Oh God, I've been bitten and I'm in bad trouble....

Dave Parkhurst · Post by **Dave Parkhurst** » Wed Jan 16, 2002 1:54 am

Er.... I meant Peter. Don't ask me where I got Kevin.

KenWolman · Post by **KenWolman** » Mon Jan 28, 2002 8:13 pm

On 2002-01-14 21:21, snoogie wrote:
Ken, good luck with the job search. We've been told that we will be cutting back on jobs in the next two months. I'm not sure which is worse, knowing that jobs will be cut and having to wait for it to happen...or having the cuts made without warning.

Anyway, I have started playing the whistle with the thought that I would like to learn the Upipes..but didn't have that kind of money to invest in an instrument I might not be able to play. Therefore, I have been toying with the idea of getting a Daye set to try this out before putting serious money into it.

Please post once you get your set and let us know how it goes.
-gary

Really getting it is worse, believe me:-).

I had to cancel the order. A variety of reasons that quickly made me recant my choice to buy anything I couldn't account for in front of a judge. Let's say that my ex doesn't believe I'm not sitting here drinking beer and listening to Chieftains records. "Oh, I used my 401K money not to live on but to buy Uilleann pipes, your Honor":-). So David send back the money order.

In a moment of oh-poor-me resentment at my so-called Fate, I got Mad As Hell last night and bid on the used Daye set over on eBay. I got outbid by $125. The jerk who bought the set could have had a new set for less than fifty bucks more than he's paying for a used one...and come to think of it, the person selling them never answered my question about why he was selling his Daye pipes to start with. I guess I was lucky there too. The pipes will be there. If not David's then someone's.

Nothing lasts, right?

Tony · Post by **Tony** » Tue Jan 29, 2002 4:40 am

Don't you just hate eBay ??
I see people bid on items with no reserve and repetedly place bids on an item (raising the price) when no one else is bidding against them.

KenWolman · Post by **KenWolman** » Tue Jan 29, 2002 6:21 am

On 2002-01-29 05:40, Tony wrote:
Don't you just hate eBay ??
I see people bid on items with no reserve and repetedly place bids on an item (raising the price) when no one else is bidding against them.

I have found the eBay experience curious, to say the least, and occasionally (well, once) it's worked in my favor. Back in the spring when I was disposing of some unplayed recorders, I put up for sale a Mollenhauer Kynseker tenor, a Renaissance reproduction. I'd purchased the instrument through Mollenhauer's outlet in Germany for about $325.00, about half what it would have cost in the States. When I disposed of it, not only did I beat the reserve price I'd set, but I also got $75 more than I paid for it. God bless the USD/DM exchange rate?

All I can say is that if I couldn't afford to get myself into piping for David's full price for a new set, I should have thought better than to get pissed off at Life In General and submit a bid on a used set where I had no idea of the condition of the bag and bellows, or of the kind of reed he'd made for a guy in Kansas City. KC is not the Jersey Shore and David, like any good maker (I gather) customizes his reeds for who's where.

eBay proved to me once again that there is very rarely something for nothing and that its patrons often screw themselves. I looked at the bid history, and the bid I set--$275--was beaten in the last hour. In fact, the last hour looked like a street bazaar in Kandahar: two guys trying to outbid each other, and then someone who hadn't shown his face before trumped everyone with a $400 bid. Jerk. The exact configuration for the set he got--plastic & metal chanter, leather bag upgrade--he could have bought new from David for a few bucks more. $453 was also going to get me the NPU instructional tape plus support from the maker. I doubt David will support a set he made that somebody bought at an eBay auction. Though someone on the Uilleann list kidded David and said "You have now made the big time":-).

I suppose some sort of Deity protected me. If I'd won the set I was going to put up for sale another instrument I own: a 1957 Selmer Centered Tone clarinet. I inherited it, and all it cost me was $200 for new springs and pads. It was their top-of-the-line horn in the Fifties (Goodman, I believe, played one like it) and it plays like a dream. Its value extends far, far beyond money and I'd never be able to afford to replace it with a comparable instrument: new ones sell for as much as a good Uilleann half-set, maybe more. I'm glad I didn't have to do that. Uilleann pipes have been around for a long time and will be around when I'm in the proper position to get them. In the meantime, back to the chanter, as much as I hate it....