Chiff and Fipple Forums

geoff wooff wrote: Some years ago (during a really mad phase) several of my sets changed hands for 150% of the then new price... when people are selling a set (at a huge profit) that I made during my hungry years, that sticks in my craw.

Yes I can imagine.

Thing is, pipe prices generally have continued to rise over the years. I don't know when your lean years were, but an example of the price-rise is the fact that I bought a new full set, bespoke, directly from the maker, in 1986 for $1,000 US. I sold it a few years ago for $3,000 not because I was trying to cheat anybody, or because pipe buying and selling was a business venture, but because I was offered that amount, a fair and reasonable price at the time I sold them. The buyer was over the moon. (BTW $1,000 1986 dollars is $2,250 2017 dollars so my profit wasn't all that much.)

A contrast to your situation is the highly regarded pipe-maker (not uilleann pipes) who goes through this cycle:

1) take orders and make some sets (charging 3 times what other makers charge)

2) suddenly announce his retirement from pipe-making

3) start complaining that existing sets of his pipes are selling for too much

4) a year or two later let word leak out that he's not really retired from pipe-making, and is taking orders here and there

5) repeat cycle.

Hello Richard,

I think $1000 for a bespoke full set in 1986 was an amazingly low figure. I made a set for one of this forum's members in 1986 and my records show a price of $3000 ( Australian). To me that was not an outrageous price then and when one considers that the customer has played the set almost every day since, I'd estimate a cost of 27 cents per day. That is pretty cheap entertainment.


Nice story about your famous Bagpipe maker;

During my years in Australia I had several Scottish Piping friends and have heard similar tales , like the story about one Bagpipe restorer/dealer from whom one might not get the same set back after repair and he only sold Hardie's and McDougall's... nicely polished Pakistani's often as not !

I don't really mind when people achieve very high prices selling on sets I have made... it is a sort of compliment I guess.

geoff wooff wrote: I think $1000 for a bespoke full set in 1986 was an amazingly low figure.

Yes Eugene Lambe was selling full sets for 1,000 punts and practice sets for 150 punts then, considerably below other makers.

It was that combined with the precipitous fall in the value of the Irish punt to $1.01 USD which made the full set so inexpensive. If I had had any sense I would have bought ten practice sets at that time... a few years later I could have sold them for $1,000 each.

geoff wooff wrote: During my years in Australia I had several Scottish Piping friends and have heard similar tales, like the story about one Bagpipe restorer/dealer from whom one might not get the same set back after repair and he only sold Hardies and McDougalls...nicely polished Pakistanis often as not!

That guy sounds like a combination of two guys here. One takes deposits for new pipes but you never get your pipes, and if you send him your pipes for restoration you might not ever get them back. He's a great maker and great restorer, if you can get anything out of him.

The other guy claimed to be a pipemaker but the pipes he claimed to make just happened to look exactly like Pakistani pipes. A couple pipers visited his "workshop" and saw pipes and parts of pipes all around, but no wood billets, no lathe, nothing to indicate any making was going on. He was unmasked and had to drop his charade.

I made a set for one of this forum's members in 1986 and my records show a price of $3000 ( Australian). To me that was not an outrageous price then and when one considers that the customer has played the set almost every day since, I'd estimate a cost of 27 cents per day. That is pretty cheap entertainment.

Due to the state of the ozzie$ at the time I paid sterling: £1400. Mind you, that was high end of the price range at the time and I was taken aside by two senior piping figures at the '86 Willie week, separately, one to tell me I had been had by paying such an extortionate amount and the other to inform me that Wooff fella would probably take the money and disappear with it to Oz and if I did get pipes, they'd fall apart on me shortly. They never did fall apart ofcourse, although after 31 years of service the bag is now slightly leaking (still holding more air than some new pipes I have seen). Needless to say, I never regretted the purchase.

Mr.Gumby wrote:I was taken aside by two senior piping figures at the '86 Willie week, separately, one to tell me I had been had by paying such an extortionate amount and the other to inform me that Wooff fella would probably take the money and disappear with it to Oz and if I did get pipes, they'd fall apart on me shortly.

Those two comments, hilarious as they are in hindsight, do illustrate why Geoff struggled to get a price that his pipes were truly worth. Those two gentlemen presumably did believe their opinions at the time. They just happened to be wrong. You somehow recognized that (a) you would get the pipes you were promised, and (b) they would be worth every shilling when you got them. Would that we all could make choices that wisely. More money might flow to Messers Wooff and Lambe and their younger colleagues, and less to Pakistan.

[/quote]
Needless to say, I never regretted the purchase.[/quote]

Needless to say indeed , having made a beautiful recording with that set.

There is a lot info about Geoff Wooff's work on Patrick D'Arcy's site, but I wondered why nobody made a Wiki page about Geoff Wooff.

Patrick

Needless to say indeed

In fairness, I took them out for a spin very recently, which happens rarely these days, and they continue to behave well, I think.

Found this nice surprise in my inbox earlier today. The old 'Peter and the Wooff' days. <business of the bench> Taken around 1990 I would guess:



photo courtesy of Dave Hegarty

I like Geoff's "Andy Conroy" popping strap.

tommykleen wrote:I like Geoff's "Andy Conroy" popping strap.

Yes ? Still got it too..!

The other person in the picture is my daughter Liddell. Thanks to whoever took this picture!!

Thanks to whoever took this picture!!

Better check the e-mail, I sent you a copy when I received it this morning.

Mr.Gumby wrote:

Thanks to whoever took this picture!!

Better check the e-mail, I sent you a copy when I received it this morning.

Yes indeed you did and I sent you a reply.... which is interesting in itself because I think several emails from me lately have not been delivered to various addresses... not sure why.

So anyway, thanks for sending that on to me I'll post it on Facebook as I like this picture and we are almost playing the same note!!

Hello

Nice picture. Is that Vincent Crehan (Junior's brother) behind ye in the shop?

Cheers

John

Seanie wrote:Hello

Nice picture. Is that Vincent Crehan (Junior's brother) behind ye in the shop?

Cheers

John

I'd say you're right there Seanie.

Mr.Gumby wrote:

Needless to say indeed

photo courtesy of Dave Hegarty

Lovely picture !

Peter and the Wooff... heh heh heh... good one.
oh DAMN.... now that tune is in my head for the rest of the day.....