Is Summer sun and heat giving your pipes terminal damage?

Article by Lynne Miller, May 27, 2008

Summer is here and so is the potential for the potential of terminal damage to your pipes due to hot weather and UV rays.

Do you play at the games in Highland Games in Pleasanton where temperatures sometimes reach the 90's or more some years?  Or the humid heat of Granfather Mountain in a North Carolina Summer?  Are piping your way in the hot Calgary sun wishing bass drone would quit knocking the cowboy hat off your head?  Do you play a gig and find yourself having to store your pipes in the car for extended periods of time afterward?  To leaving your pipes in the car I think that the Federal government should put leaving pipes attended alone in a hot car on par with leaving a kid alone in the car.  Both should most deservedly require extended jail time!  Are you storing your pipes in a very safe place in your house, free from kids, dogs, and other pipe threatening situations only to ignore the possibility of weather damage?

If you answered yes to any of the above, you could be risking your throw away Kintails, your precious Naills or McCallums or your priceless Hendersons or McDougals a slow but none the less unrecoverable death.

Tips: 

• Bore Oil- Oil your pipes monthly. I recommend blah blah blah.
• Keep your bag seasoned 
• Reeds-Make sure to air them out so mold and mildew do not build up due to moisture combined with extreme heat.  Get a good reed case, and keep it aired out.
• Pipes in the car- If you have to leave your pipes in the car, put them in the trunk and cover them with a blanket.
• And in hot weather, and cold for that matter keep your arse clean so you don't get the old piper's friend...hemheroids when you are going commando for that big band gig! 

If your pipes have already suffered the unforgivable weather induced damage, please feel free to contact me to see if anything can be done to bring them back from beyond.

Lynne Miller, is head pipe-smith and pipe instructor at the House of Bagpipes  (www.HouseOfBagpipes.com)

Protecting your pipes on the hike

If you are planning on doing a lot of summer backpacking with your pipes to haunt the trails of the Sierra Nevadas or Canadian rockies with your best rendition of 'The Mist Covered Mountains' then use a protected backpack so that your pipes don't come back from the hike looking like black African blackwood kindling for your next bonfire

Two reputable dealers that I trust on price and service that carry the bandpack are:

In Canada famous former competing champion Jim McGilivray's store (www.piping.on.ca)

In the U.S. Lynne Miller's House of Bagpipes also sells these a fair price (www.houseofbagpipes.com)

But I am sure there are many reputable dealers of this product.