Bruce Merrick of Bellingham, Wa. made the tongues for the Champion drone reeds that Terry Lee sold. These were the first synthetic or hybrid reeds made in North America. The Champion is the center reed in the picture to the right. The black Ross reed was the forerunner and the blue Smart Drone reed came out in the 1990’s.
Bruce is also credited with the first synthetic flapper valve. It was a silicon flap shrink-wrapped to a plastic staple. Apparently it worked quite well but would fail over time.
Bruce was also one of the first to make pipes from cocobolo over twenty years ago. One could be forgiven for mistaking the Merrick drones shown to the right as Kintail Chalice Top drones of the 1970’s and later.
He only made six sets of Highland pipes, one set of Northumbrian Half Longs, and one set of Uilleann pipes. He made numerous practice chanters.
