The bagpipes of the Canadian firm J. Dunbar Ltd. have long been considered excellent instruments by the piping community. The "P" series synthetic pipes (described extensively on this site) have earned the respect of pipers everywhere, not only for their unequalled durability and price-to-performance ratio, but as first-class instruments regardless of cost.

Dunbar bagpipes are normally supplied with a chanter made by the firm. This may seem obvious - after all, the chanter is central to the instrument and so one might assume that a pipe by so-and-so would be fitted with a chanter by the same maker. However, this is often not the case. There are numerous pipe makers who build drones and the rest of the pipes, except the chanters. Furthermore, many experienced pipers find themselves preferring the sound of one maker's drones and another's chanter. Many pipers use more than one chanter, switching to accommodate different musical or environmental demands.

A Great Highland Bagpipe chanter is a radical example of the class of instrument typified by the oboe - that is, it has a conical (tapered) bore and is driven by a double-bladed reed. As you know, it is an extremely powerful instrument. It is also extremely sensitive to minute changes of dimension. Simple enough at first glance, there is a whole lot more going on in the construction of a Highland chanter than meets the eye. The location, shape and undercutting of the large finger-holes in the thin, tapered walls is critical. The bore may incorporate varying degrees of taper along its length. Minute changes in the length and diameter of the throat, just below the reed-seat, can have dramatic effects on performance. Even the external dimensions come into play, because the wall thicknesses at the finger-holes affect acoustic characteristics.

So, bagpipe chanters, though they look simple enough at first glance, are in fact extraordinarily complex devices and though two chanters may look very much the same, their sound and playing characteristics may differ widely. Like a violin, a given chanter might sound dusky or bright, weak or strong, smooth or raw and so on. Any halfway decent lathe operator can produce a set of playable drones - the various parts are straightforward and while some procedures, such as creating the long cylindrical bores, are not easy they involve straightforward techniques. But a chanter is another matter altogether.

The most glaring failures in chanter construction are seen in the bagpipe-like objects made overseas in near slave-labor conditions, hawked in large numbers on eBay and by dealers who should stick to things they understand (harps, drums, whatever). (As I point out elsewhere, these "bagpipes" are what they are not necessarily because of lack of skill or ability of the makers, but because of the demands of cheapskate, unscrupulous exporters, importers and retailers). While with much fussing the drones of some of these unfortunate instruments can be made to work acceptably, the chanters are almost always hopeless.

It is also common to find an older or antique set of pipes without a chanter, or with a replacement chanter by another maker. Such a pipe isn't really considered to be compromised or missing anything; while it's nice to own the original chanter issued with an antique pipe it is much more important to have one that works well. So a set of, say, Hendersons (a famous antique brand) is not particularly diminished, in most eyes, by the lack of an original chanter, and the prevailing attitude is that over time it is normal for chanters to come and go on a given pipe.

Older wooden chanters sometimes are unsuitable for particular sorts of playing, or have become unstable. Wood is not static, and very slight dimensional changes due to age, environmental exposure, and use can negatively affect the performance of a chanter, much more so than is generally the case with drones, which, if anything, might actually improve with age. Older chanters also may have been made to play in a lower pitch than is used today - another reason why they're often replaced.