I'm not asking 5 minutes before they step in front of the judges. Usually it's late in the day at the pipers' pub.

[crash]

I don't think I've ever heard that, in 40 years of piping and going to Highland Games. Thing is, there aren't any bands that I know of around here that supply the pipes, the sole exception being a High School that used to have several old beat-up 1960s Lawries they would loan to students who didn't have their own pipes. Few kids used the school sets. The kids I talked to knew that they were old Lawries.

I did see back at the West Virginia Highland Games in Bridgeport a school band fully outfitted with polypenco Dunbars. Very smart! They're practically kidproof.

No, usually it's the other way around: pipers know all about their pipes and are eager to brag about them if you give them the chance. Even pipers with dodgy old orange catalin mounted pipes will tell you how great their pipes are.

Two things to be aware of:

1) In the "classic" period of pipemaking (say, 1880 to 1940) there were loads of makers, but 99% of the modern pipers who play old sets will tell you that their pipes are Hendersons. Kinda like the deal where if Washington slept in all the places that claim such he would have to have slept in several different places every day of his life, and if all the pieces of The True Cross were gathered in one spot you'd have enough wood to built the Ark, if all the old pipes claimed to be Hendersons were such, Peter Henderson would have had to pumped out dozens of sets a week and all the other makers would have made one set a year, combined.

Obviously Henderson was making pipes at about the same rate as many other makers and the pipes of all the various 'classic' period survived in more or less equal proportion; so that of the present pipes claimed to be Henderson many (or most) are not. Once I ran into a piper playing a very old (early 19th century) set and when I asked him who the maker was he told me "Henderson". I nearly spit out my beer! Henderson hadn't been born when that set was made and it looked absolutely nothing like Henderson pipes. "Henderson" has become like people calling all vacuum cleaners "Hoovers" and calling all adhesive bandages "Bandaids".

2) 99% of pipers will tell you that their 'classic' set is made from African Blackwood, probably because that that wood has been the standard wood since around 1940 and many pipers don't know that any other wood was ever used. Most 'classic' sets are not, in fact, ABW, but are Cocus or Ebony. The 'classic' 19th makers used the latter two woods nearly exclusively and African Blackwood wasn't mentioned or offered on their price lists. When ABW does begin to show up on makers' price lists, around 1900, it appears as a third choice, often at the bottom of the page in a footnote.

Ask me about my pipes. I'll tell you more than you want to know!

Then I guess it's just me.

[OC Richard]

Just to be clear, I'm not asking 5 minutes before they step in front of the judges. Usually it's late in the day at the pipers' pub.

I think perhaps MacGumerait is implying that fiercely competitive pipers might not want to share their 'trade secrets'? It's possible to read his statement in that light.

After every year's Winter Storm competition there's a running thread on a bagpipers' chat site in which the various competitors' pipes and setups (reeds, bags, etc) are discussed. Seems that invariably the competitors, when approached, are quite open about their equipment.

What inevitably comes out of such discussions is that good pipers will get the sound they're after from whatever pipe they play, if given time to adjust the setup to their liking.

[OC Richard]

Then I guess it's just me.

I wonder what age the pipers you asked were. If High School age I can imagine some local school providing pipes. Perhaps the various pipers you talked to happen to be in the same band.

Though I've never encountered an adult band in the USA providing pipers' pipes, such has been known to happen.

Years ago a contingent of Shotts & Dykehead came here to California to put on some concerts. A group of us local pipers attended one of their rehearsals and chatted with them. Several of their young pipers were playing vintage Frankenpipes. They explained to me that the band owned a big box of bits & bobs (pieces of various random 100-year-old ivory-mounted sets) and when a new youngster joined the band the Pipe Major would go through the box and cobble together a set. In this way the band had a drone tone dominated by wonderful vintage pipes without burdening the kids with having to lay out thousands of dollars.

With those Frankenpipes, none could say who the makers were, mostly.