Bagpipe care and break-In procedures.
A well-made and maintained bagpipe can last for a hundred years
or more!
Maintaining a stable environment is extremely important.
All of our wood is air dried and seasoned in a controlled
atmosphere. We maintain 50 % humidity at all times. It is imperative
that new pipes be allowed to adjust gradually to the new conditions.
This is especially important if you receive your instrument during
Winter months. If the heat is on for long periods, the chances are
the atmosphere is drier that you realize. Please ensure you maintain
50% humidity in the room the pipes are stored in as well as the case
you keep the pipes in. A small room humidifier is a good investment.
The wood comes in sets of 13 billets, those pieces have been cut in
Africa, moved from forest to supplier and then to shipping ports.
Next it's shipped to England and stored, then selected, packed and
sent to me. Once it gets here, unpacked and laid on drying shelves.
When we pick for sets I try to match color and texture, so it's
picked over again. All this means that the pieces on each set have
all come from different trees, possibly grown hundreds of miles
apart. So, it's basically impossible for a number of "defective"
pieces of wood to be in the same set. One crack in a set can be just
bad luck, but a number of cracks in the same set really points to
another issue.
Rapid changes in humidity levels will cause end cracking splitting.
The most critical time for any woodwind instrument is in the first
few months. No matter how well seasoned the wood is, after drilling
and turning it will continue to move and adjust to the relative
atmosphere where the bagpipe is now being played and stored. This is
why it's important to play the pipe in small increments of time,
allowing the wood to absorb or release moisture slowly. The moisture
control system or water trap helps keep excess moisture away form
the wood, assuming it's working well and you don't see beads of
water on the reeds. The case humidifier stops the wood drying out
too rapidly, you want to maintain at least 50% humidity at all
times. Playing outside in cold weather pulls all the moisture out of
the air and the wood, so get the bagpipe back in the case with the
humidifier, even keeping a humidifier in the room the pipes are
stored if necessary. The small case humidifiers can't keep enough
moisture in the case if the room the pipes are in is bone dry.
Forced air heat sucks all the moisture out of the atmosphere really
quickly, keep the pipes away form those events.
Excess moisture, temperature and humidity swings are the biggest
problem. Everyone will benefit from some form of moisture control
system. There are many great water trap systems available, from
simple tube traps, to complex silica gel type absorption systems.
Empty tube traps often, dry canisters frequently.
Zipper bags allow easy access for cleaning and drying.
Check tightness of stocks, re-tie or use clamps if necessary. When
stopped up, the bag should stay tight for at least 20 seconds. Clean
inside of bag and water trap with hot water and or mouthwash.
Take pipes apart and look for moisture on reeds or tenon of chanter,
pull through drones and brush out stocks regularly. Reeds should be
dry, and hemped to correct position, straight in reed seats. You can
use a wind of hemp inside stock to trap reed and hold in place.
Check for tightness after driving; don’t let them fall into the bag
during a competition! Hemp joints should be smooth, airtight and
firm into stocks. Check and adjust as necessary, this will change
depending on weather. There should be space at end of hemp under
projecting mount, make sure this is parallel and not bunching up
forming a wedge. This will start cracks at the top of the stock.
Hemp at drone tops should be yellow and waxed for a smooth sliding
fit, add soft wax or cork grease to get movement. Check and adjust
as necessary, this will change depending on weather. Do not use
Teflon tape, it’s too slippery! This forces you to make the joints
too tight.
I think it's very common for beginning pipers to feel the joints in
the stocks have to be really tight so they won't leak or turn.
However if the top joint is just tight enough to slide and adjust
with only 2 fingers, with some good wax, the drone top will stay
where you set it. If that joint moves easily the bottom joint can be
looser and still not turn in the stock. The hemp must be well waxed,
smooth and even for the best fit. If it's bunched up under the
projecting mount, it ends up shaped like a wedge, by far the
quickest way to split wood! Lumps or bunches of uneven hemp will
leak and make it hard to move the section smoothly and easily. This
is why I'm so against Teflon tape, it allows the pieces to slide and
move too easily, we want some friction so the pieces stay put, but
not trying to do that by making the joint so tight you need two
hands to move it.!
