Bagpipe First Aid

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Bagpipe First Aid

The first in a series of articles on bagpipe maintenance

Most musicians, especially if they regularly play in public, keep some sort of first aid kit in their instrument case. It may simply be a spare set of strings for the guitarist or valve oil for the trumpeter, but there’s usually something essential to keeping the instrument in good playing order. Whilst some bagpipers seem to manage with only a spare set of reeds (and some not even that!), the majority have learned from bitter experience the necessity for a slightly more elaborate kit.
How far you go is up to you, but it’s certainly not uncommon to encounter extremely complex maintenance packs, including full reed-making equipment, stopping short only at the inclusion of a small lathe. The complexity of your own first aid kit depends entirely on your own requirements, only experience telling you what you need. The list discussed here is based on my own requirements and experience and you may, of course, add to or subtract from it to suit yourself.
The bagpipe is a very complex, highly temperamental instrument having problems unlike any other (except perhaps the hurdy-gurdy) and needs to be treated with love and respect if you are going to get the best from it. When things go wrong, however, there are usually certain steps that can be taken immediately to get you out of trouble with no permanent ill-effects.
The majority of faults fall into four categories: airtightness, reed problems, playing out of tune, and blocked pipes. The following list of materials and tools is intended to assist the player in overcoming most of these faults, on a first-aid basis, provided they are not too serious (there is rarely anything you can do if a bag bursts, for instance, other than light up a Hamlet and let the rest of the band get on with it).
So here goes. Let’s start with the materials.

Masking Tape
Shock, horror! How can he suggest such a nasty, untraditional material? (There’s worse to come yet). If, however, you have ever experienced the complete unwinding of a hemp slide binding during tuning just before a performance you will appreciate the need for speedy, effective first aid – masking tape will provide this. Don’t try to rewind the binding in a hurry – you’ll only make a mess of it and end up with a leaky slide. Instead, quickly remove all the hemp and replace to the same thickness with masking tape. It’s compressible like hemp so will stand being wound very slightly too thick provided a suitable lubricant is used (see below). Masking tape is also useful for retuning finger holes when a tired or difficult reed is causing a chanter to play out of tune (Sellotape is less unsightly, however).

Slide Lubricant
I find that the best lubricant for drone slides and stock tenons is ‘Selmer Tuning Slide and Cork Grease’. But beware: although excellent, it’s messy and poisonous, so nothing short of pipes which have it on their tenons should be done with care or avoided altogether. A more convenient though less effective lubricant is ‘Yamaha Slide Grease’, which comes in a small lipstick type dispenser. Vasilene can also be used but tends to ‘lock up’ if slides are not used for a while. But I always keep some in a small pill-box as it’s excellent if a slide develops a small leak which can’t quickly be cured. Apply it liberally and it will seal and lubricate at the same time (but not so liberally that it blocks the windway).

PTFE Tape
Ageing, humidity and temperature variations occasionally cause a slide or stock tenon to become loose. A simple method of correcting this is to wind a few turns of PTFE tape (plumbers’ tape) around the hemp or cork binding. PTFE can provide a really excellent seal as the action of pushing home a tenon pushes the tape into the cracks between the turns of hemp to make an almost perfect, smooth cylinder. It can also sometimes be used to seal a leaky double reed (but see below) or to make a good reed to socket joint.

Goldbeater’s Skin
This is the traditional material for sealing leaks on double reeds (oboes etc.) and consists of tissue-thin pig skin. It should be used on bagpipe reeds as a last resort as it can dull the tone and affect tuning and range.

Hemp Thread
This is the proper material (along with cork) for making bindings to all stock and slide tenons. Raw hemp, either yellow or white, is used and is normally waxed before use. It comes in different gauges depending on the size of the tenon. It can also be used for tying tuning bridles on single reeds.

Reed Twine
Some of the same twine as is used to bind your double reeds may prove useful if a reed needs to be remade in a hurry. Emergency sealing (normally done with wax or varnish) can be achieved with PTFE tape.

Dental Floss
Used with wax, this makes an excellent material for tying single reed bridles and is particularly useful in a first aid kit as it comes in a neat little

dispenser with a built-in cutter.

Brass Wire
If you need to make a new tuning bridle for a double reed, a few turns of thin brass (or copper) wire will do the job. Keep about a metre neatly wound like a guitar string in your kit. Try to avoid any kinks.

Wax
I consider this to be an essential ingredient in a first aid kit. While beeswax is useful for waxing hemp thread or dental floss, I find that a better all-rounder is the red wax found on Edam cheese as it is softer and more easily worked. Wax is useful for sealing all sorts of cracks and leaks, retuning finger holes when problem reeds will not allow a chanter to play in tune, sealing reeds into sockets, stopping small drones and even tacking music to walls (and if you leave some cheese attached you’ve always got a snack handy - only don’t get the cheese and the wax mixed up or you’ll end with stinky leaky bagpipes). Seriously though, I’ve never had any problems with smell or effect upon the wax as it peels cleanly away from the cheese. If the colour is too red, or a harder wax is needed, it can easily be mixed with beeswax.

