~Scottish Smallpipes~
The Scottish smallpipes belong to the family of 'cauld-wind pipes', so described because of being bellows-blown as opposed to mouth-blown. This has many advantages and these instruments are becoming more common and popular.
The small pipes are designed for indoor playing, having a much more gentle and mellow tone, unlike the harsher Highland bagpipe. However they employ the same fingering as the Great Highland Bagpipe. The differences being (apart from the bellows) that they have a parallel-bore chanter (open at the end) and traditionally the 3 drones are in a common stock.
I've been making and selling my smallpipes for over ten years. The vast majority of my sets are constructed of African Blackwood, the most popular wood for bagpipes. However I have in the past made sets in Rosewood or Boxwood, which look very well with different ferrels and end caps (see 'drones' below).
Chanter...
This is the most important part of the pipes, so I pay particular attention to the internal finish. The holes are carefully undercut to get the right sound and tuning. As mentioned above, the scale uses the same intervals as the Highland Bagpipe.
Reeds...
My pipes have always used cane reeds, I've found the quality of tone is far superior to that of plastic reeds. Being bellows-blown there is no moisture problem and most often these reeds will work well for many years without any trouble. I make all the reeds myself, including specially developed drone reeds of my own design. With machined metal bodies and cane tongues, these have proved very stable while keeping the warm sound of a cane reed.
I supply sets fully reeded and set up ready to play. They are available in keys of A, Ab, C and D. This is concert pitch so you can play with other fixed pitch instruments.
Bag and Bellows...
These have to be well made if the pipes are to remain trouble (and leak!!) free. I use good quality leather, all hand stitched, the bag is dressed with a mixture of beeswax and neatsfoot oil. The leather bag has a velvet exterior cover available in a choice of colours [ click here to check ].
The bellows cheeks are made of a decorative hardwood, usually a choice of maple or walnut [ click here to check ]. The leather is sitched neatly to the wood in the traditional manner shown. I tool my own leather belts and distinctive brass buckle.
Drones...
There are three drones, bass, tenor and alto, each with it's own tuning slide. The ferrels (drone and chanter) are commonly of brass, but I can supply them in silver-plate or sterling silver, which to my mind make for a very attractive instrument.
The slides are normally plain, but as a luxury they can be finished to match the ferrels as shown here.
The mountings and end caps (drone and chanter) were traditionally of ivory. However only imitation ivory (plastic) is available now. As alternatives I do have Black Buffalo horn (matches well with boxwood pipes), or bone.
I can also provide drone stoppers with retaining chains as an extra.
The pipes come supplied complete with reed and maintenance instructions, also available on the website [ click here ].
Please contact me for my waiting list, and for further information on prices, shipping and ordering.
