Bruce Childress admits a fondness for the pipes, bagpipes that is.
Childress, 49, of Kennebunk has been playing the bagpipes for more than a quarter century and making them since 1987. In 1996, he left a position as an electronic engineer to make the bagpipes professionally.
“In terms of notoriety and sales, (the business) has been a success,” said Childress, noting that while craftsmen rarely earn large monetary perks from the job, they are compensated by making a living doing something they love to do.
“I’ve loved music since I was a child,” said Childress, who’s been a student of guitar and other stringed instruments since age 8, including the hammered dulcimer, which he said is “the precursor to the piano” and played with mallets.
He plays the pipes about 30 minutes each day for pure enjoyment and as needed to test the sound of bagpipes throughout the creation process. “I do play them but pride myself more as a maker of the pipes than a player of the pipes,” he said.
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