Fred Morrison Uilleann Pipes

[Mr.Gumby]

@PJ

@DMQuinn

I know of one.

I know another one.

Yeah, yeah, most of us know a few.

[banba]

I have a great deal of involvement in these pipes. Firstly the reeds are sent ready to play and require no tuning. I have a set here and they are now exactly the same as Fred’s Williams set. The first versions of these pipes were not as good as they are now. Fred was here in the workshop with me recently for a few days and I showed him a lot of things that were previously not known to Mc Callum and I can assure you that they are a nice set of pipes. I produce the reeds and I do a lot of the brass work. Fred is a gentleman and only has the end user’s satisfaction in mind. The recording was made long before he came here and they are looking at making new recordings.

[Reedmaker]

@firnatine

McCallum bagpipes are made using CNC technology. I was told the UP will be the same except the chanter which is not CNC. As far as I know they will come ABW like the practice set. I own one of the prototype practice sets. My instructor has played my set and was really impressed. The reed for that chanter was made by Jimmy ? see link below. Since then Fred said someone else is now making his reeds. My practice set took less then two months to arrive. I have been learning to play for three years now using this chanter. Us knuckle dragging highland pipers take a little longer to learn. I just recently took ownership of a beautiful Michael Hubbert 1/2 set and have now been playing it exclusively. I’ve had some inquiries about buying my practice set but I don’t want to part with it.

McCallum is highly respected with highland pipers but they also make Fred’s reel (border) and Scottish smallpipes which are very fine instruments. Fred would never put his name on anything if it didn’t meet
his high standards so I expect the same with his UP. I’m guessing the price will be mid range and turn around time fairly quick as compared to most makers. McCallum is highly respected for their quality and customer service.

Fred will be doing a workshop I host at Lake Tahoe this October and I’m hoping he will be bringing at least the 1/2 set and let us have a go with it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7p5JjozyyFw

Frank

I am the reed maker who used to make the reeds for these pipes but unfortunately Fred thought they were to expensive however I am still making very good quality reeds and supplying a few quality uilleann pipers and I do hope to post clips of the players with my reeds being played in there pipes in sessions? I am also at the moment making 12 reeds and 1 set of regulator reeds for orders but there will be free samples of the reeds being given out through these few players in the next few weeks if I can get them done before the pipe band Contests start in May.
I will however stress to anyone thinking of buying and paying a couple of thousand pounds plus for a half set of any uilleann pipes to be very careful when they go for a set of these pipes? Do your home work ask people who play them or other makers for advice as it is a huge investment and if they do not do what they are supposed to do it can be a very bad investment? I have been there!