McCallum Bagpipes Latest News 17 May 2010

Kenny and Stuart have announced improvements to the McCallum Bagpipe range:

"We have been using a new alloy on the mounts instead of nickel, and in fact we have been using it since the end of last year. The mounts will be made by us, so it means we will be able to thread them, and therefore thread the wood as well, so that all the ferrules, ringcaps, projecting mounts and hemp retainers will be threaded from now on

All the projecting mounts have been threaded for several months, so the next logical progression was to thread all the parts.  The threaded mounts, which some people in the market place prefer, takes us on to the same level as some of the hand makers.

There won’t be any change in price -  See the brochure here

The alloy also won’t tarnish, which is another thing people dislike. Nickel can tarnish pretty quickly and once it gets too bad, it’s impossible to clean. We’re changing the imitation ivory as well, to a much stronger material, which again will be easier to thread, but wont chip. It’s a better colour than the whiter stuff we used before, and it looks more like ivory, so it has a lot of positives."

Andrea Boyd's Recital

Andrea (see left) took the Train Journey North, up over the snowy Drumochter Pass and onto Inverness.  This was a wonderful performance and quoting one listener: 'That performance was worth a lot of money'.  It was, and well worth the small entrance price. More of the recital in a moment..

The evening was introduced by Karla Urquhart from Muir of Ord.  Karla gave a very strong performance and showed herself to be in full control of her instrument.  You could see in her eyes the flashes of controlled smiles as she played for us.  Two excellent sessions from Karla and it was obvious why she won the under-15 March at the 2008 Northern Meeting.

Back to Andrea and lets start with her pipes, a set of glorious sounding Naill Pipes and Naill chanter, sheepskin bag, Ezeedrone tenors, cane bass and I am certain that was a Warnock Chesney pipe chanter reed.  Chesney go very well with the new Naill chanter (designed by Pipe Major Roddy MacLeod).  These chanters are being trialled by senior pipers in the QOH Association Pipe Band and I hear the feedback is extremely positive.  A great sounding chanter.  Andrea had set up the instrument to give off  it's best - steady drones, well tuned and a great overal balance in tone.  I was extremely envious!

A few video clips to give the sense of the performance, sorry but I still cannot get the hang of the mobile phone used to capture these clips.  However, YouTube do a great job in sharpening the video.  I hope you enjoy them.  She gave us the full range of MSR, Hornpipes, jigs, Gaelic Airs, Cape Breton pieces (beautiful), however, I failed to video Andrea's outstanding playing of the Piobaireachd 'Lament for the Earl of Seaforth', so enthrolling was the performance.  This was a big miss by me and my apologies.

The audience came away full of admiration and praise for both pipers and many will chart their progress with real interest.  Karla (see below) is tutored by Trevor Dear, Dingwall.