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Why does it seem that the bass drone is a rather large diameter?
And the chanter keys seem to be quite large. Not a bad thing, mind you, but surely different from most styles I’ve seen.
16 bids in… someone’s wanting them, though the reserve’s not met at 1,125 US$.
Large, and not symetrical? Have you noticed the fat bit’s kinda mounted off-centre? Why’s that then? Isn’t that a bit of a basic pad on the bellows, too?
Chanter looks good to me - I’d like to have a toot! I was up in the NW today collecting a daughter, if only I’d known. My family would LOVE to have come looking at pipes with me!! :roll: ![]()
j.i.
I don’t know the history of the bass drone design, but the larger wooden part at the top contains two channels routed into it. This design replaces having one long drone with U-bends to shorten the length.
djm
Ah, there you go! It’s obvious to the trained eye - and ignorance is so rarely bliss… :roll:
j.i.
Oh, I don’t know… I often DEPEND on ignorance.
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Red Satin Duvet… Nice ![]()

Nice Duvet ![]()
Funny thing…I saw an old bass drone just like that the other day at a local bagpipe shop. With it were a fully keyed Taylor style chanter, two matching regulators, and various drone parts, as well as part of an obviously home made bass regulator. The real kicker was that all this was just GIVEN to the proprieter!
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Paul
So did you make him an offer?
Dionys
An offer? No, I don’t need another project at this time. I just finished restoring a full set and just making reeds keeps me busy enough!:roll:
He said he want to have the set restored…a little project for himself. Being a bagpipe shop owner I guess he’s got the time and the resources.
the bass drone is a taylor style that’s all
Hi, Paul. That wouldn’t be Scott’s Highland would it? They used to drive Joe nuts when he was selling UPs through them. They couldn’t leave the reeds alone, and kept rescraping them to GHBs, then complaining to him that the reeds didn’t work.
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djm
There are three channels connected in series
Quite which maker first came up with this idea to do away with the outside loop is unknown but it was almost certainly taken from the earlier Shuttle pipes / Musette du Cour. Malcolm McGregor of London working 1810 - 1825 produced at least one set with the Bass Drone done in this manner as well as several sets with all the drones and two regulators in a single piece of wood. Robert Reid (of NSP) fame also made a number of Union Pipes with this style of Bass drone including a two regulator six drone set where both the bass D and G drones have thrice bored lower joints to save space. The Taylors and a number of their contempories carried on this tradition
An article by David Quinn covers a nice set of Taylor drones from the Cummings set in the “Pipers Review” and can also be found on the web at
http://www.pipersgathering.org/Irish%20Uilleann%20Pipes/Uilleann%20Pipemaking/uilleann_pipemaking.htm It shows the construction of the bass drone with the offset tenons.

A set by Californian Pipemaker Kevin Scott in the manner of M McGregor -there are also further photographs on my website at http://www.bagpipeworld.co.uk/British%20Isles/Union.htm
which shows one of the barrel units beside a set of normal drones for a comparison of sizes. Very handy for crowded sessions in small rooms.
Man, that is a COOL looking set! What key is it in?
The barrel drone set is in the key of D and Kevin built the set from measurements that I took of the original in the Reid School of Music collection in Edinburgh. It has two drones and two regulators.
The layout is as per the original and has a total of 6 bores through the barrel which is 330mm in length. The baritone drone (short extension piece inside the stock) uses one of these bores and a further three bores connected in series form the bass drone. Short sections slide out of the end for tuning.
The regulator arrangement is economic - 4 keys on the tenor F#,G,A & B and just the single key on the Baritone- the D. The touch piece on this latter is long so that it can be used with the three lower keys on the Tenor to give some basic chords.
:roll:
“Taylor style”, is it?
So, would you like to buy a used car? It’s a “Mercedes style”.
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