Warning!

A few words on doubtful bagpipes and dodgy sellers on the internet.

 

Over time, I have been looking quite a lot at bagpipes for sale on the internet. Sometimes for the purpose of buying but also out of general interest. I find it interesting to follow the price development, and sometimes I stumble over something good at a fair price. More often however, I stumble over lots of "fantastic deals" from more or less unknown bagpipe sellers and makers.

If you go to one of the larger internet search sites such as Google, Yahoo etc. and write "bagpipes" or "dudelsack" (German word for the same) you will, the very next second, be in over your head in shopping possibilities. There will be anything from good genuine instruments made by reputable (mostly Scottish, but sometimes also US or Canadian based) pipemakers, to the downright crappy look-alikes, most often made in the Far East. When I was about to make this page, I made a search for "bagpipes" on the UK based Ebay portal .  It turned up with 245 results. Of those 73 were in the category that I, without hesitation, would categorize as doubtful (I could use a stronger and more precise word, but I don't want to step on anybody's toes!) and only 7 (!) was, supposedly, from recognized makers. The rest of the 245 results turned out to be practice chanters, whistles and all kinds of stuff more or less related to the bagpipe. Now, why do I categorize the 73 finds as doubtful? For 2 reasons mainly:

The maker. In most cases, you will be unable to find any information on the maker of the "instrument". And when you can, it will very often be a name completely unknown in the established world of bagpipe makers. Over the last couple of years more makers from the Far East have been labelling their products with a Scottish or English sounding name. This way they hope to give the impression of making and selling a quality product. Sometimes you can actually find the exact same product (they don't even bother to use different photos!) sold under different names, by different internet based sellers. At one time I was looking for a set of smallpipes, and I stumbled over a set on Ebay. I found no information on the maker so I asked the seller. He gave me the "very confidential information" that the maker wanted to stay anonymous. This was due to the fact that he made more bagpipes than he was able to sell under his own "Highly recognized and respected name!" Therefore he sometimes chose to sell a few items without his brand on them, and therefore at a price far below what he would normally charge. To me that started sounding a bit like Far East! On the sales page, I found the following in the sales description: "Right here in Scotland" which was to underline the impression that the instrument was made in Scotland. The seller would not confirm this though. On the other hand, he would not say either, that it was made abroad. Now it really smelled like Far East! A few weeks later, I found the exact same set of smallpipes (again with the exact same photos....) listed for sale by another Ebay seller (or at least another seller's name. It may easily have been the same person(s) selling under more than one name!) This time there was information about the seller who, coincidently, was based in......... Pakistan.

So generally speaking: If you are supplied with a name of the maker, check it out. The internet is a brilliant place for such information. Either by general search or by some of the good bagpipe forums around on the internet e.g. Andrew Lenz's Bagpipe Journey . If you cannot find any satisfactory information, I would back down and shop elsewhere. If you cannot find a name in the description, ask the seller. If he is not able to supply you with one, I would consider shopping elsewhere. Please note however, that older bagpipes from well renowned makers such as Henderson, Lawries etc. are very often unmarked. They are being recognized by various unique features in design etc. This is a very difficult job that should be done by people with special knowledge only. Even the experts can be in doubt when trying to establish the maker of an old set of unmarked pipes. But the new sets we are talking about here, are almost always, provided they come from good well established makers, branded with the maker's name. If the seller/producer will not put a name to the product, it is usually because he/she has something to hide!

 

The material. As far as the 73 doubtful pipes go, the wooden parts on most of them are all supposedly made from "Rosewood" (Dalbergia Nigra/Brazillian Rosewood). This is a very hard and dense type of wood used in the make of many different kinds of musical instruments. But can they really be? Rosewood is covered by the terms of the CITES convention (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) and therefore the use of the wood is highly restricted. A very small (and very expensive) quantity of wood is made available for various productions on the world market, making it rather unlikely that hundreds or thousands of low cost bagpipes are among the instruments made of this type of wood. It is much more likely, that the word Rosewood is being used generally to describe any kind of wood currently available for the producer. My own (very costly, mind you!) experience is pointing in any other direction than that of hard wood suited for musical instrument making (please look under "My bagpipe" elsewhere on this site). Another thing is, that the majority of newer (made within the last 100 years or so) bagpipes are all made from African Blackwood, originally known as Mpingo, (Dalbergia melanoxylon) which by experience have turned out to be the best kind of wood for the making of bagpipes. It is, like Rosewood, a very expensive sort of wood, only available in a very limited quantity. For this reason alone a good bagpipe is rarely a cheap bagpipe. So when a few of the above mentioned 73 bagpipes are supposedly made from Mpingo, and still being sold for about 75 - 100£, I would say there are reason for suspicion.

