Pipers at weddings

[OC Richard]

You might be able to find a piper who owns a set of fireside pipes

Be aware that "fireside pipes" is one specific maker's brand name for his Scottish Smallpipes. It would be like saying "make sure you have a Ford to drive there" when any other brand who do as well, and in fact a Mercedes or BMW might do the job even better.

For reasons beyond understanding, dozens of pipemakers simply call their Highland pipes "Highland pipes" but have felt the need to coin titles for their Scottish Smallpipes, rather than simply call them what they are. So Gibson (USA) calls his SSPs "Fireside Pipes", Walsh (Canada) calls his SSPs "Shuttle Pipes", Shepherd (Scotland) calls his SSPs "Highland Musettes" and you'll also see "Studio Pipes" and "Session Pipes" and what have you.

All the 19th century pipemakers in Scotland made smallpipes, which back then they called "Miniature Highland Pipes" or "Chamber Pipes". But nowadays the generic term is "Scottish Smallpipes".

Anyhow as I've said now a few times, any good piper should own a set of Scottish Smallpipes (by whatever brand) and in addition should be able to "set up" his Highland pipes to play at a variety of volume levels, so that he can perform at any volume level required. Scottish Smallpipes tend to be very quiet, and usually play at a lower volume than a single violin or flute.