OH LORD!perfect.
That is superlative work. Any chance of an audio sample?
I’m curious about the technique used to create the beading. Were bead scrapers used, or was it turned freehand with something like a skew?
wow, interesting!
now, there’s a blonde I think I could live with!
You should really get your hands on David’s CD-ROM “On Pipes and Pipemaking.” He goes into great detail in his article “Beading” on just exactly how he approaches this task:
Ah, I do have that CD, and had missed that article. Thanks!
Very nice would be an understatment.
Awesome, my eyes ache with delight.
Beautiful set for sure, but I have a few questions maybe someone could field:
Strikingly, the top key of the tenor regulator is in ‘reverse’ position. Ive seen this before, but does it serve some special purpose? I cant quite figure out if there is a significant advantage to this, or if its just a personal styalistic thing. Id think it would make it more likely to hit both reg keys at once, possibly a problem?
Also, how does the extra ‘e’ key on the bari reg work? It looks to me liek pressing the lowest key will depress a lever to open it; but how could you play the low note by itself? Or the ‘e’ note? Maybe I’m just totally missing something (quite likely)
Respetfully curious,
One of the nicest sounds on the pipes is the G-C chord on the regs against the second octave E on the chanter. To get that G-C chord you need quite some flexibility in the right-hand wrist. After 25 years of martial arts and three wrist operations I just don’t have that flexibiltiy any more, so I suggested this arrangement to DMQ, who realized it in his usual inimitable style. This way one plays the G-B chord as usual, and to get the G-C chord you just have to rock your hand a little towards the bag. Sure, it takes getting used to. To anticipate your next question, I never use the A-C chord; I only use the A note with my RH thumb.
The E note on the baritone reg. is indeed accessed by depressing the D key a bit further. This allows one a similarly gorgeous sound: an E-G chord on the regs against the C natural on the chanter. There are other possibilities of course, but that was the one I wanted it for, and the only I one I anticipate using regularly. In context one would be going from a D-G chord to an E-G chord, so the D note is already sounding. I suppose you could pick out the E note on its own, but that’s not what I wanted it for.
I wouldn’t throw these innovations at a beginner. They’re to enable a particular regulator style/way of harmonic thinking that has been in place for many years. Though I think the backwards C key may attract some enthusiasts with similar wrist problems…
Fascinating! Thank you for shedding some light on that, it makes a lot of sense 
Is this your instrument now, bensdad? If it is it couldn’t be in worthier hands. I can’t wait to hear you playing it!
Likewise!
Pat and Patsy,
yes indeedy, I’m the steward for the forseeable future, thanks for the nice words.
Give me a good while to do it justice, and I’ll see about posting a clip.
If you really want to freak people out, take a photo of the set, balancing precariously on a bar stool, in a crowded pub, full of dancing drunks wearing hobnail boots!! 
The e-key solution sounds brilliant!
Steve
http://www.upreeds.com
Well, back in 1999 or so, the baritone reg. on my D set had an awfully sharp D, so I added a chunk of tubing to the bottom end. One unintended consequence of this was that when I opened the D key and the F# key together, I got a perfect E, which is how I came to develop a taste for the particular harmony I mentioned. When I finally decided to take the plunge and sell my son on E-Bay to finance a flat set, I had in mind that a genius like Mr. Quinn could find a (better) way to achieve this, and so he did, with an elegant and graceful mechanism. He’s quite good you know.
Yes, I think I’ve heard of him…
Marvelous. What key was he in?
…in the “Key of LIfe,” naturally!