Scraping Bagpipe Chanter Reeds by Vince Janoski

Ask twenty pipers the question “how do you scrape a chanter reed?” and you will likely get twenty different answers. There are as many treatments as there are chanter reeds to treat. Even SFU’s Jack Lee admitted as much in his recent discussion on Bagpipe Nation. In that conversation, he described his approach to “the [...]

Tune Your Drones Like the Pros by Andrew Douglas

Despite the fact that the vast majority of professional pipers tune their pipes in a drastically more efficient way, almost all teachers teach beginners (and intermediates, ack!) the looong way. You know, the long way? Tap off all of your drones Diddle on your chanter “Flick” open the outside tenor drone Tune open tenor to Low [...]

Bagpipe Nation March 3, 2011 by Vince Janoski

The March 3, 2011 episode of Bagpipe Nation is below for listening and downloading. Hosts Vince Janoski and Andrew Douglas chat with special guest Adam Holdaway of the Stuart Highlanders, talk about the potential extinction of our bagpipe competition mode, ideas to revamp the bagpipe competition circuit, and review some bagpipe instrument maintenance. Subscribe to [...]

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Review: The Bagpipe Harness by Vince Janoski

This is a guest post by Nathan Wahlgren, the Keydet Piper. I had a chance this weekend to try the Bagpipe Harness, kindly sent to me by the designer Colin Roddick. One line summary: the product is pretty good, but I don’t recommend a piper relying on it for every piping situation. A detailed review [...]

Be a Stronger Bagpiper by Vince Janoski

A great article “Everything You Know About Fitness Is a Lie” by Daniel Duane in Men’s Journal suggests that perhaps many things we have been conditioned to believe about working out are not entirely accurate. The article delves into aspects of the “fitness industry” and describes all the machines, gyms, trainers, and methods that really [...]

Pipehacker Tool Tip: Trade Up Your Drone Swab by Vince Janoski

Pipers have devised all sorts of methods to swab out moisture from, as well as swab bore oil to, the insides of their bagpipe drones. Homemade “brushes” and swabs made from old pantyhose, rags, and whatnot attached to wire coat hangers or string can all be suitable—for a time. I can’t count how many DIY [...]

Pipehacker Project: The Black Strap Water Trap by Vince Janoski

Moisture to the bagpiper is like DDT to the mosquito. A build up of too much moisture in your instrument means certain death of your reeds and nothing but trouble when trying to achieve a stable sound. The preponderance of products for pipers to address moisture problems alone is a testament to the importance of [...]

Think Like Your Bagpipe: Drone Tuning Tip That Will Shave Hours Off Your Tuning Time by Andrew Douglas

Drone tuning is tricky business! For those of us that are new to the world of drone tuning, it can literally take 5 or more minutes to get our drones in tune! Even for more experienced tuners, I want to stress how important it is to take into consideration the changes that are happening to your chanter reed while you’re up there trying to get your drone reeds in tune.