Fred Morrison Uilleann Pipes

[rorybbellows]

For the sake of McCallum Bagpipes investment of both time and money , I hope their production team is better than their PR team .What an unprofessional mess .

RORY

[Kenny Macleod]

The prices will be up on Fred’s site in the very near future, check there please - http://www.fredmorrison.com He’s working on that just now.

[PJ]

In fairness, the uilleann pipes have always been a "cottage industry" where the maker's name is very much associated with the end product. Not many have tried to pipe making on a more contemporary business model. Maybe Arpa? There is bound to be resistence when someone tries something new.

[rorybbellows]

Personally I dont see any resistance to what they are doing ,just the way they went about it. As long as the quality is there the more pipes the better.But IMHO they should of had a full working set with decent sound samples and a price list in place ,before they announced what they were doing.

RORY
PS forget the celebrity endorsement, the pipes can speak for themselves.

[pancelticpiper]

i don't think i've ever seen any other pipes promoted as being specifically associated with a given piper

It's SOP in the Highland pipe world.

There's a great book Highland Bagpipe Makers which gives the tale of every GHB maker that there's much known about.

Story after story, over the last couple hundred years, is similar:

1) Young man takes up piping, studies under top players, and goes on to a brilliant playing career, winning many competitions

2) Oftentimes he serves a period in the Army, rising to Pipe Major

3) As an established "name" player he goes into pipemaking.

Thus, most Highland pipe makers were famous players, or at least top players.

This process is still going on today.

If the uilleann world was like that, Paddy Moloney, Paddy Keenan, Liam O Flynn, etc would have gone into pipemaking decades ago.

i wonder if they're going for scottish pipers who might be tempted to cross over to the uilleanns

it sounds like they're counting on there being a potentially big untapped market

Yes they say there's two sorts of Highland pipers, the ones who are learning the uilleann pipes, and the ones who want to learn the uilleann pipes.

These Highland pipers don't know what to look for in uilleann pipes, don't know the established makers, know nothing about the uilleann "scene". What they do know about is McCallum Bagpipes, and my guess is that hundreds of Highland pipers will eventually buy these McCallum uilleann pipes, regardless of how they might be regarded in the uilleann pipe world.

I will say that McCallum has shown remarkable flexibility over the years. Generally in Highland pipemaking the maker makes what he makes, and if you want it buy it, if you don't like it get out of my shop!

McCallum, over and over, has responded to input from the Highland piping community and continued to improve their products, and offer a wider range. People complained that their mounts weren't threaded on; McCallum began making threaded mounts. The nickel plating would eventually wear off; they switched to solid alloy mounts. The imitation ivory was brittle; they changed to virtually indestructible stuff. Some pipers thought the drones could be more stable and easier to tune; McCallum revamped their drone design to address all these issues. They keep coming out with more chanter designs to give pipers a choice of pitches and other playing characteristics.

True that they're newbies to the uilleann pipe world, but with their track record I expect them to respond to input and continue revamping their uilleann specs. It wouldn't surprise me if they eventually offered a range of chanters with various pitches and bore designs.

[pancelticpiper]

Fred does the tuning and voicing

From what I've read here Fred isn't making the wood parts, nor making the reeds.

Does "voicing" mean he receives the wood parts from McCallum, then gets in there with files and reamers and modifies the bore and tone holes? That's what "voicing" a wind instrument generally means.

Or does it only mean adjusting the reeds?

[PJ]

i don't think i've ever seen any other pipes promoted as being specifically associated with a given piper

It's SOP in the Highland pipe world.

...

If the uilleann world was like that, Paddy Moloney, Paddy Keenan, Liam O Flynn, etc would have gone into pipemaking decades ago.

There are not many top-shelf uilleann pipers who subsequently became top-shelf pipemakers. Leo Rowsome is the obvious exception. But was he know more as a maker than a performer?

[DMQuinn]

There are not many top-shelf uilleann pipers who subsequently became top-shelf pipemakers...

I know of one.

[pancelticpiper]

I know of one.

