Welcome to Lindstruments

Lindstruments is - Donald WG Lindsay’s instruments!

Lindstruments.com has been established as an online space for the sharing of information regarding the work of Scottish musician and instrument innovator Donald WG Lindsay. The aim of Lindstruments is to support further research and development work, and related projects including recordings, video and more.

Here you can learn about, and if you wish you can purchase, the Qwistle, the Lindsay System Chanter, certain of the "Dreaming Pipes" STL Instrument kits (useful for those who have access to a 3D printer), and more. The instruments displayed here are produced using a range of innovative production methods, including 3D printing. All instruments are carefully hand finished, set up, and tuned by Donald Lindsay at the Lindstruments workshop.

It's been over a decade since our Kickstarter "Dreaming Pipes" launched Lindstruments.com, and our flagship Lindsay System Chanter. A lot has happened in the realms of 3D printing, 3D printed musical instrument making & design, piping, and Scottish traditional music in that time.

Lindstruments can lay fair claim now to being a world leader within the emergent industry of 3D printed musical instrument design. Our Lindsay System Chanter, has been featured in the soundtrack of a number of award-winning mainstream movies, and has graced the airwaves on BBC Radio innumerable times & across many of their channels both local and national (not to mention appearing on a host of other stations across the world). In Scotland, the instrument has been featured several times on local and national television, and has been a focus of many newspaper articles.

Within its short 10 years of existence, the Lindsay System has become a primary focus for a small and growing core of professional and touring musicians. These musicians have produced a handful of critically acclaimed albums and EP recordings, while at the same time featuring the Lindsay System Chanter as a guest instrument on many more, and two of its earliest and most significant prototypes (The Rainbow Set of Pollok, and A' Phìob Ghrianaich) being incorporated into the Museum of Piping, at the National Piping Centre in Glasgow, Scotland.

All this, with what is essentially a new design of musical instrument. The core concept of the Lindsay System design is the use of a return bore to close the register gap (found in all cylindrical reeds) without the use of any keys. This is an entirely original instrument concept, and gains for the instrument a three octave range at full extent - an octave beyond the Uilleann pipes and Northumbrian pipes, and two octaves beyond the Highland bagpipe or the traditional Scottish smallpipes.

As of 2018, most of Lindstruments' manufacturing work began to be outsourced. Donald's own role is that of designer, developer, player, performer and tutor in the innovative instruments he creates. In terms of producing instruments, Donald oversees all aspects of production, and works closely with a number of small businesses & craftspeople both in Scotland and further afield. He assembles, tests, and fine-tunes all instruments, and provides final quality control. Instruments are only made to order at present, and generally no stock is held (unless otherwise noted). For this reason, payment for all instrument orders at present is up front, with lead times stated on the instrument page on this site (in most cases one, two or three months).

The free exchange of ideas is key to the development of instruments, and nowhere more so than in the case of less common traditional instruments, like the Scottish smallpipes, Northumbrian smallpipes, and Irish Uilleann pipes. As a new form of instrument, intended for traditional music, the Lindsay System chanter's future relies on the embryonic community that is developing around it, including players, makers, reed makers, pipe bag manufacturers and more. Therefore, collaboration, and the sharing of information, are a core part of Lindstruments' approach. Some of the designs on display here are open-source (in some cases, e.g. the Qwistle V1.0, plans are shared as CC-BY-SA), and if you're a craftsperson interested in constructing these instruments then please get in touch via this website to discuss. Over time, more instruments will be added to the site as projects currently in development come to fruition. It is hoped that collaborations with independent craftspeople both locally, and further afield, will lead in time to some of these designs becoming available in a hand made form - for example being constructed in local or tropical hardwoods, or from brass, silver or other suitable materials. If you are a pipe maker, or otherwise skilled woodturner, or a manufacturer in metal or plastic, and would be interested in becoming involved in this, please feel free to get in touch via this site.

Please make use of the links below the page title, to navigate this site, or click on the pictures to find out more about the items displayed there.

About Donald WG Lindsay :

Donald WG Lindsay

Donald WG Lindsay is a Scottish musician and singer, and musical instrument designer/inventor. 

His first instrument is now one of his own design, the Lindsay System Scottish Smallpipes, an instrument which offers a range more than double that of the traditional Scottish Smallpipes while still maintaining the traditional fingering techniques and preserving (and extending) the characteristic voice of the Scottish Smallpipes. Donald also plays the whistle & low whistle, both now of his own "Qwistle" design.

As a singer of Scots songs, Donald performs and records in a duo with his long time friend Alasdair Roberts (Furrow Collective, Current 93), and solo. 

Having spent the period 2010-2016 developing his instruments, Donald returned to live performance during 2016, appearing on STVs The Riverside Show with Alasdair Roberts, and taking part in Shane Connolly's show "From Taiko to Txalaparta" as part of Celtic Connections 2017. During 2018 he developed the show “Standard Habbie”, with piper Fin Moore, singers Alasdair Roberts, Iona Fyfe, and Neil Sutcliffe, violinist Roo Geddes, and saxophonist Konrad Wiszniewski. “Standard Habbie” explores the myth and music of Habbie Simpson, the famous and lamented Piper of Kilbarchan, and formed part of the programme of Glasgow’s Piping Live festival in August 2018.

Donald was Scottish Smallpipes tutor at The National Piping Centre in Otago Street, Glasgow (formerly The College of Piping) from 2017-2019, convener of the Lowland & Border Pipers Society, prior to his departure for Ascension Island in 2019. Since 2022 he has been resident in the Orkney Islands.