Welsh Bag-hornpipe

Bag-hornpipe in D, box pipes and stocks. Bag-hornpipe in D, pipes in yew, stocks cherry.

This bagpipe is very much a two in one instrument as it uses a pibgorn as its chanter, with a drone which gives the same note as the chanters six finger note, tunable up to the chanters five finger note. This enables tunes in both D major and E minor to be played. The chanter is powered by a single reed of cane working at a quite light pressure, and gives a single octave in D with no leading note. Both C# and C natural are available by cross fingering. In volume the instrument is not too loud to accompany other instruments such as the fiddle or singing, and because of its light working pressure beginners find it fairly easy to play. The fingering is fully open like a tin whistle but with a thumb hole for high D and in tone it is very `ethnic' sounding. The single reed of the chanter needs occasionally to be adjusted to keep it playing in tune; this is common to all single reed bagpipes. The bag is made from good quality leather, hand sown and sealed. The pipes are of locally grown hardwoods such as holly, cherry, yew or oak. `Exotic' woods such as mopane or olive wood can be used depending on availability. A deposit of £50 is required before I start work on an instrument and there is currently a 3 to 4 month waiting list. There is also a charge of £5 for postage. Bag-hornpipe in D, native hardwoods…………..£380 Bag-hornpipe in D, exotic hardwoods…………..£420 Horn mouthpiece to enable chanter to be played as a pibgorn……………………………£20 Bag-hornpipe in D, hornbeam pipes, yew stocks.