Looks like you had a great day overall. I love spending time in the border country. Hawick, for those not familiar with the town, is pronounced to sound like "Hoik".
No, they're not Northumbrian Smallpipes. Those are Border Pipes and they're being played by Matt Seattle who has been a friend of mine for a number of years. Matt is a noted authority on Border Pipes. He has composed numerous tunes for them, as well as writing and publishing a number of books of tunes for the instrument, including
The Master Piper,
The Border Bagpipe Book,
Over The Hills And Far Away and many others. He re-discovered the William Dixon manuscript which was the basis for
The Master Piper and had previously been thought lost sometime between the 1780s and 1820s. This manuscript as proven to be essentially the Rosetta Stone connecting modern pipers to the repertoire for the Border Pipes from the early 1700s. Matt lives not too far from Hawick. That particular set of pipes were made by Nigel Richards.
Nope, again they're misidentified. Those are similar to the single-droned student version of Lowland Pipes as made by Jon Swayne. I'm thinking that particular set may have been made by Dominic Allen.
These are English Greatpipes from my collection. Sorry for the bad photo, but I'll try to take a newer, better one soon.
The drone is well over 3 feet long for this set in the key of "D". The lower the key, the longer the drone. I've seen a set in "G" for which the drone is ridiculously long. Please note the rather substantial difference between the bell ends of both the drone and the chanter in the 2 photos.
Originally Posted by wgority
Looks like you had a great day overall. I love spending time in the border country. Hawick, for those not familiar with the town, is pronounced to sound like "Hoik".
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