Duct Tape Bagpipes

Duct Tape Bagpipes

Looking to build your own instrument out of plumbing and tape? [Scott] made his own set of Membrane Bagpipes out of PVC pipes, a plastic bag, and duct tape.

Bagpipes are made out of a few parts. The drones are pipes that are tuned to play a single note. They are tuned by the fixed length of the pipe. The chanter is a tube with finger holes. This lets you play various notes depending on which holes you cover. The blowpipe is used to fill the bag with air that will pass through the membranes on the drones and chanter. Finally, there’s the bag which stores air.

[Scott]’s build uses PVC for the drones and chanter. The membranes are made out of cut up bits of plastic bags. Some crafty duct tape work makes up the bag, and seals it on to the various parts. A check valve is used to stop warm, duct tape flavoured air from blowing back into your mouth.

It’s pretty amazing what people can do with a few rolls of duct tape. The pipes aren’t exactly in tune, but they certainly work. Check out a video of them in action after the break.

37 thoughts on “Duct Tape Bagpipes

    1. It could’ve been worse, though. He could’ve played either the mario theme or the song of time… or somehow integrated an Arduino (he could have made it double as a MIDI breath controller or have an LCD for no real reason).

      *sigh*

      This is pretty much as annoying as geek counter-culture can get. At least all the motor-as-a-voice-coil stuff is gone (for now).

        1. I agree. Constructive criticism is one thing, but crapping on because someone hacked something together, and it was posted on a site about hacking stuff, seems a bit keyboard warrior to me…

        1. Hey guys, PVC bagpipe creator here. I’m not planning on curb stomping my pipes, nor will I be setting them on fire while I’m playing them, so I think overall the risk is minimal ;)

          Seriously, though, I do hope all the hating on PVC is really sarcasm. That stuff is makes for great building materials.

          1. Oh it is. Usually people harp on it when people use it for high-pressure use. Similar to arduino hate, it’s become sort of a joke to carry it on even when not appropriate.

        1. One thing most people don’t recognize is they’re NOT MEANT TO BE PLAYED INDOORS. I can only imagine how beautiful it would sound heard over the Scottish highlands. In an auditorium… not so much.

          And it would certainly help if no piper would ever, ever play Amazing Grace again.

          1. Actually, there is a type of bagpipes called “chamber pipes” with a mellower, muted sound that are designed to be played inside. Like the larger ones that sound too harsh when played inside, chamber pipes sound off-key and not loud enough outside.

  1. Red Green would be so proud. Also the pressure inside is nt enough to make it explode and remember the old saying, if you dont have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. Seriously Hack A Day should remove trolls such as yourselves from being able to comment anymore.

  2. I think the real issue is that he is went off the reservation and built just bag pipes. If the bagpipes could at least shoot something out of the drones, and/or have an arduino controller for the bagpipe/fire mechanism then we’d at least be in the ballpark. As it stands, I cannot endorse this build for HD.

  3. Dying Cattle? Work harder, Sir. It requires much less personal effort to just superglue a few cat’s tails together. It’s much more fun to ring and run with a decent bit of time for escape.

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