Non-traditional & Downright Bizarre Bagpipe Images

The "goosepipe" featured here was made by Dieter Guttler (R.I.P.), of Mainz, Germany. The chanter, is of course, the thing the goose is eating, but the drones are the goose's legs! It is being played here by Dieter's friend Berthold Lied, musician, and owner of a music shop somewhere in the Rhineland. This photo was sent to me by my friend and fellow bagpipe enthusiast Oliver Seeler of Albion, CA. To see more of Dieter's many somewhat bizarre instrumental creations, visit: this page at Oliver's site.
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This is a photo of bagpipe made for the French Bicententinnial (1989) by Jon Swayne. As you can see, it is mounted in blue, white and red plastic with blue plastic tone-holes in the chanter. This image was "borrowed" from R.Niepold's website sons et coulers which contains an interesting section called Galerie de la cornemuse.
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This is a photo of what appears to be a boha-like bagpipe with unusual cat heads chanterstock and chanter. This image was also taken from R.Niepold's website sons et coulers which contains an interesting section called Galerie de la cornemuse. Jean-Louis Caussé wrote to say: "It is in fact, an attempt at reconstituting the bagpipe sculpted on one of the pilars of the "room of musicians" at Puivert castle in France (département de l'Aude)." The bagpipe shown appears to be a copy of the one (probably by the same maker) that was made to exhibit at the castle. If anyone knows who the maker is, please let me know.
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This odd bagpipe was constructed by Hermann Dewit of Belgium. It is made from plastic pipe and fittings that one might find at their local garden supply. The bag looks like a camping air-pillow. Notice the nice Y-shaped shut-off valve for the drones; a nice tuning aide. The bass drone (only partially shown here) "snakes" over the players left shoulder and hangs down the back. The only concession to tradition here is the bellows, obviously borrowed from another set of pipes. The image is "borrowed" from Galerie de la cornemuse.
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And now for the truly bizarre! This is a photo of legendary jazz bagpiper Rufus Harley (R.I.P.), here seen standing next to The Liberty Bell in his hometown of Philadelphia, PA. Rufus was part Cherokee Indian, hence his "native" getup. You can study a little more about Rufus by visiting this website, or this one. Note: Rufus passed-away on Aug. 1, 2006. I'm sure he's showin' the angels how jazz is done on the bagpipes. (AK)
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Somehow I missed seeing this guy in the bar scene from the first Star Wars movie. He must have been hangin' with the drummer at the back of the band. Or maybe he's getting ready to march Warf's Klingon bride down the isle. Actually, Jörg Becker wrote to tell me, that the photo "shows the Cyberpiper. He plays an electronical set - and he plays it really well!" This photo is "borrowed" from Ciberpiper's site.
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This latest image is of a sinister-looking piper playing an evil-looking goat-headed, goat-horn mounted bagpipe. The maker, and also the person who is playing it here, is the late David Marshall (R.I.P.) of the former firm "Ancetral Instruments" in England. He was a very talented and prolific maker of historic and fanciful instruments. This image was sent to me by the present owner of the instrument, Paul Sherman, of New York. Thanks Paul.
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