Hey, you guys all look a bit bored. Post-Holiday depression I think. Seasonal-Affective Disorder and all that.
Maybe we can all have a look at the handiwork of my favorite reedmaker and chanter mechanic, Patrick O. Yes, you know who you are, and so do we for the most part.
Then maybe you can all tell me how ignorant and unfair I am for being upset, for speaking unkindly of this great master, for being willing to believe even mindless local gossip about the lad. Tell me I’m too heavy handed for not being patient enough after merely having to wait over two years, raise hell on two shores, finally have someone go collect it personally, and throw away over 250.00 US in the process just to get what was left of it back. Tell me I’m unreasonable when this genius of the uilleann pipe in repeated phone calls over two years, pretended to have made a reed for it and tuned it up for me, and claimed repeatedly it was in great playing order.
Oh yes, I’d really love to hear some of the heavyweights over the pond who gave me a hard time in blind reflex defend this little shop project now we see the results. Come on. Do your worst. It’ll be great craic!
Happy holidays.
Royce
(By the way, the ivory is being recovered and a replacement chanter being made. The original will be preserved until such time as modern science can cure all its ills, before and after Patrick. Turns out the set is Dan O’Dowd, with about 99% certainty on that. Not great chanters all the time, this one wasn’t, but now it’s totally incomprehensible.)
Royce, how ignorant and unfair of you. How could you speak unkindly about this person? How very heavy-handed you have been. You are totally unreasonable.
Feel better? Now, get over it. What’s done is done. You have warned the community about this hack, and we appreciate it.
So, if you’re now feeling better, please note that, yes, I do consultations, and have quite reasonable hourly rates.
YES,
You are being unreasonable. Who took the photo?
when was it taken? Has the chanter been altered for personal preference?
Has the photo been altered? Has the maker had any fair opportunity to defend himself? Take your axe and grind it elswhere …this forum is not the proper venue…we dont have the time to sift through all of your one sided evidence…
Start focusing on offering us some positive information and continue to think in this mindset otherwise your credibility is wortheless…Good Luck in court!
My chanters have nicks and small dings in them too. I like to think of them as adding a touch of character to my sticks. Strangely, it doesn’t affect how well or poorly they play in the slightest. Could you be a bit more specific in the problems you’ve had in playability and what not? Is there more going on here than you’ve let on? What is being shown in the picture anyway? Meaning - what is the point you’re trying to make with the picture?
Another point of observation: The text above coupled with the link and photos on your website may well be viewed as slander against a maker/craftsman which, as I recall, is expressly forbbiden on this board under two stated posting policies. Regardless of what is shown on your site, there is no way for the general public to know if this chanter was as bad as it appears now all along, or if indeed the photos show the truth of it’s current state. While it’s true your situation may be exactly as it’s presented, it is also true that the proper course of action would be: First - Take it up with the maker directly (as it was your choice to use his services in the first place.) And second - if you MUSt post this type of message on a public board, try your best not to allow heated emotion to ruin the context of what you’re saying.
I have a maker I detest too, and while I think very low of his business practices as well as his level of craftsmanship, I have learned its best just to ignore the clown and let others think what they will of him - for good or bad.
Royce baby you got your wee duck back. I’m so happy for you, I really could cry.
Mypipes is right also, those marks could have already been on the chanter before you sent it to have the wonder reed made for what I hear is an endearing sounding chanter!!!
Who really gives a damn who made a chanter, if it is crap, it’s crap!!!
You sent a chanter to a guy to reed and he couldn’t reed it, nor could anyone else from what you have said in the past. Give us all a break and give over CLOWN. It was funny once, but you have it back and you are waiting a miracle to happen to have what is crap play great (someone has lost the plot altogether).
I never took anything you said serious, as you have tried to place the responsibility of this chanter on to the NPU, people and pipers in Ireland and racist to say the least against the people of that Island. Made bloody claims that would make a Hollywood blockbuster. The guy in question is only a school lad from what I have been told, so catch a grip of yourself and give the rest of us a bit of peace.
Actually, I was referred to the lad by a number of NPU and Comhaltas/Fleadh-related web sites. I also found his name at the time linked on web sites of good pipe makers. The person in question is in fact a person and piper in Ireland. The implications were, according to these links he was a champion player and competent to deal with it, hence my frustration with those sources. So you are right, I’m blaming a person and piper in Ireland, because this one in particular is to blame. And of course, the original maker was a person and piper in Ireland, so perhaps he’s to blame as well.
