BAGPIPE> Re: BAGPIPE- Bagpipe-Tying on new bag
Richard Mao
Date: Wed, 09 Sep 1998 22:08:17 GMT
From: ke...@adan.kingston.net
>Subject: BAGPIPE> Bagpipe>Tying on new bag
Anyone have any tips/advise, must/mus't do's for a first time tye'r
on'er?
Much, much appreciation in advance!
B
===============================
Hi B...Tying in a leather bag.
Sorry, I'm getting in on this one a bit late. Hope it's still of use to
you or someone.
If this is your first bag tying-in, my advice would be to watch and
learn from an experienced bag tie-er inner, if you've got one available.
Under his or her guidance, tie in a drone stock or two.
Others have suggested the tie-in instructions from College of Piping
Book 2good general advice. I use the COP cutting methods with a very
sharp break-off blade-type utility knife. You want the knife very sharp.
After the first cut, I cut the eight star pattern, a half slash at a
time a wee bit in from the perimeter of where I feel the edge of the
drone stock end to be, in toward the center. This method ameliorates the
danger of excessive cutting or splitting of the leather (I agree that a
1 inch diameter hole punch suggested in another post might be betterI
have just never had the occasion to buy one.)
(BTW, Royce Lerwick's Pipe Major's Handbook has a very good description
of tying inwritten to take into account modern day materials and in
Amerrriiicun instead of the King's English)
Others have suggested the use of artificial sinewthat is what I use.
Others seem to get a loop around the leather and twist/rotate the
bag/stock around and around. I don't do this. Instead I repeatedly loop
the sinew around the leather and stock with a half hitch/twist in the
direction of the winding each time and pull that tight with the sinew
wrapped around a heavy stick (or door knob) (I feel this gives you more
friction holding the tie-in onto the bag). I don't bother trying to bury
the end with a separate loop inserted into latter part of the windingsI
consciously leave about a half inch tailso that if I ever want to
unwind the tie-in, I can find an end.
Also, make sure all the cut edges are/stay above the tie-in channel and
cord...If the edge of the leather is buried down in the channel under
the tie-in cord, I never trust whether it is airtight. The leather might
not be even around the stock, because I tend to slant the stock toward
the piper's neck and back a bit toward the shoulder. After the
tie-in...twist the stocks visciously!...if they twist, they might not be
airtight, throw a couple more bights of tie-in on.
Now, I'd like to add some more decisions you can make to the bag tie-in
process. If you can't get someone else to do itgo around and observe
other pipers playing their pipes (with leather bags, of course) and ask
to try their pipes to see how they fit on you. Do they have regular size
bags, large size bags, do they have swan neck (the only style I
recommend) or straight neck.
Do they like the way their bags fit? Are the drones too far forward, too
far back, are they leaning away from the piper's bodyfrom the piper's
neck? Is the bag "dropping" the chanter centered in front of them easily
into a natural height and hand gripping position for holding the
chanter? How would they tie it differently if they had it to do over
again. Would they get a different sized bag? The point I'm making here
is ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL. The College of Piping Tutor describes the
method for a regular sized bag with holes to be cut for an average
person.
If you are tall (6 foot or more) or long limbed (36 or more inch arms
[shirt size measurement]), you might want a large size bag (additional
depth bag) or a long bag (additional length)either of these might cause
you to place the drone stock holes differently than described (more than
likely an inch or so to the rear of the standard measurement).
If you are short (5 foot 7 inches or less) or short limbed (e.g. a
diminutive lady or youngster size), you might want to place the drone
stock holes toward the front by one-half to one inch so that the arms
are going around a narrower portion of the bag. (I almost never
recommend a small bagif I do, I usually recommend a longer small bag to
regain some of the bag's air volume.).
Cutting the hole for the blowstick stock is critical. Hold another
piper's pipes naturally and the blowstick hole should be placed in the
shortest line from the curve of the bag to straight into the center of
your mouth. Sometimes the "standard" bag measurement for cutting this
hole ends up to high on some bags (especially large ones) and the
blowstick wants to stick straight up when the bag is full of air,
seemingly wanting to pull your front teeth out (you either have to
tie-in the blowstick stock slanted back toward your mouth or you should
have cut it lower on the bag to start with so the blowstick stays at
your mouth when you open your mouth for any reason).
By the waythis also implies that the length of your blowstick stock,
blowstick and mouthpiece should exactly fit a comfortable distance from
the bag to about one half inch into your mouthanything else will cause
you to distort your head or bag holding position to your great
discomfort and awkward playing. You should count on cutting down your
blowstick mouth piece to make this length comfortable for you.
Tying in the chanterone hint in/on top of the chanter stock
channel...first put on a loop or so of electrical tape. (e.g. 3M Scotch
brand Rubber Splicing Tape [3/4 inch] or 3M Scotch brand Super 33+ Vinyl
Electrical tape...or equivalent). This will help the seal around the
chanter stock stay airtight easier.
I hope this gives you an idea on how you can make a bag tie-in more
comfortable for you. The methods described here would work for most
people. If a couple of you ask, I would be willing to describe a totally
customized way of fitting a leather bag to your body geometry (BTW this
customizability is why I like leather bags over the pre-positioned
limitations of the goretex/rubberized fabric type bags).
Final caveatthese methods come from my experience with cowhide bags
(usually L&M elk-style/chromium tanned, some MacHarg). Sheepskin is more
fragileneeds to be made flexible before tying in and cutting. Please,
anyone with tie-in warnings for sheepskin bags, would you post what the
differences and warnings are here?
Yours in service to more comfortable piping,
Richard Mao, The Peking Piper ( peking...@mao.org )
Be not so much afraid of hardening of your arteries,
as be more afraid of hardening of your attitudes.
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