A pal of mine, an excellent keyboard player and a bit of a whistle player, is very keen to get a set of Scottish Small Pipes. I'm a fiddle player, and know very little about the pipes. This is what he writes -

******************
" I'm just about to order my small pipes but I'm in a bit of a awkward spot and would appreciate any advice. The standard for Scottish small pipes is an A set. Almost all are sold in this key and makers reccommend this key. The
problem is the A set is nowhere near as sweet in tone as a D set.
The pipes have their own octave - the D set on a piano plays - D E F# G A B C D - the C being natural. The A set playing the same pattern, ie. a full tone between 7th and 8th.
My worry is that a D instrument may not fit in when playing Scottish/Irish folk music, which seems to be what the makers are implying.
Your thoughts please, "

**************************

This fits in with my understanding that a bagpipe scale has a 'flattened' 7th. Given that a lot of the ITM and Scottish TM that we play is in Dmaj and A maj respectively as well as Emin/Gmaj, any advice would be welcome - he obviously likes the tone of the D set !