Design Philosophy

Jim's Design Philosophy

I am an Architect by profession and so I have a background in design. I have been playing Uilleann Pipes for about thirty years and am well aware of the difficulties associated with the instrument. I started making pipes in 1990 and I set myself the following design objectives:

1. The Instrument should be tuneful.
This is determined by the bores of the various pipes and the reeds.

2. The instrument should not be physically difficult to play.
This is achieved by having an airtight system; having well made and adjusted reeds and having large airways to the various reeds. The pipes should not require large amounts of air or excessive pressure.

3. The pipes should be comfortable.
This is dependant on the shape of the bag and the various stock positions; the length of the blowpipe and the location of the regulator keys. Some of these will vary with the body shape of the player. I do my best to accommodate my customers in this respect. I have designed the bellows so that no back-strap is required and the arm can easily be removed without undoing the buckle.

4. The pipes should be easy to tune.
I have made a unique design for the drones so that the sound exits up next to the player. This also means that the whole set of pipes can be picked up by one microphone if playing through a P.A. system.

The regulators have been rearranged to make them easier to play and keep in tune.

I am a former All Britain Champion and all Ireland finalist using a set of my own pipes.