Ima-usa Scottish military bagpipes

[piperdbh]

Now that the OP has his answer, I don't mind threadjacking this into a discussion of those MacPherson 'pipes. I never thought I'd write this, but I really likes the looks of "Mr. October." (That's the featured 'pipes on Mr. MacPherson's site.)

[Aspiringloser]

You can buy a cheap practice chanter and not be disappointed. When you progress to the pipes and decide to buy a set, my advice would be don't buy the cheapest set you can find. I would urge you to buy the nicest set you can reasonably afford. If you're on a really strict budget go for a poly set hands down. If you can afford African Blackwood I'd say go for that instead. You don't have to buy the silver and engraving, all of that is decoration and will not affect the tone of your drones. I would recommend getting a poly chanter with your African Blackwood set though. Get several different chanter reeds as well. Don't be afraid to experiment with sanding and tweaking to get a decent reed. If you get a reed that goes right into your chanter and plays in tune and to the strength that you like, then consider yourself lucky. I have found that that rarely happens. I'm only about a year in myself and probably got my set way too early but I'm glad I spent the extra money for a wooden set. I got a set of Gibson 110-D's and I'm happy with them so far.

[EagleJCS]

If you haven't found it yet, there is a sticky thread under the Celtic Musicians sub-sub-forum that has a lot of information about what to look for when you get started. Here's the link.

English Bloke got you a good start, but read through that thread for lots more. I know there's 5 pages of posts, but it's a lot of good info.

[OC Richard]

I of course agree with the other experienced pipers here: don't waste your money on Pakistani pipes, which are not really musical instruments, but ISO's (Instrument-Shaped Objects).

Sadly 100% of inexpensive new pipes are Pakistani. There are thousands on Ebay every day, all junk.

The least expensive new pipes are polypenco/delrin pipes by Dunbar in Canada and McCallum in Scotland, around $700. These play great.

For around $1000 to $1200 you can get basic blackwood pipes from any of a large number of great UK and North American makers.

Here's a list of good makers nowadays, in Canada, the USA, Scotland, England, and Northern Ireland:

Atherton
Booth
Colin Kyo
Crisler
Cushing
Dunbar
Dufion
Fletcher
Gellaitry
Gibson
Henderson/Hardie/St Kilda (the same company selling pipes under three names)
Inveran House (Tweedy)
Kron
Marr
MacMurchie
MacLellan
MacPherson (Doug, not to be confused with Hugh)
MacLeod (Glasgow, not to be confused with Forfar)
McCallum
Murray
Naill
Shepherd
Sinclair
Soutar
Strathmore
Wallace
Walsh
Warnock
Warmac

Buying vintage pipes is a bit tricky even for those with decades of experience buying and playing vintage pipes... but there are tremendous bargains all the time on Ebay, for example today a 1970s set of Lawries, decent Scottish-made blackwood pipes, going for well under $500.

One can snap up, nearly every week, on Ebay, excellent blackwood Scottish-made pipes made in the 50s through the 70s for well under $1000, often for around $500. The vintage pipe market is very low right now and there are bargains to be had.