Pipehacker Holiday Gift Guide No. 1: Gifts for Your Bagpipe

Can you believe the holiday season is upon us once more? Here at Pipehacker we love making it yourself, but sometimes there is no substitute for a well crafted, high quality item. This year, send your loved ones over here to Pipehacker as a (not so subtle) hint for gifts. Check back each Friday over the coming weeks for lists of Pipehacker-approved piping gear!

Gifts for Your Bagpipe

Your bagpipes deserve only the best (and so do you!). This list should provide ample items with which to pamper your instrument or expand your musical options.

The Bagpipe Cradle. Who doesn’t need a posh place to keep their stand of drones handy in between practice sessions? Peter Elliott of Washington D.C. builds his handcrafted Bagpipe Cradle to be just that. The solid wood cradle is offered in different hardwoods and finishes and is attached to a standard pro speaker tripod stand. The cushioned cradle is a fine addition to the decor of any home and looks great with or without your instrument. There is even an option for a handy carrying case. The perfect gift for you and your bagpipes and a true, home-grown local product of the eastern USA.

TrueFit Bagpipe Covers. TrueFit Bagpipe Covers is onto something. TrueFit covers are custom cut to fit the type/style of bag you’re playing with the comfort and good looks to match. No “one size fits most” options here. Your cover will come fitting your bag like the proverbial glove. The cover is tight with no room for slippage so it almost feels like you have no cover at all. Custom options of color and decorative trim make the bag cover a truly personal item. True Fit even offers specialty embroidery for band purchase or personal crests and designs. And, even better, it is handmade in the USA.

Studio Pipes from MacLellan Bagpipes. Roddy MacLellan is known here in the USA as a maker of one of the smoothest sounding and gorgeous looking bagpipes you’ll find. He was an innovator and the first to turn out drones using alternate woods and he has applied this same creativity to his Studio Pipes—a variation of the moutblown smallipipe with a common stock, two drones and all made of indestructible delrin. Studio pipes fit right in there with things you just can’t put down once you start playing with them. They have an attractive sound that is perfect for a fun pass around or party session when a full set of pipes may be “too much” or as a practice instrument that can be played for a brief while at any time with little or no maintenance.

Douglas MacPherson Practice Chanter. Who wouldn’t love to play a practice chanter that doesn’t sound like a cat coughing up a hairball? Douglas MacPherson is an old-world “gentleman craftsman” working out of his shop in the hinterlands of Kirriemuir, Scotland and turning out some of the more attractive bagpipe profiles you’ll see. On top of that, his craftsmanship is on a level with the best there is. As a simple sampler of this, it is an easy matter to acquire his long practice chanter, which is crafted with the same attention and care given to his full bagpipes. The chanter plays like a real instrument and not like the plastic “toys” that propagate the piping marketplace these days. A worthy tool for worthy hands.