{"id":872,"date":"2023-01-17T15:44:10","date_gmt":"2023-01-17T15:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/milecastle27.co.uk\/rob\/?p=872"},"modified":"2023-01-17T16:12:42","modified_gmt":"2023-01-17T16:12:42","slug":"adventures-in-numberland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milecastle27.co.uk\/rob\/2023\/01\/adventures-in-numberland\/","title":{"rendered":"Adventures in N’umberland"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

David Burleigh, the most prolific, and now retired, maker of Northumbrian Smallpipes very helpfully numbered his instruments from the mid 1970s onwards topping out at a whopping 3,269 in 2012. The exact dates for some instruments are known and from those a rough timeline<\/a> can be derived. Sometimes, however, sets come along with the potential to cause confusion!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First up is an early set from the mid 1970s I had a play on last year and it was one of the earliest numbered sets I have seen – and there’s an obvious challenge in reading the number – is it #66 or #99? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The number is always on the low E key (with the name on the low D key) and in all chanters I have seen the numbers are read with the E key on the top of the chanter. This would mean that this set would be #99. In later sets there is a number marker – it’s not consistently applied pre\/post the number but it is non-reversible! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s the other set that caused some confusion; the owner had asked me to fettle a set and the number was reported (entirely legitimately!) “81 something but it’s hard to read”<\/em>. I was expecting something from the mid 1970s. As it turned out the set was a good 20 years younger dating from the early 1990s:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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