I make my Irish Uilleann Pipes (UP) currently in D and C pitch, with both concert and Narrow-Bore D chanter options. I also offer B and Bb chanter options.
My UP options include an optional fourth drone, which plays either A or G and fits into one of the regulator tube ports in the bag stock and can provide additional breadth and tone to the usual UP drone sound. My tenor & baritone regulators can be added to make a ¾ set configuration.
I have developed my own concert chanter in a Medium Bore D (MBD) design, a little quieter in tone than some concert chanters. I also offer a Narrow Bore D (NBD) chanter on D sets which is similar in playing style and tone to a flat chanter. My louder wide-bore Concert D chanter is based on the usual Rowsome style design and is more suitable for some in session playing due to its increased volume over the MBD chanter.
My C & D sets are based on my own developments of much encouragement and assistance from the master pipemaker Geoff Wooff. I have owned one of Geoff’s superb sets and one by Andreas Rogge in my earlier playing. I learned a lot from these modern makers and they too of course from the master makers of earlier times, as is our pipemaking and playing tradition.
My options in UP sets are of the following forms, each with bag & bellows supplied and blowpipes and attachments included to complete the sets:
| Practice set | chanter |
| Half set | chanter + 3 drones (with 2 ports for future regs) |
| Half set plus | chanter + 3 drones and additional A or G drone |
Three quarter set | Chanter + 3 Drones + tenor and baritone regulators |
All my UP sets use a hollow stock with internal regulator tubing and can accommodate regulators as a half-set upgrade, or the optional fourth drone. The advantage of the hollow stock is in allowing strong ‘phase lock’ between the drone reeds producing more reliable UP drone performance and stability.
Drone slides are internally tapered to provide reliable drone stability on tuning and my drone stock has the usual switch to allow playing of the chanter and/or regulators without drone accompaniment. My chanters tops can be supplied with an additional stop-key and chanters are available in Keyless or Multi-Key form with a C key as the basic model (or C and F keys) and up to four keys in total can be added on request.