Julian Goodacre bagpipe maker

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Julian Goodacre bagpipe maker

  • home
  • Blog
  • About Me
    • My Approach
    • My Workshop
    • My Writings
      • Miscellaneous writings
      • Bagpipe research
      • Pipe Making
    • From Tree to Pipe
    • Collaborations
  • My Bagpipes
    • English Bagpipes
      • Leicestershire Smallpipe
      • English Great Pipe
      • English Doublepipe
      • Cornish Doublepipe
      • Border Horn
    • Scottish Bagpipes
      • Scottish Smallpipes
      • Border Pipes
      • Great Highland Bagpipe
      • Montgomery Smallpipes
    • Other Bagpipes
      • Dürer Pipes
  • Your Bagpipe?
    • Choosing Your Bagpipe
    • Buying your bagpipe
      • FAQ
      • My Waiting List
    • Beginning Your Piping
  • Music Shop
  • Contact

Border Pipes

THE BORDER OR LOWLAND BAGPIPE IS A LOUD CAULD WIND PIPE.
The Border, or Lowland, bagpipes differ from the Highland bagpipe. Their drones are set in a common stock and they are usually bellows blown. My pipes are a detailed copy of an 18th century set now in the National Piping Centre Museum, Glasgow, which were presented to the National Museum in the 1920’s and said to have come from a family with connections to Peebles. The original is set-up for a left-handed piper; The last toun-piper of Peebles, James Ritchie, was left-handed - could these pipes be the ones that were presented to the Burgh in 1773 by Lord Cockburn?
 

I first measured and copied these pipes in the 1990’s. Several of the fingerholes on the original chanter have been greatly enlarged - especially the C hole. It was hard to assess what actual pitch it originally played at; my approach was to modify my design so that it would play in concert A using a special reed that I have developed, using fingering similar to the Highland pipes. Though somewhat quieter than its Highland cousin it has a loud bright tone, as one might expect for a pipe designed for outdoor playing, such as Ritchie would need on his morning and evening rounds of the town.

It plays a 'Scottish' scale with flattened top and bottom leading notes. though an almost-chromatic scale is possible using cross-fingerings, which greatly increases its musical possibilities.

The original pipes have the splendid combination of one bass drone and two tenors, set in their common stock. (I am prepared to discuss fitting a baritone or alto drone instead of one of the tenors).

The chanter and drone ends are of boxwood and the drone mounts are of brass; horn mounts and ferrules can be fitted as an extra.

The bag is hand-sewn leather, with a traditional green baize woollen cover.

I have put a great deal of care and attention into the design and construction of the bellows, based on many of the better Scottish bellows I have measured in the collections. The leather is handsewn to the clapper boards which are finely made from walnut tree planted by my father in the 1940’s. The boards have a solid- drawn hinge, which gives a much more positive action than the simpler and more commonly employed system of using leather as a hinge. For more information, visit my bellows page

 

 

I am quite prepared to make mouth-blown Border Pipes instead of bellows.

 

 
Working in conjunction with Callum Armstrong, I have since returned to the original chanter and measured it in much greater detail, applying the skills that I acquired while working with the Iain Dall chanter. Our new chanter will be as near as possible to an exact copy, but it is still work in progress. You can follow this progress on my news page
 

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