The wax keeps it waterproof so it won't swell, and allows
everything to move well. You can use cork grease from any music
store on the top joints to keep them sliding, beeswax on the bottom
joints to stop them turning.. All three drone tops and bass mid
section should come off after playing, be swabbed out and stored in
the pipe case, so if they do shrink down they won't crack against
the now too tight joint. The bottom sections pulled halfway out of
the stocks. If you go to put the pipe back together and they're too
tight, take some hemp off until they go on easily. If they are too
loose, play for a while and see if it tightens up again. Only add
one or two winds of waxed hemp if necessary. Don't be surprised if
this happens a lot in the beginning as the wood is still moving.
Remove chanter by grasping at the bulb, not twisting from the
bottom.
What does the Expression "Break in a Bagpipe " Mean?
There are two phenomena that the term "break in" is used to describe
when speaking of a bagpipe.
The first is the process by which the actual wood of the instrument
is acclimated to fluctuating exposure to water, heat, and vibration.
Should too much moisture be allowed to soak into the bore and/or
tone holes of the bagpipe while the outside of the bagpipe remains
dry, or should the inside of the bagpipe be allowed to be much
warmer than the outside, the wood is stressed and may release
tension by cracking. Therefore, one would "break in" a bagpipe
carefully at first, allowing moisture to soak into the bagpipe, or
be dried out of the instrument, a little at a time, while protecting
the bagpipe diligently from temperature extremes. The instructions
below refer to this meaning of the expression "break in".
Break-in Procedures
The overall objective of the break-in procedure is to introduce
moisture, temperature variances, and vibration to the wood of the
bagpipe slowly enough to avoid cracking. Too much moisture inside
the bore with too little moisture on the outside of the bagpipe, or
too warm a bore in too cold an bagpipe will either one put the
instrument at risk. We also believe that intense, unaccustomed
vibration may be a contributing factor in cracking.
For new wooden instruments, or for instruments that have not been
played regularly in some time, we recommend that you adhere to the
following standard break-in procedures to help prevent cracking:
1. Warm up the instrument before playing. Allow it to reach the
temperature of the room.
2. Try not to play in hot, dry drafts either, as this will dry
the wood.
3. Play the instrument for short periods of time at first; fifteen
minutes a day, no more than twice a day for the first week or so,
increasing to 20 minutes, then 25 minutes, etc. Regular, steady
introduction of moisture and vibrations is the goal, so it is
important to play it almost every day during this time, though the
argument could well be made that skipping one day every 5-6 days to
let it "rest" can't hurt!
4. Thoroughly swab out and dry the instrument after every use.
5. Consider an instrument "barely broken in" in 2-3 months, and
"well broken-in" only after about a year. As you can imagine, this
timetable is very subjective and depends a lot on how much you as a
piper play.
6. Even after a bagpipe is well broken in, continue being careful of
extreme temperature and moisture conditions. Keep a humidifier in the case in very dry
weather.
Table 1 —RULE OF THUMB Diagnosis and Treatment
| % Relative humidity @ 68-72°F, indoors | Consequences of untreated wood | Recommended treatment to wood |
| 51% and up | Minimal drying or changes in bore sizes | Oil 2-4 times a year. |
| 31 to 50% | Drying with dimensional changes. | Oil every 12-16 weeks; |
| 21 to 30% | Wood subject to increased cracking problems. | Oil every 8-12 weeks. |
Oiling the bagpipe bore
We recommend pharmaceutical grade almond oil mixed with a drop of Vitamin E oil.
We oil a bagpipe this way: after playing for the day, dry the instrument's bore. Dip a small amount of oil onto the tip of a swab. Look into the bore of the instrument to see how shiny it is and then rotate the slightly oily swab into the bore. With the correct amount of oil on the swab, after the first swipe, the bore should look only streaky with oil. The second swipe should make the bore all shiny. If it soaks in very quickly, do it again. Especially important on Cocobolo bagpipes.
Temperature Warnings:
Please, never leave your bagpipe where it can get either very cold or very hot; either can be severely damaging. Examples? Leaving your bagpipe in the car in the winter, leaving your bagpipe in the trunk of your car while driving somewhere in the winter, leaving your bagpipe in a closed car in the summer, leaving your bagpipe where the sun shines on it (or on the case) and can heat it up, leaving your bagpipe out near a heater vent where dry heated air can blow on it... all of these are bad for the bagpipe. Severe cold can encourage cracks. Severe heat can crack a bagpipe, or make the hemp joints leaky. If ferrules or mounts are coming loose, it’s a good indicator of the wood changing size. Either of these can require expensive repair. A good rule of thumb is that your bagpipe should be as comfortable as you are. If you'd be comfortable where it is, chances are it's OK. If you would be uncomfortable sitting where it is, reconsider!
