BELLOWS and DRONES

Garvie Bagpipes
Edinburgh

www.borderpipes.co.uk
Nigel Richard

email
garviebagpipes@zetnet.co.uk

Materials
African Blackwood, Mopane and Rosewood are the three hardwoods which I generally use. The qualities of African Blackwood has made it the standard for Highland pipes and many other woodwind instruments, and it is the wood I most often use for smallpipes as it tends to give a bit more "edge" to their rounded tone.

Mopane, like blackwood, is a dense African hardwood. It has an attractive honey-like colour and a well marked darker brown grain. It has excellent tone qualities, and takes a fine finish - in my experience I have found no better tone wood for Border pipes. It's a touch softer than blackwood (although the reed is also a factor here) but still gives a vibrant tone with the potential for crisp grace notes.

Other hardwoods can be used if they are available and suitable, however considering the amount of time that goes into making a set of pipes, particularly where keywork is involved, dense hardwoods are preferred in order to minimise the risk of cracking or warping. The standard fittings with blackwood are artificial ivory mounts and nickel plated ferrules, and with mopane boxwood mounts and gold plated ferrules. Silver plated and solid Sterling silver ferrules are also available on request and different combinations of wood, mounts and ferrules are possible.

Drones
Two basic styles of drones are available, standard and fully mounted. The difference relates to the lower drone sections only. All the top sections have end caps and drone top inserts of artificial ivory or boxwood, and ferrules which are artificial ivory or boxwood for Border pipes, and nickel or gold plated on the narrower smallpipe drones.

In addition fully mounted sets have artificial ivory or boxwood mounts on the lower drone sections, and nickel or gold plated sleeves can also be fitted to the drone slides.

Left to right: fully mounted smallpipe drone blackwood;standard smallpipe drone blackwood;standard Border pipe drone Mopane; fully mounted Border pipe drone Mopane. Click on picture to enlarge image.

Switch
An on/off switch can be supplied which is fitted to the common stock and turns all the drones on or off together. It is still possible to turn individual drones off with a touch on the end as usual.

Bellows
Our bellows are made with a generous capacity which allows for a more relaxed speed of right arm movement. Best quality leather is hand stitched to the boards in the traditional manner and the stitching channels are then inlaid with rosewood. The leather is sealed inside with two coats of beeswax.

The boards are made from Dark Elm which has an attractive grain and colour. The transfer tube has standard tapered fittings on both ends, and can be removed from the bellows for ease of packing. Different length tubes can be supplied to suit different individual measurements.

Click on picture to enlarge image.