As regards to the other parts, artificial ivory and metal, they are often of a likewise poor quality. The artificial ivory is often made of cheap, white plastic. It does not necessarily make any practical difference but it does not look very nice. Today there are material available looking very close to the real thing, which looks a lot nicer and ads style to the overall appearance of the instrument. The metal parts are often poor quality nickel plated with low quality engravings, and are very often fastened to the pipes using nails. The bag is often made of some unknown type of to thick and to hard leather that are poorly cut and stitched. You can sometimes be lucky to find average quality reeds in the pipes, but more often they are of the same poor quality as the rest of the "instrument". 

Besides from the two above mentioned main reasons for suspicion, one can often find other sorts of peculiarities with these kinds of instruments. In the sales text for example, one can very often find stated, that this particular bagpipe is perfect for beginners. "Why throw away a lot of money buying a very expensive bagpipe, if you give up playing in a month or two?" I will claim, and I am speaking based on personal experience again, that the chances of giving up learning is rising proportionally with the price of the instrument going down. This is of course generally speaking, but the typical cheap bagpipe has a very poor quality bag, made of very thick inflexible skin, which is very hard to make tight. It is often fitted with iron hard reeds and the drones are proportioned in a way that makes any attempt on tuning it extremely difficult, not to say impossible. It will be a long fight up hill, which will very often cost you a lot of money to buy a new bag, new reeds and a new chanter. And then you will still be left with a second grade instrument. Very often it ends up with the unhappy owner giving up the idea of ever learning to play. Something that could have given years of pleasure ends up in the bottom of the cupboard, and you money spent turns out to be money lost. Unless of course, you try to sell it on to some other poor beginner! The chances of ever getting to play are so very much higher with a decent instrument. And should you chose to give it up later on after all, you can always sell a good instrument again with the chances of getting most of your money back.

The Chanter trick. Some sellers/makers of low quality bagpipes as mentioned above, often tries to give the impression that their bagpipe is made by a reputable maker. This is sometimes done by fitting their own unmarked, low quality set of pipes with a good quality, branded chanter from a well known maker.  When you ask, they will tell you, that they are a little unsure of the maker, but they are pretty sure it is e.g. MacCallum due to that name being stamped into the chanter. Chanters however, can easily be bought separately and fitted to any bagpipe. Actually there is a lot makers who sell their bagpipes without a chanter, or with the chanter as an extra option, due to the various player's different preferences in chanter. In other words: The chanter does not necessarily tell you the least thing about the make or the quality of the pipes to which it is fitted.

 

In all honesty, it might be in place to state also, that not all things made in the Far East (as regards to bagpipes the term "Far East" is basically covering Pakistan and India) is of low quality. But, to give an example regarding to bagpipes, I can tell a short story of a Pakistani maker, based in the city or region of Sialkot. For a while his internet sales site, had a series of photos showing what he called his "Highly experienced craftsmen" making "Instruments of the very highest quality". Among the photos was one showing a fellow sitting on the dirt floor of some sort of hut. On the floor by his side was a big pile of drone parts and different metal parts (ferrules, ringcaps etc.) The guy was in the process of mounting the metal parts to the drones using a hammer! I have since seen, in person, several different examples of Pakistani and Indian made bagpipes. So far with no, or very little, clue of any changes in quality of material or in the making process.

 

Adding it all up: If for one reason or another, you chose to buy your instrument by the internet (and I must stress again, that in general any other way is preferable) do buy a well known make. The old makers (and sometimes newer companies as for example the maker of my pipes, Douglas MacPherson) have made them selves a good name and reputation by making good high quality products and by offering excellent service to their customers. Their products are made in the proper way, using proper material and taking the time necessary. All these things cost money. So basically brand and price are pretty good signs of quality. If you have that in mind, and use your good common sense, you should have a good chance of making a good purchase.

If you have any questions or comments to the above, you are most welcome to write. I will do my best to answer as quickly as possible.