Reed Rush
Not known to many pipers but used quite a lot by other double reed players (oboe etc.), reed rush is abrasive and gently scrapes the reed while depositing a fine siliceous coat. Sometimes useful when a reed has become weak and lifeless — though don’t expect miracles.

Bath Sealant
Very much a last resort, though it can usually be picked away afterwards with no ill-effects. Use a transparent silicone variety such as ‘Dow Corning House Sealant’. Note: takes about half-an-hour to go off (minimum) and will not take to wet or greasy surfaces. Uses: leaks between stock and bag, leaky bag seams, splits in wood.

Soft Leather
A small piece is handy in case you have to remake a blowpipe or bellows valve. A piece of an old glove or similar will do.

Elastic Bands
Very small elastic bands can be used to make an emergency replacement for single reed tuning bridles or key springs.

So much for the materials. Now let’s look at a few tools we can usefully include in the kit.

Small Electrician’s Pliers
Used for making or adjusting double reed tuning bridles. Also useful for helping to tie single reed bridles.

Reed Scraping Tool
The choice of tool is obviously a matter of taste and convenience. I feel, however, that unless you are going to equip your instrument case with a full reed making kit, a razor blade or scalpel blade (pushed into a rubber for safety) will serve for the kind of minor reed doctoring under discussion.

Car Aerial
Car aerial? Yes! If you can get an old one it makes a very good drone and blowpipe unbanging tool and it telescopes down into a very small size for packing away. Drones do get bunged up with bits of hemp, wax, etc. BUT USE WITH CARE!

Small pointed thingummy-with-a-slight-bend-in-the-end
This is useful for applying tuning wax to finger holes.

Tuning Fork
Get one that corresponds to the keynote of your pipes.

Four other small, all-purpose tools are: a penknife, a miniature hacksaw blade and a flat and a round needle file.

Well, that’s it. Most of the materials suggested here are strictly first aid as they are unsuitable for prolonged use and are aesthetically unsatisfactory (so much so that many will flinch at their use even as a temporary expedient). It must be stressed that the suggestions made do not necessarily represent what is used by the majority of pipers, being merely a reflection of my own experience and preferences (prejudices?). Talk to others and see what they use, then make your own judgements.

Oh, and don’t forget the spare set of reeds!

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WHERE TO GET IT

Masking tape, PTFE tape, bath sealant - any good DIY shop Beeswax - old-fashioned ironmongers or good woodwork shop. Slide grease, tuning fork - good music shop. Vaseline, dental floss - chemist. Goldbeater’s skin, brass wire, reed rush, reed twine - Howarth’s, Chiltern St. (near Baker St, London) - also sell cane for reed making. Hemp thread - Duncan MacRae Ltd, 328 Lawnmarket, Edinburgh (near castle) - also sell Highland pipes and accessories.

The above are only suggestions, of course, and you may be able to find other suppliers of the more specialised materials nearer home. Good Luck!

David Van Doorn, January 1986

MAKING AND MAINTAINING THE EARLY MUSIC SHOP BAGPIPE KIT

I have heard little good said about the Early Music Shop Bagpipe Kit. This is a pity, because when well made and set up it is an impressive instrument, with powerful drones tuned to the relatively unusual but probably authentic interval of a fifth, and a limited but good sounding chanter. I use mine a lot, and have relatively little trouble with it. However, this is not the experience of many people.

There are two main reasons why this instrument proves disappointing for so many people. One is that, while EMS have provided good instructions for making the pipe, they’ve left a lot unsaid about setting it up and reeding it, and this is far harder than merely putting it together. The second problem is that in order to make a good job of setting any bagpipe up it is really necessary to be able to play it in the first place, otherwise how will you know what’s right and what’s wrong? Since most makers of the EMS kit are beginners, they face almost insoluble problems. To help them, here are some ideas and methods of ‘tweaking’ that I have found useful.

The Bag When sewing the bag it is not necessary to push the needles directly into the leather. You can use a bradawl, but it must be modified first. Grind or file it so it’s round and nice and thin, then use abrasive paper to make it perfectly smooth. Like this it will push the leather fibres apart rather than cut them so that the resulting hole will tend to close up around the thread.

Do not let the neck get too narrow as this will make the process of turning the bag inside out almost impossible. This process is aided by dressing the seams before turning inside out, see below.

The dressing suggested by EMS is grand fun to make, but having made it, the best thing to do is to throw it away as it is worse than useless as a dressing. It dries out and stops sealing, it grows huge amounts of mould, it gets on the drone reeds and stops them working - so don’t use it! Either use a proprietary brand of Highland pipe dressing, or make it yourself from beeswax and olive oil. Heat some olive oil and dissolve in enough beeswax so that when the mixture is cold it is about the consistency of Vaseline. If haven’t worked out the exact ratio of oil to wax - you’ll have to do it yourself by trial and error.

Having made this, work some into the seam and stitching while it’s still warm. This seals any leaks in the seam and lubricates the bag which helps in the turning inside out process. When the stocks are bound in, pour molten dressing into the bag and work it into the leather, particularly the areas where the bag meets the stocks. Don’t put too much in and, when it’s