I doubt very much we need look any farther than “Craggy Island” or “Ballykissangel” for elaborate plots involving the Irish do we?
(By the way, isn’t it interesting that on East Enders, the Irish and Irish sirnames are always rogues and rakes and irresponsible losers, while on Ballykissangel, it was the “wild colonial” priest from Australia who was considered suspect? Can it really be that politically correct for the Irish to be holding the Australians under scrutiny for alcohol consumption habits and womanizing?)
As far as racism goes, well, simply asking if there is any truth to local folklore (which I also pronounced as you omit, to be thought by myself to be blatantly racist stereotyping) is more like cultural curiosity than racism. The entire theme was as you well know, all tongue-in-cheek. It was irony, sarcasm, and you can’t tell me the Irish mind in isn’t keen to discern that, so please let’s don’t play silly buggers on that score.
And yes, you’re right, from your perspective on your side of the pond, or ponds or whatever, you simply have to believe on bold assurance that the chanter was nearly pristine like the rest of the pipes before it was sent, as I claim. You can believe that it was reeded up beautifully and repaired in a few weeks and then (as the kid no doubt claims) I just never bothered to ask for it back for two years, or that I demanded it back with a tone he didn’t like so I deserved the wait.
Or, you can believe that I personally mangled it as shown, every single hole was filled and redrilled, very clumsily, and all those big divots and drill marks spattered around the holes from clumsy attempts to get a bit started were put there by me. But then you have some sharp inconsistencies to work out.
If I can author the premier handbook on filling and redrilling holes for Highland pipes, how is it I can’t manage to get a drill started on this chanter without channeling wildly down the side repeatedly, and figure out how to smooth out either the epoxy finish or round out a hole?
You can believe, as you suggest, (and true) that it wasn’t a great chanter to begin with. We can only then suppose that the person in question couldn’t make a reed work in it, so he just kept the money and chanter out of sheer laziness or unreliability, until somebody actually knocked on his door and personally asked for it after two years. Maybe he drank up the pay and never got postage together in all that time. This however, as likely and plausible as it may be, then falls into the very “racist stereotype” you try pin on me doesn’t it?
Or you can believe, as I suggest, that though it wasn’t a great chanter before, it’s totally worthless now even as a museum piece. Every single hole has been butchered, and the “repairman” apparently didn’t even know how to get a pin in and out in one piece, or even make a replacement for one he lost. You can then only believe his reluctance to return it was because it was so horribly mangled he just wanted to postpone the flushing of his entire reputation down the toilet as long as possible.
But more importantly, I admit, it’s only on faith that you can believe the “repairs” attempted actually destroyed any playability it may have had, regardless of cosmetic revulsion, a lot of which I could have repaired myself had the changes actually done anthing positive in terms of playability. The entire second octave is essentially unplayable now, just a collection of squaks and weird harmonics. And this, after, as the character claims, he “rebored” it on top of all the tone hole slaughtering. With one or two reeds you can get almost recognizable notes up there with a struggle, and that’s it.
And even more importantly, it’s only on my word that even after personally offering to forgive any resultant brutality, the chanter was not returned and not returned and not returned. I almost begged at one point. I told him I needed to recover the ivory to make a replacement and he was holding up that project. Had he savaged it as he did and just given it back to me in reasonable time after I made this offer of absolution, by both registered letter and over the phone several times in the first months or even a year, you would never have known about this. I’ve been waiting since I sent it to determine if I needed another chanter made or if this one could become my main stick and he knew that. More importantly, I knew intuitively he’d mangled it after the first few months and thus I was even then in advance of seeing it again, willing at that time to forgive the destruction he claimed he hadn’t done.
This should have taken a month, two tops, and he could have kept the damned money. All would not have been well, but all would have been resolved quietly.
You can believe that 23 years ago I authored “The Pipe Major’s Handbook” which is a manual on performing all manner of tuning and intonational repairs and corrections on Highland pipes, and that had I wanted to just mindlessly move holes around by a centimeter and more, I could have done so with near invisibility. You can believe that I’m capable of making a new pin for a key since after all, it consists of cutting off a piece of brass rod and sliding it in place and then filing the ends flush and clean, something so basic it totally escaped the manipulative powers of this mass-mangler. You can believe that if it had come back with any reed at all and was playing at all I could fill and finish the scars and re-pin the thing myself.
