Glenarley Pipes is a small family run business that is operated out of Sydney Australia.

The family is from direct Scottish heritage and we wear the Leslie Tartan.

We started making synthetic Grand Highland Bagpipe (GHB) reeds out of the needs of our 9 year old son who initially found playing a standard cane chanter reed to be problematic due to strength, stamina and reed skill issues.

We called on our more than 25 years of experience making Uilleann pipes and reeds to guide us in achieving our goals. While there were synthetic reeds available in the market, eventually none were fit for our purpose.

The synthetic chanter reeds are required to operate reliably at low pressure demand to suit the physical limitations of young pipers and there was a need for a chanter reed that would be less problematic than the cane chanter reeds.

During the development process, it soon became clear to us there was a greater need for synthetic reeds from the mature aged pipers as due to degenerative issues resulting from aging, the aged pipers were also limited in strength and stamina.

Our goal was to produce a synthetic chanter reed that avoided the many variable issues associated with using cane, a natural organic material that has inherent issues with consistency, moisture and fragility.

After more than two years of development and feedback, the reed we now produce can meet all the goals we set out to achieve.

Our synthetic chanter reeds are consistent due to the nature of the synthetic material. Are impervious to moisture so they do not need to be moisture normalised at start-up in the way cane chanter reeds do and, they are stable over a wide pressure range.

Pipers using our synthetic reeds have placed well in solo piping competitions both locally and internationally indicating the tone is very acceptable to some very well credentialed piping judges.

Our greatest satisfaction comes from producing a product that makes it easier for the young pipers just starting out in this craft, to have a less troublesome path through the initial learning process. Furthermore, it is just as pleasing to provide a reed that will help keep the older pipers, no longer concerned with competing but still wanting to be able to participate, able to do so.