Has anyone seen an example of a removable common stock on a set of smallpipes? I'm imagining something similar to a split chanter stock.

The John Walsh "Smallpipes in A 2000" have something like that.

On the set I had you could remove the end part which held all the drones, so that you could adjust reeds without removing the drone lower section from the stock.

Another interesting thing about that set was that there were no separate drone reeds: the body of the synthetic reed was machined in the same piece as the drone 'standing section'.

Really a brilliant design which worked perfectly.

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Richard Cook
c1980 Quinn uilleann pipes
1945 Starck Highland pipes
Goldie Low D whistle

Yes, a version of the split-stock exists for drones that splits near bag and that keeps the reeds enclosed. It's usually an added option. It has a lot of practical benefits though it's the joint that will wreak the most havoc if it's at all loose.

We're glad this thread is not about financial investment. - Mod

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Vivat diabolus in musica! MTGuru's (old) GG Clips / Blackbird Clips

Joel Barish: Is there any risk of brain damage?
Dr. Mierzwiak: Well, technically speaking, the procedure is brain damage.

Thanks for those examples. I also found that Seth Hamon's smallpipes have the same kind of removable common stock. This image is from his site:



I'm gradually making my first set of smallpipes and the idea of a removable common stock occurred to me, but I hadn't seen an example. It's interesting that all of these makers seem to do it the same way. I imagined the stock itself coming off with the drones from a "port" on the bag. I think I might try the kind I had in mind and accept the risk of learning the hard way the reasons for doing it the way the experienced makers do it.

Not sure if the way Walsh and Hamon do it is typical. If you look at the picture Ian Lawther posted in the other forum, that is probably more typical. The exposed reed style has some appeal. Trying to pull an individual drone out of the stock can be a feat of fingertip strength when you want to adjust a reed. But if your swapping stocks like NSP-to-SSP or SSP-to-Reelpipes, having those reeds safe in the comfort of the common stock is worth the exertion on the fingertips.