New Liddell Bagpipes promise to bridge vintage with modern

The world famous piper Stuart Liddell has teamed with Wallace Bagpipes of Glasgow and G1 Reeds of Fife, Scotland, to create Liddell Bagpipes, a new range of instruments designed after Liddell’s own antique MacRae drones, with the new line hitting the market in early-July. Liddell will also use the new pipes on a BBC Radio Scotland Pipeline broadcast on June 1st.

Wallace Bagpipes will manufacture the drones, while G1 Reeds will make the chanter, and Liddell has worked with both companies to finalize production specs and quality control.

“I felt there was a need to fill the gap between bagpipes from around the 1900s and a new modern set, and believe we have achieved a good, vintage sound,” Liddell said.” Liddell Bagpipes are based on a set I have played for many years with some slight modifications which I feel have added to the overall quality.”

 Craig Munro of Wallace Bagpipes said that the new pipes “will be  competitive  with other  modern  makers and will be much more affordable than a set of 1900 bagpipes that will achieve the same tonal qualities.”

Other bagpipe makers, such as R.G. Hardie and Strathmore, have strived to capture vintage drone quality, using new pipe-making techniques. Atherton Bagpipes have worked to reproduce 19th century MacDougall drone quality, using traditional methods taking a “bespoke,” premium-priced approach.

“We have strived to achieve the ‘vintage sound’ that pipers are always looking for these days and at the moment, the only way to achieve that – in most pipers opinion – is to buy a set of bagpipes from the 1900s that you would end up paying over the odds for, so we are offering to the market a new brand of bagpipes at a much more affordable price that will achieve the vintage sound.”

He added that Liddell and Elliott have created two chanters, one for soloists and another for pipe bands. In addition to winning most of solo piping’s major awards, Liddell is the Pipe-Major of the Grade 1 Inveraray & District Pipe Band.