D. MacPherson Bagpipes!

My first brand new wood pipe purchase finally arrived in the mail today. The wait was about 4.5 months from order to ship. Then they spent another month in the mail between Bulgaria and Lubbock. The are a set of Doug MacPherson‘s pipes of african blackwood with boxwood ferrules, ringcaps, and bushes with blackwood rounded projecting mounts; the whole set is plain turned. The chanter also has a boxwood sole. These drones sound big! A clip of me trying to get a good drone recording is here:

MacPherson with Crozier Glass drone reeds

The chanter is also quite good and on the flatter side from where I’m used to playing. It came in around 475-6 Hz. The high G is a little sharp in the recording below (hence the tape that was added later before the pictures below were taken) and the low A a little sharp as well, but with a reed with 2 corners missing, there’s just not a whole lot to judge except the idiot playing a reed with 2 corners missing. This recording is with the MacPherson chanter with said Gilmour reed, with only tape on the low A to bring it down a little, so the recording is quite accurate as regards to the natural tuning of the MacPherson chanter without being muddled with a lot of tinkering. Which I think says a lot because it’s all very close. Note, the small Gannaway bag was a little leaky when these recordings were made (it is now draining Gannaway seasoning in the bath tub). Some reels I’m fooling around with: Sleepy Maggie ‘backwards’ from Scots Guards, Dancing Feet in G inspired by Seudan followed by Dancing Feet a la regulare. Kinda of a build up thingie madoodle: E, F, G, A.

Sleepy Maggie x2 + Dancing Feet x2

8 thoughts on “D. MacPherson Bagpipes!

  1. Patrick,

    Nice looking set of pipes.I like the sound and your playing,very musical to my ears.

    all the best,

    Tim

  2. The new pipes are absolutely beautiful .Wish I had some. I’m waiting on my kyo ck3 set I ordered. The anticipation Is to much. Anyway always great to hear you play.

  3. Thanks Tim! I like the sound of your pipes, very musical to my ears.

    The inspiration for the look of the pipes came from several of John Center’s pipes as well as Doug’s styling he already uses, just with diminished decorative turning below the projecting mount. Both Center and Doug used a rounded projecting mount. There’s a set now on McGillivray’s site, except it is combed and beaded, second Center set from the top:
    http://www.piping.on.ca/browseproducts.asp?catID=146

    Doug’s plain turned sets are the best I’ve ever seen (granted not many) and his finish is glorious, and since I already have a set of combed and beaded fully mounted Gellaitry’s, I figured I’d incorporate that into the Center-style.

  4. Patrick,
    Very nice pipes…good luck with them and all good notes and music from That new stand of ABW.

    Nightly NY State weather for 2/16/12…SNOW, can I send some to Lubbock to you Patrick?

  5. We’ve got the precipitation, just not the cold to make it snow, and you can keep that! These drones are BIG, I might have to go Ezee’s just to tone it down a bit….more to come (recordings that is).

  6. Great looking and sounding set! I’ve taken the plunge and ordered a set of Dougs pipes myself. Fully combed and beaded with full imitation ivory, with mounts turned in the old style. Many of my band mates can’t wait to see and hear them, not to mention myself! Should have them by May. Looking forward to playing them in solo competitions the rest of the year.

    Cheers,
    Mike

  7. Patrick,

    Have you thought about Canning? I believe you may have a recording of Doug’s drones with Cannings on your blog here, someware.

  8. I’ve got some Canning bass reeds laying around and I’ve tried them but my tenors are in my buddy’s Robertson’s until his Rocket reeds get it. So…hurry up Mark I want my Canning tenors back! Big blog post coming up as soon as I get the time.

    Also, just removed the time limit on posting comments.

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