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Bagpipe Maintenance and Break In.

 

 

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A well-made and maintained bagpipe can last for a hundred years or more!

Maintaining a stable environment is extremely important.

Excess moisture, temperature and humidity swings are the biggest problem.

Everyone will benefit from some form of moisture control system.

There are many great water trap systems available, from simple tube traps, to complex silica gel type absorption systems.

Empty tube traps often, dry canisters frequently.

Zipper bags allow easy access for cleaning and drying.

 Check tightness of stocks, re-tie or use clamps if necessary.

When stopped up, the bag should stay tight for at least 20 seconds.

Clean inside of bag and water trap with hot water and or mouthwash.

 Take pipes apart and look for moisture on reeds or tenon of chanter, pull through drones and brush out stocks regularly.

Reeds should be dry, and hemped to correct position, straight in reed seats.

You can use a wind of hemp inside stock to trap reed and hold in place.

Check for tightness after driving; don’t let them fall into the bag during a competition!

 Hemp joints should be smooth, airtight and firm into stocks. Check and adjust as necessary, this will change depending on weather.

There should be space at end of hemp under projecting mount, make sure this is parallel and not bunching up forming a wedge. This will start cracks at the top of the stock.

Hemp at drone tops should be yellow and waxed for a smooth sliding fit, add soft wax or cork grease to get movement.

Check and adjust as necessary, this will change depending on weather.

 Do not use Teflon tape, it’s too slippery!

 When storing pipes in case, take bass apart at mid joint and remove tenor tops completely. You should take the bass top off once a month when oiling and check hemp.

Pull first sections slightly out of stocks; this will release some tension on the joint, but still protect the reeds.

 Clean throat of chanter with something soft, e.g. a Q-tip and alcohol. Clean up old tape, remove glue. Clean finger holes in same way. Blackwood chanters can be oiled lightly.

Remove chanter by grasping at the bulb, not twisting from the bottom.

 
 

Break-In Procedures:

What does the Expression "Break in a Bagpipe " Mean?

There are two phenomena that the term "break in" is used to describe when speaking of a bagpipe. 

 The first is the process by which the actual wood of the instrument is acclimated to fluctuating exposure to water, heat, and vibration.  Should too much moisture be allowed to soak into the bore and/or tone holes of the bagpipe while the outside of the bagpipe remains dry, or should the inside of the bagpipe be allowed to be much warmer than the outside, the wood is stressed and may release tension by cracking.  Therefore, one would "break in" a bagpipe carefully at first, allowing moisture to soak into the bagpipe a little at a time, while protecting the bagpipe diligently from temperature extremes.  The instructions below refer to this meaning of the expression "break in".

 The second phenomenon has to do with the way the bagpipe tone develops as a new bagpipe is played. When a chanter is very new, it may feel a little tight, and may need a bit more energy applied to it for it to want to "sing" or "vibrate".  As it is played, over a period of perhaps 6 months to a year, the sound becomes fuller, more open and more plush.  Knowing that this is part of the process a bagpipe and chanter goes through, will affect a player's criteria for choosing a new bagpipe.  A player may select based on good tight sound focus and good harmonics, knowing that the tone and response will develop and become freer over time.  This is a hard process to describe, but one, which many players acknowledge, and factor into their choice.

Break-in Procedures

 The overall objective of the break-in procedure is to introduce moisture, temperature variances, and vibration to the wood of the bagpipe slowly enough to avoid cracking. Too much moisture inside the bore with too little moisture on the outside of the bagpipe, or too warm a bore in too cold an bagpipe will either one put the instrument at risk. We also believe that intense, unaccustomed vibration may be a contributing factor in cracking.

 For new wooden instruments, or for instruments that have not been played regularly in some time, we recommend that you adhere to the following standard break-in procedures to help prevent cracking:  

 

1.  Warm up the instrument before playing.  Do not blow into the instrument if it is very cold.

2. Play the instrument in a warm room.  Try never to play the instrument in a cold room or in a cold draft. Try not to play in hot, dry drafts either, as this will dry the wood.

3.  Play the instrument for short periods of time at first; fifteen minutes a day, no more than twice a day for the first week or so, increasing to 20 minutes, then 25 minutes, etc.  Regular, steady introduction of moisture and vibrations is the goal, so it is important to play it almost every day during this time, though the argument could well be made that skipping one day every 5-6 days to let it "rest" can't hurt!

4.  Play exercises, like long tones, slow scales, and melodies, so that the chanter becomes accustomed to continuous vibration.  This is good for your playing anyhow, obviously, but it is also good for the bagpipe! ...and use a tuner.  Train yourself and your bagpipe to play at pitch!

5. Thoroughly swab out and dry the instrument after every use. 

6.  Consider an instrument "barely broken in" in 2-3 months, and "well broken-in" only after about a year.  As you can imagine, this timetable is very subjective and depends a lot on how much you as a piper play.  

7.  Even after a bagpipe is well broken in, continue being careful of extreme temperature and moisture conditions.  Keep a "Damp-It" or some moist paper towels in an open Ziploc in the case in very dry weather.

 

Oiling the bagpipe bore

We recommend pharmaceutical grade almond oil mixed with a drop of Vitamin E oil.  

We oil a bagpipe this way: after playing for the day, dry the instrument's bore. Dip a small amount of oil onto the tip of a swab.  Look into the bore of the instrument to see how shiny it is and then rotate the slightly oily swab into the bore.  With the correct amount of oil on the swab, after the first swipe, the bore should look only streaky with oil.  The second swipe should make the bore all shiny.  If it soaks in very quickly, do it again. Especially important on Cocobolo bagpipes.

