Nick has kindly been supplying me with photos of the set he is making me. I have added a few recent ones to the file. It is a copy of the ‘Cushing’ Taylor -Style set he sold last year. This particular set is a 3/4 set, with chanter blocked out for full key work at a later point. I think it is going to be awesome! Thanks Nick for allowing me to post these pics!
Arbo
Hey Andy! Missed you at the Pipers’ Gathering! These are a copy of the ‘Cushing Set’, a Taylor Styled set as I understand it. Yes, Boxwood, Ebony, Cherry stock, Nickle Silver, and Aluminum! Should be a lovely looking, and sounding set when completed. Nick is great to work with! Love the fact that he sends photos along the way and is in touch with me on a regular basis! Great guy all around!
Arbo
Don’t worry, I am perfectly fine and not excited at all.
I just find some choices of materials surprising. Some materials used in the past, sometimes because their easier availability than more aesthetically pleasing choices, as an experiment, because of lower cost etc etc, never caught on. I like to think that’s for a reason. Reviving their use seems to me, well, surprising.
Unlike today, a hundred thirty years ago, aluminum was a very expensive metal. It was more expensive than gold and objects made from it were highly prized. Today we think of it as very utilitarian and cheap. The fact that an antique set surfaced with aluminum regulator caps etc. was because it was such a prized metal and folks looked at it differently than we do today. It used to be not so easy to obtain, nor was it cheap, until an easy, less expensive method of refining it from bauxite was discovered, which didn’t take place until the end of the 19th century.
