The specimen is owned by Robert Reid of the Cincinnati, Ohio area. It is said to have been in his family for many years and played in the past by several professional Highland pipers.
Preliminary evidence is that this is a very old specimen. In its day it would have been termed a Union Pipe. The term "uilleann" although an Irish-language term is of fairly recent origin. The family believes the instrument to be 2-3 centuries old which would place it near the time of origin of the instrument.
The set is a narrow bore or 'flat' pitch set, tuning not yet determined. It is made of a light colored wood such as boxwood or maple, with white bone and brass mountings. It has has a rotted bag, and damaged, possibly non-salvageable bellows.
Among the pipes there are 3 chanters, one of which has similar wood and mountings and may belong to the original set. Only one chanter is attached to the set and played at any one time. The chanters appear to be made of 2 or more different woods.
All the other pipes are mounted on an antique style mainstock which is completely hollow inside and has no valve or stop-key to turn them on or off. The inner ends of the pipes are mounted into the outside of the removable endcap of the mainstock. They connect through to the inside of the cap where each pipe's reed is mounted.
There are 4 drones with mountings near their ends for strings holding shut-off plugs. 2-3 of one group would have been played in one combination, and 1-2 of the others for another combination. My first guess is that the main group would support the base pitch of the chanter which in common terminology is said to be a D regardless of the actual tuning of an uilleann pipe.
In addition to the 4 drones there is one "Regulator" (the odd term for the stopped, keyed harmony-pipe).
The Bass Drone is a partial "shuttle" style. There is a loop of wood and brass which does not appear to lead to any of the pipes. In fact one end is open into the mainstock to accept its reed, like the other pipes. The other end connects through a "shuttle" or air path carved through the mainstock cap, leading to the largest drone pipe sticking out of the cap. All of this together constitutes the Bass Drone.
All of the brass tubing and ferrules are hand made from sheet metal rolled to size and soldered. Most of the old brass-to-wood and bone-to-wood joints are sound and tight. By contrast, almost every mounting on every modern uilleann pipe piece I own even from top name makers has gone loose after only 1-2 years!
None of the pipes is fitted with proper reeds although a cane Highland bagpipe practice-chanter reed was found in one of the chanters.
The condition is somewhat rough as might be expected of an instrument which has seen considerable use over a number of generations.
Portions of the original instrument have been crudely altered some years ago. Several alterations to the musical aspects of the chanters are evident, performed with inferior insufficiently seasoned wood or in one case, cane. Holes on one chanter were drilled out, filled with dowels and re-drilled.
The smaller drones all appear to be in playable condition. The regulator may play once the keys are repaired or replaced. The bass drone has a complex construction and a very new-appearing crack in its top bone end, which I did not see when I first viewed the instrument at a festival last autumn.
Several of the pipes have some degree of bow to them. The chanter bottoms that appear to be old are nicely round whereas the one bottom that is of newer wood has become obviously warped.
These are actually preliminary contact scans. Proper photographs are now being made.
I have been asked to survey the instrument and help to determine if it can be made playable. I will be making a detailed photographic record of the instrument as well as careful, nondestructive measurements for comparing with the library of scores of historic pipes newly compiled by the pipemaker Craig Fischer or any other relevant pipe design information that may be available.
To E-mail David Daye click here
Telephone Columbus, Ohio USA 614-457-6191
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