When you get sticks only, they should be individually wrapped—like these are—so they don’t get damaged in shipping. It’s not enough to just have them in a case; you want each part separated to prevent them from banging into each other.

Let’s unwrap them. These are very well packed.

I’m setting up these pipes for a customer who wanted a great-sounding set with a particular look. These pipes are made of African Blackwood with combing and beading—that’s the traditional decorative style. The little lines you see are called combing, and the smooth areas in between are called the beads.

This part here is called the projecting mount. A lot of pipes have lighter-colored mounts—historically, they were made from elephant ivory. Today, most bagpipes use imitation ivory because real ivory is hard to get, expensive, prone to cracking, and, of course, we don’t want to harm elephants.

Instead of imitation ivory, these mounts are made of African Blackwood, the same material as the rest of the pipes.

These metal rings here are called ferrules. They’re nickel. A ferrule is a metal band used to hold the pipe sections together—just like the little metal piece that connects an eraser to a pencil.

At the top, we have the caps—this is the top of the bass drone.

Let’s keep unwrapping.

This reminds me of a time I ordered vintage drinking glasses online. When the package arrived, I picked up the box and immediately heard the sound of broken glass inside. The seller had done a great job wrapping the box itself, but inside, the glasses were touching with no padding between them—so they all shattered during shipping.

That’s why, when shipping bagpipes (whether new or used), every piece needs to be individually wrapped—just like these.

Here we have the blowpipe and blowpipe stock. The blowpipe is actually the most likely part of a bagpipe to crack.

Cracking usually isn’t from physical damage—it’s from moisture. When moisture from your breath condenses inside the blowpipe, the wood soaks it up and swells, which can cause it to split.

R.G. Hardie has come up with a great solution: the exterior of this blowpipe is beautiful African Blackwood, but the interior is plastic. The part where the moisture collects is completely sealed off from the wood, so it’s never going to crack. Same with the blowpipe stock—the part inside the bag is plastic. It’s a fantastic blend of traditional aesthetics and modern durability.

Now, here’s the bottom section of the bass drone.

Once I get these pipes set up, I won’t be filming a setup video this time, but I have other videos on my channel that go over the process. There’s a two-part series called “Build Your Bagpipes,” where I go step-by-step through assembling a set. I also did a live stream where I built a set in real time.

The bass drone has three sections: bottom, middle, and top. When you tune, you move the sections up and down. The stock goes into the bag, and the drone reed sits in the bottom.

Here it is all together—just beautiful. From the shiny nickel caps to the combing and beading, it looks fantastic. These ferrules are beaded and capped, meaning the metal extends around the bottom for a finished look. Some ferrules are just tubes of metal without the cap.
Let’s check the tenor drones—identical to each other, just like the bass drone but with two sections instead of three.

Looking inside, they’re extremely smooth and well-machined—absolutely perfect.

That’s the benefit of modern bagpipe manufacturing. While there are great old pipes out there, not all older sets were made with the same precision. Over time, wood can warp or crack. Modern makers like R.G. Hardie combine traditional craftsmanship with advanced tooling to ensure a perfect result.

Here’s the last piece: the chanter stock.

So that’s the full set—R.G. Hardie 02AB bagpipes. The “AB” stands for African Blackwood. These aren’t plastic; they’re real wood. The 02 model features nickel ferrules, beaded and capped, with beautiful African Blackwood projecting mounts.

Once fully assembled, this set will have a Bannatyne hybrid pipe bag, a Willie McCallum-style black drone cord, a black-on-black bag cover, and amazing Ezeedrone reeds.

I wasn’t expecting to film today, but I wanted to share this with you!

If you’re interested in getting a set of bagpipes, reach out to me through my website, BagpipeLessons.com. I have pipes for sale and will be adding more options soon. I also recently spoke with Alastair Dunn at R.G. Hardie, and they’ve got some exciting new products coming out.

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Happy piping!