And you can believe as I, that it is incredibly ironic that after having this chanter for two years not only is the non-workmanship of this “repairman” pathetic, but now it has to be rescued with no reed at all (the new one I sent to him for comparison was kept or destroyed by him, though I clearly told him I wanted it back and it was very useful in other chanters) and even though I know now where to get a real reed made for it be folks who really know the chanter, the chanter itself is destroyed.
There are plenty a great folks in Ireland, great players, great pipe and reedmakers. Obviously. This character isn’t one of them. That’s my only real point, and it’s not for the Irish. The Irish are in Ireland. They don’t need my opinion. They’re surrounded by great reed and pipe makers most of whom have lengthy shop pedigrees back to these old pipes. (Even if they do tend to think a 10 mile trip to town and the nearest other piper, pipe maker, ATM or post office is outrageously isolated.)
Two years ago, I needed this sort of serious advice, and it never came because there is clearly some sort of mutual pact to never bad-mouth other merchants and makers at least in public, however much you really really would like to. This you and others make clear herein.
I might be wrong. I might be full of crap. There may be black helicopters taking away Christians at night to concentration camps set up by the UN. I might have ruined my own chanter as you conspiracy theorists here claim, and then arbitrarily picked some Irish guy randomly off the internet to blame it on because I just hate the Irish and would do anything to slander that cursed nation.
For those of you who don’t know one way or the other, just ask yourself if it’s worth the risk if I’m right about this guy. He’s still out there. He’s still peddling his services. Word up.
My speil for the new year. Thanks for indulging me.
Royce
(Didn’t you know Minnesota is called the “Land of Loons”?)
Always a perspective I don’t anticipate. keeps me alert. I assumed the obvious fact that every hole was twice its normal already large size, that the holes were augered out with a pocket knife, that every hole had been moved down the chanter a centimeter and the blatant gouges and chips taken out of the surface of the wood by errant hand drill skittering, the unfinished epoxy plugs in the old holes, would have been obvious. There is a link and a large number of pictures by the way, along with text.
Small dings? Character? Your chanters must be really hammered if big trench-like gouges shown in my photos strike you as small dings.
And also it doesn’t even play well in the first octave any more, much less the unuseable second octave, so all this was pointless, since he didn’t make a reed for it and took the one I had. He also mixed up all the pins so some stick out and some are in too far and the Fnat key was rattling loose in the box, apparently coming up short a pin for it.
In summary, this is the most ignorant, pointless and destructive experimentation made by the most hopelessly unskilled person I’ve ever witnessed.
Interestingly enough it would be “libel,” not “slander,” and it first has to be first hand testimony for this board, which this is, and first-hand evidence has to be given, which I have, and interestingly enough the person involved isn’t even directly named, which is more than I owe him at this point.
Y’know, Royce, you might be right. You might even be perfectly correct. You might even be more right than my tiny mind can understand.
But you’re grandstanding, seizing the moral high ground, wrapping youself in rhetoric and smackin’ yer palm against that dias so hard the entire C&F site shakes under your mighty wrath.
You’re talking about a kid. He screwed up. Maybe badly. Maybe many many things happened. I don’t know. I don’t care to know any more. You’ve pretty much ruined his reputation -and we all know HIS name now- so he might never have a chance to get better at something (hey, who knows?) that he really loved doing.
He’s surely never going to try to post here, that’s for sure, and I’m fairly certain he’s not going to be posting his name anywhere on the WWW thanks to you.
Congradulations, you’ve broken him. Turned him on the spit of your mighty and vastly superiour intellect, shattered his weak and obviously useless fingers and forearms. A cripple, he’ll never work in this town again, which is obviously exactly what you want.
Look, I’d be pissed off too if my chanter disappeared for two years. Really, I would. You Were Done Wrong. But I think it’s time, Royce old bean, to let it die. Okay?
I’m frankly sick of hearing about this. You’re getting scary, and more than a little obsessive. I’m really sick of it. Really. Very sick. It’s gotten to the point, right or not, that when I see your name on one of these helpful little posts, that I’m about 90% certain that a) the post will be incredibly long; b) the post will be filled with enough vitriol to leave me a little sickened; c) that I like you (for all your individual stand-up-to-it-ive-ness) less and less every time; and d) you make me a little less hopeful for the human race. Each and every time, Royce. Each and every time.
