Things to Know When Ordering Bagpipes
If you are thinking about buying your first set of Highland pipes please read this section carefully. Even
if you're an experienced piper you might still want to review this material.
First Things First
If you're not already studying on the practice chanter, stop. Do not buy a bagpipe yet. As much as we'd love to sell you a bagpipe you'd be doing yourself a major disservice to try learning to play on the actual bagpipe. Don't let your enthusiasm short-circuit the process. The proper place to start is with a practice chanter. Get yourself a practice chanter and an instructor or a good tutor book.
Your instructor will give you specific guidance on when a bagpipe purchase is appropriate but a general rule we use with our own students is that you are ready to start shopping when you have mastered 4-6 tunes on the practice chanter and can play doublings, D throws and taorluaths correctly.
Listen and Look
As you're working away on the practice chanter you can be doing some "due diligence" in preparation for ordering your bagpipe. Study pipes you have direct contact with. This is the time to start developing your taste in bagpipes.
What kind of look do you like? Bagpipes come with a variety of different cosmetic options. All makers offer a range of mounting options to consider. Do you like metal ferrules or something else? Tuning pins can have metal slides or be bare. Do you like projecting mounts or button mounts? In addition to these obvious appearance choices there are the more subtle differences in shapes between makers. For example, David Naill have a very 'muscular' shape to the drones with large diameter drone tops and broad shoulders. Inveran is a slimmer profile. McCallum have shallowish beading whereas Ian Murray cuts his beads very deeply. Some pipes are varnished, some have a soft finish. Close comparison of various makers will reveal many small touches that combine to give an overall esthetic impression.
What sound appeals to you? Just as different singers can each sing a note dead on pitch and you can tell that one is Pavarotti and the other is Charlotte Church, just as you can distinguish a violin from a trumpet by their sound, so too you can tell one bagpipe from another by the timbre of the drone sound. Different makers' pipes have different 'voices'. With a little practice you can tell a Naill from a Murray from an Inveran. Whenever you get a chance, listen up close to various pipes and try to form a notion of your preferred sound.
What is your budget? As with anything else, bagpipes fall into a spectrum of prices. One maker will charge more than another for a similar model and a half-nickel, button mount bagpipe will be less expensive than that full-mounted engraved silver set regardless of the maker. Keep in mind that a bagpipe is a modular instrument. Every component can be swapped in or out. Your choices for bags, reeds, chanter material, cover, cords and accessories can make several hundred dollars difference in the final price.
Outfitting Your Bagpipes
Ok, you know what bagpipe you want and what you have to spend. Now we need to outfit the bagpipe so that it will fit you well and give best service for your intended type of playing.
There are many considerations in configuring your bagpipe such as bag size, blowpipe length, bag type, water traps and much more. The fit of the bagpipe to you is very important to your ease of playing. An ill-fitting bagpipe, no matter how well set up otherwise, can be a chore to play. The main factors in fit are the bag size and the blowpipe length.
Your bag should be as large as you can comfortably handle. Greater bag volume helps with tonal stability as long as you are not struggling to manage the bag. You must be able to tuck the bag up high under your arm. A bag that is too large won't stay there, it will slide down and you'll lose mechanical advantage, there will be a tendency to try to prop the bag up with your tophand wrist or to pull the chanter up under the bag to keep it from sliding. You should be able to reach around the bag with your tophand and not have the inside of your wrist in contact with the bag, or have your wrist cocked either in or out. The quality of your tophand fingerwork will suffer with any of these efforts to accomodate an over-large bag. As general sizing guidance we find that most makers' medium bags are suitable for males from about 5' 6" to about 6' 2". Women are generally shorter in arm and torso so might want to consider a small bag even up through a height of 5' 8".
With a properly sized bag and a blowpipe that is the correct length you should find that the chanter is more or less vertical to the ground and places your hands on a level with your navel or a bit lower, with your forearms horizontal. You should have the blowpipe in the center of your mouth. With the bag well tucked up under your arm, your head level and looking straight ahead you should have no more than about 3/8" of the mouthpiece behind your teeth. A blowpipe that is too long will push the bag down and away from you causing it to slide you will tend to pull the chanter up under the bag, your head will tip back and turn away from the bag. If a large portion of mouthpiece is behind your teeth you may injure the roof of your mouth. If the blowpipe is to short, you'll feel 'bunched up', the front of the bag will ride high or you will dip your head towards the bag, your wrists will bend excessively causing fatigue in your hands.
You'll find the standard blowpipe length from almost all makers is significantly over-long for most people. Standard blowpipes typically are 11 - 12" - a length suitable for folks well over 6' tall. The chart 
shows what our experience has shown to be typical well-fitted blowpipe lengths.
Placing Your Order
The best way to place your bagpipe order is by speaking with us directly, either in the shop or by phone. You can alternatively place your order here on our website. The main choices for options can be indicated and you can use the "Comments" section of the checkout form to indicate any other issues we need to address for you. If you place your order online we will still want to speak with you to review the order so please make sure to provide a daytime phone number.
Here's a checklist of the things we will need to know to build up your bagpipe and complete your order:
- Make & model of bagpipe
- bag type & size
- blowpipe length
- water trap, if not included with bag? (recommended)
- bag cover material & colors
- drone cord material & color(s)
- prep work - oil & re-hemp?
Here are some additional items to consider...
- Tee shirt size (you get a free one with your pipes)
- case
- chanter cap? (recommended)
- other accessories
- drone stoppers
- stock stoppers
- dry hemp
- pre-waxed hemp
- black wax
- beeswax
- drone brush
- chanter brush
- bore oil
- pull through swab
