Colin Ross (13 January 1934 – 27 May 2019) was an English folk musician who played fiddle and Northumbrian smallpipes.
In 1977, each of the Ranters was given the chance to produce a solo album; rather than do this alone, Ross collaborated with various other musicians to produce Cut and Dry Dolly, an album of early Northumbrian music, simple dance tunes from the late 18th century William Vickers manuscript together with long variation sets, particularly from the Peacock tunebook from the beginning of the 19th century.
In the late 1970s, he was the Curator of the Black Gate Museum, Newcastle, which then housed the Cocks collection of historic bagpipes.
These instruments are now referred to as Scottish smallpipes; they are similar to, though having significant differences from, surviving historical examples.
One major achievement of his as a pipemaker was to standardise hole spacings and reeds, so that his pipes are reliably in tune with one another.
[7] More recently in 1997 he co-edited with Julia Say, a book of the tunes of Billy Pigg, researched by Adrian Schofield.