McPhee, Neil (New Zealand)

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His full name was Neil John Salmon McPhee (Yes Salmon is correct, it was his mother’s maiden name). He was originally from Timaru in New Zealand’s South Island, and learned to play the pipes there. He was a large man, and joined New Zealand Police in 1925, where he spent his professional life, retiring as a Detective Sergeant after WWII. He started the Wellington Police Pipe Band in 1936, and was the Band’s first Pipe Major. According to his son, and it’s not clear at which date McPhee started making bagpipes, but his son recalls his dad always out in his shed in the back of the house making anything from wood. He was described as an experimenter. The first pipes are likely to have been turned at his house in the early 1930s, as it is known he made several early sets for members of the Police Band.

After his retirement, McPhee started his own bagpipe shop in Wellington late 1945. With his brother, Alan McPhee, they turned bagpipes under the name “McPhee” for the next 25 years or so. The shop was later run from the 1970s by Mr. Colin Addison who kept its operating name as “McPhee” and also turned bagpipes from 1970 until the late 1980s. Thereafter the shop was sold to non pipe turners and continues as a highland supplier to this day. I am not aware of McPhee pipes being stamped in any way.

You will see from the pictures McPhee pipes have several distinctive features. Almost all have small projecting mounts, even the nickel sets. According to his son, this was because McPhee could only source ivory from old billiard balls, so the diameter of the ball determined the width of the largest projecting mounts. A lack of suitable hard wood in New Zealand also forced another innovation, use of lignum vitae as the wood. He sourced it from visiting ships to Port of Wellington coming from South America. The pictured set are typical McPhee style pipes. The lignum vitae is a light colour, the tone produced is buzzy and leaves a distinctive taste in the piper’s mouth. This set was purchased from a Wellington man who bought them in 1962 from the McPhee shop. There are some blackwood McPhee pipes around as well, but they are rare as sourcing that wood in New Zealand was very difficult.

The McPhee bagpipe at the top left began its life in 1940 as a full ivory set. The silver was added in 1947 and is believed to be the first set of silver and ivory McPhee bagpipes made.