If many "star" players got into pipemaking in the uilleann world (as they've long done in the Highland world) there would be more than one, and everyone would know them.

That's the thing in Scotland, to have a pipemaker attached to a big name.

The other thing that's common in the Scottish pipemaking world, which I don't care for, is for new makers to get the legal rights to the names of famous long-dead pipemakers, and to stamp those names on their new products. It would be one thing if the new pipes were careful (or even sloppy) copies of the old pipes bearing the name, but the new makers tend to make whatever style of pipes they want with no regard to the old pipes of the same name.

For the uilleann world it would be as if somebody just now sets themselves up as a startup pipemaker, acquires the legal rights to the name "Leo Rowsome Dublin" and begins stamping his products thusly. Let's say that his pipes aren't based on Rowsome pipes, but based on some other old maker, or perhaps not based on anything much. The maker needn't be in Dublin at all, but could be in Scotland or anywhere.

So confusion results, as newbies hear great players both today and of the past playing Rowsome pipes and hear great things about Rowsome pipes and see the new maker Leo Rowsome Dublin and go out and buy them. They're out playing somewhere and somebody asks them about their pipes and they say they're Rowsome pipes, even showing them the maker's stamps on the set.

So now you have three sorts of pipes floating around 1) original Rowsome pipes 2) pipes from various other makers based on Rowsome specs 3) new pipes made by "Rowsome" which don't have Rowsome specs.

That's exactly the case in the current Highland pipe world.

[PJ]

I know of one.

I know another one.

[Mr.Gumby]

I know of one.

I know another one.

Yeah, yeah, most of us know a few.

[banba]

I have a great deal of involvement in these pipes. Firstly the reeds are sent ready to play and require no tuning. I have a set here and they are now exactly the same as Fred's Williams set. The first versions of these pipes were not as good as they are now. Fred was here in the workshop with me recently for a few days and I showed him a lot of things that were previously not known to Mc Callum and I can assure you that they are a nice set of pipes. I produce the reeds and I do a lot of the brass work. Fred is a gentleman and only has the end user's satisfaction in mind. The recording was made long before he came here and they are looking at making new recordings.

[Reedmaker]

McCallum bagpipes are made using CNC technology. I was told the UP will be the same except the chanter which is not CNC. As far as I know they will come ABW like the practice set. I own one of the prototype practice sets. My instructor has played my set and was really impressed. The reed for that chanter was made by Jimmy ? see link below. Since then Fred said someone else is now making his reeds. My practice set took less then two months to arrive. I have been learning to play for three years now using this chanter. Us knuckle dragging highland pipers take a little longer to learn. I just recently took ownership of a beautiful Michael Hubbert 1/2 set and have now been playing it exclusively. I've had some inquiries about buying my practice set but I don't want to part with it.

McCallum is highly respected with highland pipers but they also make Fred's reel (border) and Scottish smallpipes which are very fine instruments. Fred would never put his name on anything if it didn't meet
his high standards so I expect the same with his UP. I'm guessing the price will be mid range and turn around time fairly quick as compared to most makers. McCallum is highly respected for their quality and customer service.

Fred will be doing a workshop I host at Lake Tahoe this October and I'm hoping he will be bringing at least the 1/2 set and let us have a go with it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7p5JjozyyFw

Frank

I am the reed maker who used to make the reeds for these pipes but unfortunately Fred thought they were to expensive however I am still making very good quality reeds and supplying a few quality uilleann pipers and I do hope to post clips of the players with my reeds being played in there pipes in sessions? I am also at the moment making 12 reeds and 1 set of regulator reeds for orders but there will be free samples of the reeds being given out through these few players in the next few weeks if I can get them done before the pipe band Contests start in May.
I will however stress to anyone thinking of buying and paying a couple of thousand pounds plus for a half set of any uilleann pipes to be very careful when they go for a set of these pipes? Do your home work ask people who play them or other makers for advice as it is a huge investment and if they do not do what they are supposed to do it can be a very bad investment? I have been there!