Workshop Story #3

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OK, one more short story.

Again, I was doing a workshop and a piper approached me with the look of frustration on his face. “How come I can blow your bagpipe with no problem but I struggle to keep mine going?” I blew his bagpipe and sure enough, it was difficult to keep going. I took a look at his reeds and they were set up pretty well. We tore it down and corked the drone stocks. The bag was losing air! I checked the zipper and it was airtight. I checked the seams and they were all airtight. I couldn’t find the bag itself losing air anywhere. Then I took a real close look at the stocks. One of the tenor stocks had a very small gash running all the way through to the inside bore! It had gone unnoticed at the shop.

Combing and a clear outer-finish was applied right over the flaw. This was an apparent wormhole that was undetected at the shop. The piece was bored, combed, and finished and went out into the world. The piper had been struggling with this bagpipe for years and never knew why.

We tied in a replacement stock and he blew his bagpipe with no difficulty for the first time ever.  We shipped the original stock away for repair/replacement.

So here’s the bottom line. If you’re having issues, just don’t continue to struggle. Go over the instrument carefully. You might find something you hadn’t considered. If you need help, write or call me.

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