Robert Reid set of Northumbrian pipes on Ebay, “fully restored and valued by Colin Ross,” Item #2564804134. The chanter was made in the 1930s, however, and has aluminum keys…
Amazing that you could get to the holes with all those keys in the way!
Is Colin Ross a Northumbrian piper/pipemaker?
The number of keys on a Northumbrian chanter can range from 7 to 17 (maybe more, by now). Colin Ross is the grand Poobah of all modern Northumbrian pipemakers and is largely responible for the re-awakening of interest in Scottish Smallpipes.
Actually 21 key chanters are usually the maximum. And to say that Colin Ross is the grand poobah? Hmm..that’s a bit extreme.
Wow..Robert Reid was “THE man” when it comes to the NSP’s…he made some awfully fine UP’s as well…
The chanter is not by Reid, per the auction listing. David Quinn makes great NSP sets.
WOW! 21 keys??? I guess that would make up for the lack of regulators 
I’ll have to ask DMQ about the NSP’s when I talk to him next time – I didn’t realize he made anything but UP’s. Thanks for the info!
Colin Ross wasn’t responsible for re-awakening interest in Scottish smallpipes, he invented them. Although there are a few nine-holed smallpipes extant, nothing is known about them or their music. Colin Ross basically invented the modern SSP based on the Northumbrian design, and did an excellent job of it.
NSPs most commonly have seven keys, which is all that’s needed for most Northumbrian music, fourteen keys lets you do 99% of the rest, and the completists and wannabe jazz artists and the over moneyed get 21 keys.
Playing NSPs is quite awkward at first - I’ve only tried them once, and found that the fingering, although very simple in principle, is very liable to trip you up as soon as you think you’ve got the hang of it.
Cheers,
Calum
Is Quinn still doing the odd NSP set? I’ve heard that he made a couple sets for bagpipe collector Alan Jones, with gold or gold plated metal work, and 24 or 25 keys - crazy stuff. A 17 key set can play two fully chromatic octaves, but it’s like playing this clump of brass spagetthi.
I have a 9 key set which I don’t play much, which isin’t a reflection on its quality. It’s just that - where’s the cran? How do you bark notes on this thing! It’s not Irish piping.
A famous family of pipers, the Cloughs, had a fantastic biography written up recently. One section has correspondence from their most famous member, Tom Clough Number 2 I think he was - they had two or three Tom and Harry Cloughs piping through the generations, you see, like all those Francis MacPeakes - and Tom has plenty of invective directed towards players who “choyte,” as he terms it - use grace notes overmuch. Also, what we call open fingering is strictly frowned upon in Northumbrian piping, although one player who was in competitions in the 20s, Richard Mowatt, was said to take his entire lower hand off the chanter in airs.
Things like this are good instances of the solidity of a tradition and its resistance to even marginal change. You can play rolls, crans, and Irish style tight triplets on the smallpipes; but it just ISIN’T DONE! You’ll get chucked in the Tyne with that stuff.
Also, the Cloughs had a Robert Reid set of Union pipes - 3/4 - the body of which is now with a descendant who lives in Utah.
Wow, those are beautiful pipes…It’s a good thing they’re probably prohibitively expensive otherwise it would be pretty tempting.
Colin Ross does beautiful work, although I’ve heard it said that he uses (or used to at any rate) an incredibly wobbly lathe, which makes his prowess as a maker all the more impressive. When Hamish Moore was given an old set of SSP in the early '80s, it was Ross that restored it, laying the groundwork for the rebirth of the Scottish smallpipes.
Yeah, Northumbrian pipers don’t do the whole grace note thing much. Billy Pigg used them a bit (he also did the occasional recording of an Irish tune–he did a great version of “The Swallowtail Reel”). I’ll bet it wouldn’t be so hard for Northumbrian pipers to do lots of tricky tight fingering on UPs though, something that vexes so many of us greatly…
His UPs are very well made though none of the people I know who have one have the chanter going well enough, or are happy enough with it to use it.
I was offered one during the early nineties the owners were looking for 1300 punt for it. At the time I really didn’t want to spend that sort of money on something I wouldn’t have much use for. It sat there for months on end, even up to a year if I remember well, and nobody seemed to want it [it had a Dublin address]. Eventually a friend of mine picked it up, he couldn’t resist it any longer. It’s in itself a very nicely made set. In the photo below the original chanter is on it, note the e flat key at the bottom end.
Here we go with another authoritive quote which is actually totally wrang…Colin Ross didnae invent anything..back in 1969/70,Jim Daily who was then playing with the Whistlebinkies went into the Inverness Museum along with Eddie Maguire..it was closing time but the curator kindly shewed Jim and Eddie a large box of assorted smallpipes,too numerous to display.Jim pulled out a stick he thought was in D or therebouts and using stick it notepads copied the dimensions and the toneholes.He later found it to be in C and not D , Jim altered the positioning of the holes to make it a D chanter and lo the modern smallpipe was born,he then gave the plans to Colin who asked for them.Colin has basked in the limelight since but hasnae been exactly forthright in acknowledging Jims part in all of this…
As for there only being a few old smallpipes being extant what rubbish..go into any museum in Scotland and ye will find loads of them… most of them stored away..They were originally called Chamber pipes and were used as a form of practice chanter for the Piob Mhor so the music was exactly the same… so much for little being known about them…
That may be the case across the pond but it isnae reality here!
Slan go foill
Uilliam 
Uilliam,
I think you may be wrang too. “Stick - Its”/“Post Its” were not invented 'til 1976. Dr Spencer Silver invented the adhesive in 1968, but the production of the adhesive paper notes (by 3M) did not occur until 1976 and were not available commercially in Europe until 1981. It’s true!! 
Alan
Fecking brilliant!
David Quinn is no longer making NSP’s that I am aware of although one sees NSP parts on shelves in his workshop. During my recent trip to the workshop, however, I noted that some of those pipes parts had not been moved in 2-4 years. I have a 2-year old standing order for a set that will basically be a refurbishment of a set he made many years ago. I don’t know if he’ll ever get to it and I suspect this delay is an appropriate mesage stating a preference to make the uilleann pipes.
David is quite a good NSP piper and is also an accomplished student of tight playing of the UP’s…some of this probably coming from his skills on the NSP’s. I have heard him play numerous times in private but only rarely can he be heard playing the UP’s in public. When he does it is a real treat!
Ye well may be right Alan but Jim and Eddie were certainly in the Inverness Museum and Jim copied the stick by doing a rubbing and Colin asked for the same.. your talking 33years ago here…the best person to ask would be Jim himself…who knows he may have invented the stickit before Dr Spencer and the commercial boys went to the wrang guy!!!
Liam
Hya Alan,I spoke with Jim today and I did indeed get it wrang kinda…He did not use “stick its” that was my misinterpretation of what he was saying given he mumbles a lot!!
He used tear off notes(the type that has holes at the top) as there was no paper of sufficient length to cover the chanter he had to use these bits of notepaper to get the rubbing required to transfer same to the making of a similar chanter.
“Stick its” were the mental picture I had..and judging by your astute detective work in this matter it looks as if yer order book has dried up!!now get back to work(ps the reed ye sent me is SINGING no surprise there !!)
Slan go foill
Liam 
Alan[/quote]
He used tear off notes(the type that has holes at the top) as there was no paper of sufficient length to cover the chanter he had to use these bits of notepaper to get the rubbing required to transfer same to the making of a similar chanter.
Liam [/quote]
That nails it as ‘paper of sufficient length to cover the chanter’ had not been manufactured before 1975. A different story if it had been ‘holes at the side’ of the paper. Who knows what might have evolved…