What Bagpipes Should I Buy? The Bagpipe Buyer’s Guide

by Jori Chisholm, Founder of BagpipeLessons.com
Last Updated: October 9, 2026

Four sets, three packages, and what is worth your money. Do not buy a set of bagpipes until you have read this. There are so many choices: different styles, different brands, and even inside one brand a dozen or more options. This mount, that engraving, this wood, plastic. Does any of it matter for the sound? Is it all about looks? What is worth spending your money on? And then there is everything else a set needs before you can play a single note: the bag, the reeds, the cords, the chanter, all the extras.

Pipers write to me every week who want a good set and do not want to waste their money. They are looking online for good information from a source they can trust. So here it is. Everything on this page is something I have personally played or personally recommend, and I have made a full-length video on every one of these four sets (they are all on this page) so you can hear them and see them in detail. The video above walks through all of it in 18 minutes. The page below is the same ground, written down, with links to everything.

The Red Flags

Search for bagpipes on eBay or Amazon and you will find sets for a couple of hundred dollars or less. I am amazed they are allowed to get away with it. Those are not intended to be played as a musical instrument. They are what I call a bagpipe-like decorative object. A set of pipes has a lot of parts that all have to work together, and the whole thing has to be airtight. These will not work for you. If you bought one, it is not your fault. The things to watch for: no brand name on the pipes, and a “full set” for a price that sounds too good. A full set of bagpipes that works, and is quality, costs more than $149.

What Quality Looks Like & Sounds Like

Here is what I look for on any set of pipes, new or old. High-quality wood. Then the hardware: every mount, every ferrule, every cap attached to the wood should be really solid. No gaps, no cracks, nothing loose, nothing that turns or wiggles when you press on it. Look through the bore: you want it smooth, shiny and reflective, like glass. No rough patches, no gouges, no scratches. And the thing that matters most about a set of bagpipes is the sound. A high-quality set has a stable sound. It sounds good, it is easy to tune, and it stays in tune. That is what you are paying for.

New or Used?

When I was starting out, if you wanted a really good set of bagpipes, you had to get an old set. A Peter Henderson from before the First World War was one of the best sets you could find, and they still are high-quality pipes, but they are antiques, they are expensive, and they are hard to find. Back then, new pipes were not considered high quality enough for top pipers. Thirty years ago, most of the top pipers in the world played old pipes from that golden era of pipe making. Today, many of the top players play brand-new sets, because the manufacturing, the materials and the design have all gotten really good. For you, that is good news: you can get a great, high-quality set of bagpipes at a great price. A used set might not be the bargain it looks like. It is going to need a new bag, new reeds and more, and right away you are adding a lot of money on top of what you thought you were paying.

What “Sticks Only” Means

The bagpipes themselves are what we call sticks only: three drones (a bass and two tenors), a blowpipe, and five stocks. That is a set of bagpipes, but it is not playable. You also need a bag, a moisture control system, drone reeds, a pipe chanter and a chanter reed, and the cords that hold the drones on your shoulder.

Who Makes These Bagpipes?

All four sets are made by R.G. Hardie in Glasgow. R.G. Hardie and Peter Henderson are the same company. I have toured the factory many times with my family and watched them make bagpipes. They combine the best of traditional pipe making with modern technology: computer-controlled machines, so the design comes out perfectly every time, and nickel engraved by laser. Alastair Dunn, the director of piping there, is a double gold medalist and former pipe major of the Field Marshal Montgomery Pipe Band. He plays these pipes and works closely to get the sound he wants, and they are played by top soloists and in top pipe bands around the world. All four sets come with R.G. Hardie’s five-year guarantee.

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Set 1: R.G. Hardie Poly

From across the room you cannot tell these are plastic. Some people call it Polypenco, another brand name is Delrin, R.G. Hardie calls it acetal. They all mean the same thing: a hard, shiny black material that is very strong, very stable, and will never crack or warp. What I like most about the poly pipes is the bores. They are like mirrors: totally smooth and reflective, perfect on the inside, which means your sound is smooth, efficient and stable. You get the classic beading and combing on the drones, imitation ivory ferrules, simple black projecting mounts and ring caps. The blowpipe is R.G. Hardie’s Adjusty-Stik, adjustable in length so you can set it perfectly for your height and posture, with a durable valve inside. I have a set of these and I play them any time I am in extreme conditions: hiking, camping, on somebody’s sailboat, a crowded pub on St. Patrick’s Day, a performance in cold or wet weather. I do not take my blackwood pipes into those conditions. A lot of pipers I know have two sets: a fancier blackwood set, and their R.G. Hardie poly pipes for the tough days. My full video on the Poly:

Set 2: Peter Henderson PH01

African blackwood with the most classic look of the four. Engraved nickel ferrules, an engraved nickel slide (the narrow part where you tune), nickel caps on the drones, and imitation ivory mounts and bushing. A hundred years ago this would have been silver and ivory, or nickel and ivory. We do not use elephant ivory any more, and this imitation ivory gives you that look. If you like the shine, a cloth every few weeks brings the nickel back. If you let it dull a little, that is a cool vintage look too. Smooth, shiny bores inside. And on every wood set from R.G. Hardie and Peter Henderson, the blowpipe and the blowpipe stock are lined with plastic: wood on the outside to match the rest of the pipes, plastic inside, so the two parts that get the most moisture and are most likely to crack never will. This set is the one my son plays. My full video on the PH01:

Set 3: Peter Henderson PH02

Identical to the PH01 except for the mounts, which are African blackwood instead of imitation ivory, so they match the pipes. Engraved nickel ferrules, engraved nickel slide, nickel ring caps, a blackwood bushing. Some people call them the stealth bagpipes, or their Darth Vader pipes: black and silver together. Identical in sound to the PH01, with a different look. My full video on the PH02:

Set 4: Peter Henderson Heritage Viking

The most intricately engraved bagpipes I have ever seen. The fantastic Peter Henderson sound with a unique look: instead of the traditional beading and combing, the wood carries a laser-engraved Viking pattern, with more Viking runes and symbols on the laser-engraved nickel. The mounts are boxwood, a lighter wood that contrasts with the African blackwood and the nickel, a real vintage look. From a distance you might not see how unusual these are. Up close, anywhere you go with pipers, you will have a crowd around you. My full video on the Heritage Viking:

Side by Side

Put a tenor drone from each set in a row and you see it at once. The Poly: all black with imitation ivory. The PH01: blackwood with engraved nickel and imitation ivory mounts. The PH02: the same with all-black blackwood mounts. The Heritage Viking: the Viking pattern engraved in the wood and the nickel, with boxwood mounts. Four very different looks, the same quality underneath: high-quality pipes that look great, sound great, are easy to play, easy to tune, stay in tune, with a full, rich, stable sound.

The Three Packages

All four sets are available from BagpipeLessons.com three ways.

Sticks Only is the three drones, the blowpipe and the five stocks. No bag, no reeds, no chanter. For the experienced piper who has the rest and wants to build it up.

Basic is the set built for you and ready to play. I take your sticks out of the box and fit a Bannatyne hybrid pipe bag with the zipper on the bottom (my favorite type of bag, in the standard size you choose) with the bottle water trap. A standard set of Ezeedrone drone reeds, the world’s best-selling drone reeds: stable, a great sound, and they go great in all of these sets. The Poly Infinity Chanter, a great sound and super comfortable to play because the holes are up to 40 percent smaller than many other chanters on the market. Drone cords in your choice of navy blue, black or Royal Stewart. And in the Infinity Chanter, a Foundation Reed, which I hand-select at the exact strength you want and test in your chanter. Every set is built to your specs: the bag size, the cord color, the reed strength, guaranteed to work. Basic is the bare essentials for a working set of bagpipes.

Premium is your pipes set up the way I set up my own. Everything in Basic, plus three additional Foundation Reeds in a Tone Protector Reed Case, so your spares are ready in a humidity-controlled case. The Tone Protector Chanter Cap over your Infinity Chanter, which keeps your reed in perfect playing condition at the right humidity when you are not playing. The Dri-Flo moisture control system, my favorite in the world: it sits inside the bag where you cannot see it and filters the moisture out of your breath, so by the time the air reaches your drone reeds it is dry and still warm, which keeps your drones in tune in all kinds of weather. R.G. Hardie cotton brushes, the Precision Tuning Tool Kit for adjusting your chanter reeds, the Bagpipe Gauge for steady blowing and matching your reeds, a roll of black hemp, the InTune Mic (the world’s first tuning microphone that attaches to your chanter and works with your smartphone, so you can tune your pipes by yourself anywhere) and the Bagpipe Phone Mount, which puts your phone on your blowpipe for a tuner, a metronome, sheet music or any app. And the R.G. Hardie Deluxe Bagpipe Case, with room for your pipes and all your gear, in black, navy blue or heather gray.

Which Set is Right for You

If you are new to the pipes, go Basic or Premium, not Sticks Only. You want a set that is ready to play the day it arrives. Premium is for the piper who wants every tool from day one. Poly or blackwood is about climate, looks and budget: the sound is excellent either way. And if you ever have to choose, a simple-looking set of real quality from a maker you trust beats something that looks unique or unusual and is poor on the inside, every time.

All four sets are in stock as of the day this was written. The product pages show what we have right now, and we may have added more. Want a different combination? Tell me what you are after and we will build it for you.

The four sets:

Learn with Me

Once your pipes arrive, the Inner Circle is where I show you how to set them up and keep them that way: weekly live classes, the full lesson library, and feedback from me. Start with the Build Your Bagpipes lessons.