A Rookie Mistake Ordering Another Kilt

[OC Richard]

Where the "I've done this so long I should have known better" thing happens to me is with the pipes.

The pipes are cantankerous anyhow, and have a way of misbehaving in a way they've not done before, and at the worst possible time. That's IF you do everything you're supposed to do, take every precaution, do all the preparation that 40 years piping has taught through many mishaps.

As if that's not enough, sometimes I do something that's just plain stupid.

The worst for me is plain forgetting stuff:

-showing up at a wedding without my kilt hose

-showing up at a memorial service without my kilt

-showing up at a memorial service with the wrong pipes

[gun eagal]

One of the worst things I've ever done is leave my pipes sitting in their box in a parking lot after playing for a wedding. The wedding was the day after Princess Di died, so I guess I was a little spacey. I was already home from the wedding when I realized my circa 1910 Lawries were not in the car. So I raced back, feeling a huge relief when I found them just where I had left them, sitting on the asphalt.

[Brian Rose]

There are so many snarky comments that could apply. We'll go with someone looked in the box and left them. After all, where does one fence a set of Great Highland Pipes? Despite the price of a set. The odds of another piper happening by are somewhere between slim and none. That piper would also be well aware of the value of the box. Of course, the piper might cruise by in an hour or so to see if the set had been recovered. After all, one wouldn't want anything to happen to them.

[OC Richard]

There are so many snarky comments that could apply.

Yes, there's the time I left my pipes on the back seat of my car when my mates and I went into the pub, when I came out my car's back window was smashed... and there were two sets of pipes on my back seat.

I drove off and left my accordion on the street corner where we were busking...I rushed back and there were two accordions there.

Do you know what Perfect Pitch is to a banjo player? When you throw a banjo into a skip and it lands on an accordion!

[OC Richard]

I realized my circa 1910 Lawries were not in the car. So I raced back, feeling a huge relief when I found them just where I had left them...

Back in the 1980s two very good local pipers left their wonderful early silver & ivory Hendersons on the roof of one of their cars in the car park, they soon realised their mistake and ran back only to find both pipes missing.

Nothing was seen of them, though both guys kept their eyes open, checking out the pipes on the shoulders of other pipers at Highland Games, watching Ebay and Craig's List etc.

Then 30 years later the pipes appeared on Ebay, being sold by a Pawn Shop hundreds of miles away.

A couple days later the pipers appeared at the Pawn Shop with a Police Detective and were able to establish that these were indeed their pipes. (They had numerous old photos of them playing the sets, and they knew very specific details about each set that no-one would be able to guess.)

[MichiganKyle]

Sorry to hear Celtic Nations didn't work out, both for you and for entirely selfish reasons - was hoping to see some pictures, as I've been considering buying one myself.

Glad to head you got a workaround, though, and it sounds like a very good workaround at that. Sometimes salvaging a bad situation is the best you can do.

[Jacques]

Where the "I've done this so long I should have known better" thing happens to me is with the pipes.

The pipes are cantankerous anyhow, and have a way of misbehaving in a way they've not done before, and at the worst possible time. That's IF you do everything you're supposed to do, take every precaution, do all the preparation that 40 years piping has taught through many mishaps.

As if that's not enough, sometimes I do something that's just plain stupid.

The worst for me is plain forgetting stuff:

-showing up at a wedding without my kilt hose

-showing up at a memorial service without my kilt

-showing up at a memorial service with the wrong pipes

Wrong pipes, eh? Didn't know. Call me ignorant or uninformed, but i thought one set (Highland Pipes) was the same as another.

[OC Richard]

I thought one set (Highland Pipes) was the same as another.

Yes and no, you can have two sets of Highland pipes, the instruments themselves the same, however one is set up for playing in a pipe band and the other is set up for doing Concert Pitch gigs.

In the old days Highland pipes were tuned around Concert B flat so your pipes could sound good to piping judges and also be in tune for playing with brass ensembles, pipe organs, etc.

But the pitch of the Highland pipes kept creeping higher and higher and now they're tuned a quartertone sharp of Concert B flat.

The new sharp pitch is ingrained with piping judges so serious competition pipe bands have to be tuned that way.

Here's the 2019 World Champions who, of course, are playing at the modern sharp pitch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znTbK9F8ArM

Which means the pipes are too sharp to "play well with others".

So it behooves pipers who play in competition pipe bands, who also do gigs requiring being in tune to Concert Pitch, to maintain two sets of pipes, one dedicated to the sharp competition pitch and one dedicated to Concert Pitch.

Here are pipers set up to play at Concert Pitch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1UvqC8CQbE

For several years now I bring both sets to every gig just to be sure!

The alternative, which I did for many years, is to maintain only one set of pipes, and constantly be switching that set back and forth, which can be a hassle.

[Jacques]

Yes and no, you can have two sets of Highland pipes, the instruments themselves the same, however one is set up for playing in a pipe band and the other is set up for doing Concert Pitch gigs.

In the old days Highland pipes were tuned around Concert B flat so your pipes could sound good to piping judges and also be in tune for playing with brass ensembles, pipe organs, etc.

But the pitch of the Highland pipes kept creeping higher and higher and now they're tuned a quartertone sharp of Concert B flat.

The new sharp pitch is ingrained with piping judges so serious competition pipe bands have to be tuned that way.

Which means the pipes are too sharp to "play well with others".

So it behooves pipers who play in competition pipe bands, who also do gigs requiring being in tune to Concert Pitch, to maintain two sets of pipes, one dedicated to the sharp competition pitch and one dedicated to Concert Pitch.

For several years now I bring both sets to every gig just to be sure!

The alternative, which I did for many years, is to maintain only one set of pipes, and constantly be switching that set back and forth, which can be a hassle.

So it's the pitch of the reeds? One set of pipes tuned for use in a pipe band, and another set of pipes tuned for solo, as examples. Dunno if "tuned" is the right word, but i think i understand.

Thanks Richard

[OC Richard]

So it's the pitch of the reeds?

For the drones, yes, it's just the reeds. The bass drone can usually be moved back and forth with no problem, but with the tenor drones you usually have to put different reeds in them.

Because many tenor drones work best "high on the pin" and if you have them high like that for the modern sharp pitch you can't put them even higher for Concert Pitch (shorter sharper longer flatter).

With the chanter you really have to have separate dedicated chanters for Concert Pitch B flat (466 cycles) and the modern sharp pitch (around 480 cycles).

Now, it doesn't take all that long to switch your tenor drone reeds and switch chanters, and many pipers just do that, using the same set. I did that for many years.

But it's ideal to have a dedicated set of pipes for each pitch, so each set is "happy" at the pitch it's used to playing at, and you don't have to muck around with re-reeding and re-tuning everything all the time. Also if you're switching a set back and forth it can't really settle down, yes you can make the pipes play at a pitch but if the pipes aren't used to that pitch they might be wonky, be unstable, give you trouble.

As it happens I have two vintage sets, and one loves playing at the new sharp pitch and the other won't play at the new sharp pitch at all. It wants to stay down at the old pitch, at Concert Pitch. So I keep that set there.