 Catastrophic "Do's" and "Don'ts"

Temperature Warnings:

Please, never leave your bagpipe where it can get either very cold or very hot; either can be severely damaging.  Examples?  Leaving your bagpipe in the car in the winter, leaving your bagpipe in the trunk of your car while driving somewhere in the winter, leaving your bagpipe in a closed car in the summer (even for a very short time), leaving your bagpipe where the sun shines on it (or on the case) and can heat it up, leaving your bagpipe out near a heater vent where dry heated air can blow on it...  all of these are bad for the bagpipe.  Severe cold can encourage cracks.  Severe heat can crack a bagpipe, or make the hemp joints leaky. If ferrules or mounts are coming loose, it’s a good indicator of the wood changing size. Either of these can require expensive repair. A good rule of thumb is that your bagpipe should be as comfortable as you are.  If you'd be comfortable where it is, chances are it's OK.  If you would be uncomfortable sitting where it is, reconsider!

 
 
 

Which Oil (from an article by Larry Naylor, woodwind technician)

Petroleum oils are hydrophobic. Chemically, petroleum oils will not mix with water. Since water has such a great attraction for itself, any petroleum oils will be "squeezed" out. This is one reason why petroleum oils are only adsorbed at the surface of the wood. If they are thin enough to penetrate into wood, they will quickly evaporate. Common uses for petroleum products include fuels, lubricants (for metal parts), and a base for industrial materials.

Vegetable oils, especially the lighter oils, are hydrophilic. While not considered soluble in water, they will incorporate water within their molecular structure. This is understandable because they are produced directly by plants in an aqueous environment. Common uses for vegetable oils include food preparation, skin care products, and agents for finishing and preserving (antique) furniture and stringed instruments. I would soon find that vegetable oils are absorbed by wood.

Organic materials are transformed by great heat and pressure over time into crude (petroleum) oil. This transformation eliminates the organic chemical characteristics that once existed before the crude oil was formed. Petroleum oils simply are no longer "organic"; they do not readily interact with organic products, including wood. The chemical qualities caused by transformation into petroleum oil allow the oil to be used for many inorganic uses, for example, as a lubricant for metal parts.

Petroleum bore oils simply do not protect against the dimensional changes from "breathing." Petroleum-based oils do not promote dimensional stability and (wood fiber) resilience. One could say that natural organic materials such as wood and cork do not "like" petroleum products.

Organic vegetable oils interact with wood (fibers).

Organic oil can stress-relieve the wood — even straighten a warped drone section.

Organic oils help maintain dimensional integrity.

Oil slowly diffuses through instrument walls from the bore to the outside.

It appears that vegetable bore oil acts as a mediator between moisture and wood fibers. The presence of vegetable oils in the wood does not allow a rapid intake of condensation through the bore, but it does not act as a vapor barrier either. The presence of vegetable bore oil in the wood still allows the wood to absorb water vapor — but at a greatly reduced rate.

Organic oil processing lessens dimensional changes when wood breathes.

Vegetable oils interact with wood fibers to minimize or eliminate cracking.

The stability of organically oiled instruments is long lasting.

. Limits of organic oil processing

The saying, "You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear," definitely applies here. One cannot completely correct a poorly designed or poorly manufactured instrument, or successfully treat wood that is not well seasoned. If the initial condition of an instrument is poor, bore or tone hole modifications may marginally improve it. However, it may still elude the level of an "artist quality" instrument.

Conclusions

Dimensional Change: Non-oiled wood falls victim to dimensional changes in and the subsequent deterioration of the wood. "Breathing" is the instrument's automatic response to changes in temperature and the wood's moisture content. Regardless of degree of care, maintenance and bore treatment, wood will breathe. Our prime concern is to control the rate of "breathing." Dimensional changes caused by "breathing" affect instruments in many ways.

Moisture and saliva damage: Deterioration of wood eventually occurs in response to damage caused by moisture and saliva. A compromised bore is evidence of this deterioration. Eventually, deteriorating wood becomes brittle. As brittleness increases, the probability of warping, cracking, checking, and (tone hole) chipping also increases; brittle wood cannot easily "breathe." In addition, brittle wood contributes significantly to changes in scale, pitch, and resonance.

Resilience: Organic (vegetable) oils do interact with wood, thus allowing the wood to become more resilient. A very large sample of cases indicates that oiling stress-relieves wood, allowing wood to return to manufactured dimensions and an original — if not improved — scale. Oiling new instruments will stabilize them; Oiling stabilizes the integrity of wood over time.

 

Table 1 —RULE OF THUMB Diagnosis and Treatment

% Relative humidity @ 68-72°F, indoors

Consequences of untreated grenadilla wood

Recommended treatment to grenadilla wood

51% and up

Minimal drying or changes in bore sizes

Oil 2-4 times a year.

 31 to 50%

Drying with dimensional changes. Wood subject to increased cracking problems.

Oil every 12-16 weeks;

 21 to 30%

 

Oil every 8-12 weeks.

 11 to 20%

Wood very unstable, increasing cracking problems and bore damage.

Oil every 3 to 6 weeks.

01 to 10%

 

Instrument very unreliable and unstable, not artist quality. Severe cracking problems, bore damage.

Oil as frequently as the wood will absorb oil or once a week

 


  Interesting web sites:

 www.doctorsprod.com, Omar Henderson has done research into bore oils, and products for maintaining reeds.

www.blackwoodconservation.org information on Blackwood in Tanzania

 

 

 

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Last modified: 04/30/08