The Bain bagpipe (below) reminds me of a Matt Marshall “Glencoe” bagpipe. The ferrules appear to be fashioned or perhaps “lifted” off an old Lawrie bagpipe. If you compare the beading and combing to a Glencoe bagpipe you get the feeling that one inspired or influenced the other. Frank Bain was a maker of bagpipes going back to the early 1900’s. His son, Alan, is very well known for his bagpipe music, taught at Edinburgh Castle by Willie Ross.
These pipes were built by Frank Bain in the early 1960’s for the late Alasdair Ross of the Edinburgh Royal Scottish Pipers. Alasdair was well known for his exceptional musical talent and won every competition he entered with these pipes which he had designed for his particular way of playing and sound. Alasdair also studied under Willie Ross of Edinburgh Castle as a young lad often talking about not being permitted to even play a note until he got the walking/marching correct, followed by many more tales.
The silver ornate detail you can see was made and put on by Frank Bain in 1989 during a refurbishment, his last set of pipes he ever worked on (according to Alasdair Ross)
As you can see they are a beautiful example of a most unusual set of pipes, anyone who has heard them or has had the pleasure of playing them has said not only do they look unlike any other pipe they also sound incredible.
On the silver plaque, engraved by Frank himself, are the words:
Seann Phide Chull-Looair
Tha Ceol Anns Na Maidean
Ma Bheir Thus As E
Made by Frank Bain, Bagpipe reed maker Edinburgh Scotland, to conform to the old Avernish Highland Bagpipe known as Seann Phiob Chull-Looair.
There is a CD of Alan Bain playing this bagpipe. The following was pulled from the Internet.
“Recordings of the bagpipes are frequent and plentiful, but few capture the strength and pervasive power of the instrument. This CD by Alan Bain is one of a very few on which the drones have been recorded at natural volume, thereby endowing the instrument with its full power and vitality.
Alan was brought up not only playing the pipes but also making them in the family business. This skill has enabled him and his brother Frank to craft a set of African blackwood and silver pipes, played on most tracks of this CD, to the dimensions and tone of an ancient set of Avernish pipes made of whale tooth ivory, horn and hazel. These unique pipes, and Alan’s playing in the old West Coast tradition make this an unique recording, as well as one to be greatly enjoyed by all pipe fans.
Bain, Alan. (19?? – ) Scottish, from Kintail, a native gaelic speaker of the highlands. Piper, pipe maker, reed maker. Taught to play by his father Frank M. Bain and later by the PM Willie Ross. By the age of 10 was already an accomplished piper. During WWII, served with the Seaforth Highlanders. Supplied the military school of piping in Edinburgh Castle with drone and chanter reeds. Had the strong belief that women should not play the pipes. Released a CD names The Road to the Isles, which was recorded in one take while he was in his 70s-the tunes fade from one to the next since the sound engineer did not want one long recording with no breaks! Frequently visited by well-known piper Gavin Stoddart.”
The following email was received recently:
“Dear Ringo,
I enjoyed reading your entry about the Frank Bain pipes owned by Alaistair Ross, and about Alan Bain, both friends of mine. There are a couple of inaccuracies in the article. The Gaelic inscription should read (last line): ‘Sean Phiob Chuilodair’ This means ‘Old Pipes of Culloden’ – not that they were AT Culloden, but dated from that time, as Alan explained to me. The rest of the gaelic means ‘There is music in the sticks if you can get it out.’
He keeps this old set under his bed and used its measurements to construct several sets of pipes, made from blackwood, his father, Frank M. Bain, the reed-maker, had got from African before WW2. The father was dead when I met Alan in 1960, so did not make the pipes; this project was begun by Alan and his brother Frank quite a bit later, around 1978- 80, or even later. Frank made the chanters, Alan the drones.
I have a set, mounted with imitation ivory, in the keeping of my son, living in Seattle.”
