I'm not a piper- I'm a total wanna be (my chanter broke 10 years ago when I left it in sitting in my window sill and I never replaced it)- but I still got a good chuckle out of those. I can only imagine the number of of ignorant, or just plain stupid, remarks you get. As me Grandpappy Leddy used to say- Ignorant is what we are; stupid is what we choose to do.

Oh, and I play bass. I know darned well that NO instrument is EVER easy to learn, and that a $200 instrument is invariably garbage, and is only good for one thing- learning to play the real one.