Give him a call. Maybe he’ll answer the phone for you.
When I was 16-17 I was active PM of a 30 plus member pipe band, teaching, tuning, working reeds, setting up the band, and leading the group in steady gigs including about 4-5 months every year of steady every weekend parades, and 4-5 competitive games appearances. I oversaw a budget we raised entirely by these efforts of 20-25,000.00 a year and that was in the mid-late 70’s when that was a lot of dough. A year later I was full PM. I invented my own version of single-reed Scottish system pipes. I don’t have any sympathy at all for the argument you’re making. I did this gig every day of my life from about 16 till I was 25 and all through my teens I was dealing with adults in the same matters.
I’ve associated with adults and led adults and was responsible for musical organizations like any other adult since I was this “kid’s” age and “hacked” up more pipe chanters than this “kid” has ever seen but the difference is, they all fooking worked afterward and they brought the band trophies for being in tune and sounding good. Never, never even before I was this “kid’s” age have I ever screwed up this clumsily, this backwardly. And I’ve never blown anyone off for two years like this just because I could get away with it across an ocean of insulation.
And frankly, I know this guy’s abilities and I never had half his talent. That’s a fact.
You’ll be happy to know however, that this post actually announces the end of the saga and as I say a new chanter will be crafted to replace this one. So, a couple of posts in a year on this matter is hardly excessive.
And I think you should check the reference files, and you’ll find I’m having the hell posted out of me by pretty much everyone else, I’m not even the most vehement debater here, and I don’t even think I hold the record for the longest post here.
But you miss the point. It’s not about him. It’s about the next guy.
The NPU lists maker etc, but it is also stated that this isn’t a list of recommendation. There are many pipemakers and not all of them are good and I think anyone with a bit of common sense would not send a chanter to a lad still at school to do open heart surgery on a chanter. You also claim to be an author in such techniques, why in the hell do you need someone else if you process these skills yourself?
I read what you have claimed in the past and particularity the post that only hung around for a day or so. If anyone read that would be able to some you up in a quick glance. You have also deleted your past comments as I tried to trace them, they have been deleted. So maybe our moral crusade isn’t such a moral crusade at all. You put me in mind of the McCarthy witch hunts in your convictions and actions. It wouldn’t be at all hard to fall out with you and I’m sure glad I don’t have to turn up to a tionoil for you to turn it into a negative experience.
You need to move on and forget this, as was said you already ruined the young guys reputation and maybe the lad was afraid to send the chanter back because he was too young to deal with his failure of mending your chanter woes. You must take into consideration that he was an underage lad at school and regardless whether you were a PM of a band at 16 or not. Different situation altogether. It could be claimed that you are being abusive to of a school boy!!!
Anyway, when all that has been said and done, I have a hell of a lot more understanding of the lads plight, as I wouldn’t like to be having any dealings with you in any shape or form.
You really need to move on from this, you have your chanter, which is crappy which you have described as not working at any time. Do you really think a museum is a good place for a set of pipes? A chanter like the one you have wouldn’t be any good if it doesn’t play.
You also are listing soap opera’s for examples of more racist stereotyping to defend your racism. Man you really take the biscuit on that one.
Heaven hell the pipemaker who has taken on the project of your chanter.
I was just reading another thread and ran across this little blurb from Royce (written Dec. 1):
"Yes, I got the chanter back, and great thanks to Sean Dillon for his help, and again, my apoligies for a bit of venting the situation previously. I’ll post an update in a week or so when I get my studio computer rebuilt and I can edit the .jpg’s and video stills to show the story as well as tell it. "
No mention of damage. No anger. Very “un-Royce-like.”
I just found it interesting.
A little late, but…yeah, real “interesting” that all the ne’er-do-wells on an English soap opera are Irish…ya twit.
Incidentally, how many on this forum have repair or construction jobbed out to this O’Hare fella?
I have never com e across any mention of this man except in Royce’s ravings
I suggest we learn the lesson that it’s silly to send off a chanter or anything else to someone we have never met, nobody has ever heard of, who has no known reputation as a maker or repairer of things. I suggest we wipe our feet and let this subject be for fecksake
