My
MacDougall™
based drones are based on a superior set
of Duncan MacDougall pipes.
The set selected was a full ivory set
of Duncan MacDougall pipes owned by Calum
MacDonald, who lives just outside of Fergus,
Ontario. Calum is the son of the well-known
Scottish ex-pat Roddy MacDonald, who long
resided in Delaware, and now lives in
Florida.
Roddy
was a prominent professional piper in
the 1960s and early 1970s, and his name
features highly in the U. S. and Canadian
prize lists during this time, including
as winner of the North American piobaireachd
championship in Maxille around 1970. He
was known for the beautiful tone and steadiness
he got from this instrument. He was a
student of Pipe Major Donald MacLeod in
the 1950s and '60s, and it was Donald
MacLeod who secured the pipes for Roddy.
Roddy gave the pipes over to Calum in
the mid-1990s. Roddy describes his acquisition
of the pipes as follows:
"I
never played any other pipe that was as
sweet and all you had to do was sit back
and let it sing. As you know, at that
time all I played was cane reeds, and
once tuned it could last through any length
of piobaireachd without any movement.
I bought the pipes in 1961 from a gentlemen
called Neil Sutherland from Inverness
and he mentioned that they were made between
1857 and 1880, so I can't pin down the
exact date. He also mentioned that they
were owned by John MacDonald of Inverness.
I asked Wee Donald to give them a good
look over, asking him if he had seen John
MacDonald with this type of pipe. He mentioned
that John had a few sets of pipes and
that these looked very similar to the
MacDougall™
set that he had. They cost me 25 pounds,
and I paid them up at 5 pounds per week
and that was a lot of money for a young
teen. Before I bought them I was trying
out an old Henderson and an old Lawrie
set and thought that the thin appearance
of the MacDougall™ set looked rather
odd, but after comparing them with these
other two sets there was no comparison
in sound and I fell in love with them."
The
pipes are aged and well used, but still
perfectly steady, and with a tone that
might best be described as half way between
Glen and Henderson. They are cocus wood,
mounted in marine ivory (likely walrus),
and do not have brass-lined tuning chambers.
The workmanship is superb and includes
intricate combing and threaded mounts.
Roddy
MacDonald circa 1971, playing his Duncan
MacDougall bagpipe
