Soutar
Duncan Soutar is a pipemaker in St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland. Here is a snipet from his web site -
Our aim is to provide quality products for any piper, whether novice or professional, and we give a Soutar lifetime guarantee on our instruments.
The business was established in 1992, and since then has gone from strength to strength. We now have five employees (all pipers) who pride themselves on producing first-class merchandise, carefully designed to provide satisfaction for every customer.
My father, Andrew, the former Pipe Major of the City of St Andrews Pipe Band, winners of numerous major championships, started making pipe chanter and drone reeds, while I learned the arts of woodturning and chanter-making at R. T. Shepherd and Son. At length I left there to concentrate on my own work, and now I find that things are spiraling upwards.
The 2003 DS-3B set below belongs to Bruce Chalmers. It has been slightly modified having imitation ivory caps instead of nickel -
I have owned a set of Soutar pipes since 1999 and they are great. They have never let me down they have a strong yet not over powering tonal quality and a steadiness which many other band members make reference to. Both Andrew and Duncan are true gents always willing to spend quality time discussing pipes and sorting out any issues you may have. They are always my first port of call with anything to do with piping. I have sent many of my students to Soutars for their first set of pipes everyone of them has had great set of pipes and service from Soutars of St Andrews.