Second-Hand Pipes

[benwalker]

Heavy, yeah a bit but not as heay as my currect Brass re enforced set.

[Tony]

So Tony, do you play all these pipes, or are you building a museum? A collector near where I live (apparently) just bought an early Geoof Wooff practice set in Bb for US$300.

Cheers,

DavidG

Honestly, I hadn't planned on it.

At the time, I was playing an O'Grady practice set and received a Mackenzie chanter I really liked. I lucked into a new Childress halfset. Childress was running about 2 years for sets and Mackenzie just over a year. The American dollar was strong in Australia so the Mackenzie full set was ordered on similar lines to another thread... I didn't feel I was ready for the upgrade, but I had the money and wanted to dabble so I could learn at my own pace.

The other sets became available and I 'borrowed' money I had saved for a kitchen renovation thinking 'this is a once in a lifetime piping experience' so I snatched them up.

Each set had it's own pluses and minuses (are those real words?) and I kept jumping around from set to set trying to figure which I wanted to keep. The clock was ticking and I needed to decide. I'm thrilled having experienced all of this and I'm down to one full set in D, and a spare D chanter (also a C chanter and a B chanter) So... no piping museum in my future.

[maze]

Lewis, you ask a fundamental question about the state of ethics in the world today. I know having purchased used cars in my youth that you get what someone else no longer wants. I assume the same holds true for instruments except that they are easier to fix (than my 73 fiat was). Used instruments provide the eager player an opportunity to own a piece of history, a piece of shiyte, or a new hobby (pipe repair). I myself have bought a lynch practice set that sat in a closet for a decade after Jerry O parted with the chanter.. came from Kirk just as promised and I to this day play that chanter almost as much as I play BK's.

Now a different set that we are all familiar with from Elderly was a different situation all together. I was one of the folks trying to buy it, but never did get hold of the set as it passed hands, got returned, and finally landed in the hands of a good friend of mine down here in Florida. The set was supposed to be functional... as WHAT?! a feckin' tea kettle? It was so feckin' leaky that I could not get a single sound out of any part of it other than ssssshhhhhhhhhhhHH! It stayed in my home for weeks in order for me to repad every regulator, attach cork blocks under every key, rereed quite a bit of it, rebuild a reg. key (Kirk) and respring a handful of others. IT MOST CERTAINLY DID NOT FUNCTION WHEN MY FRIEND RECEIVED IT THAT IS FOR SURE.

Happy to say it is singing now and back on the market to find a new home. I am getting a new set so I am not in the market to hang on to it nor is my friend who is also on a list for a set... so if you want it, PM me.

So there it goes... ethics I think. If I in the next few years sell a set or two, I guarentee that they will play before they go in the box... If you live in the artic I cannot make any guarentees that they will play after they leave the box... but as I would hope anyone else would do for me, I will do all I can to ensure that they should.

[djm]

This one just hit me in the face. I was at JK's tonight and he pulled out a practise set by a maker who shall remain nameless. The set was bought by someone out of town and had mailed it to Joe to see if he could get it running. The person had paid CDN $2K for decent bag and hose, a chanter with no reed, and bellows made for Godzilla. Honest, the bellows boards were about twenty inches long, six inches wide, and over two inches thick, carved out on the inner side to fit against the body. The chanter is unreedable per Joe. Someone (who also shall remain nameless but I know who they are) really hosed the newbie buyer good. Shame!

djm

[snoogie]

Wow...that's sad. Being out that much cash and still not having a set to play..man that's pretty low.

-gary

[glands]

My point exactly Snoogie....so why should the one who ran to the bank remain nameless DJM? If the Audi people sold you a junk car and you went and traded for a BMW (or vice versa) you'd sure talk about the dealership experience in public.

[BigDavy]

Hi DJM

I agree with glands if there is a rip off merchant out there then he should be named and shamed, if only to warn the other newbies out there. It may even make the rip off merchant buck his ideas up.

David

[djm]

a). Because every time I ask for this type of info on this forum everyone jumps down my neck.

b). Because I don't know the parties personally, and don't have the buyer's permission to name names where it might also expose the buyer to unwanted attention.

c). The seller was selling on consignment, which means anybody involved could start pointing the finger at the other without resolution.

djm

[glands]

I'd just like to see misrepresentation of the condition and playability of a set fall by the wayside. Sure, climate matters...but not so much that a set would be deemed unplayable or unreedable. Selling on consignment does not absolve one of the responsibility of accurately portraying the condition of a set or sets to potential buyers. We are a small community and must strive to treat others as we would wish to be treated when it comes to buying and selling pipes or else risk loss of credibility and reputation.

[Tony]

My Childress full set came to me in Winter. It played perfectly in the beginning and started to go out of adjustment after a few hours. I'm in Miami and it's warm here. This was expected.

Let's get back to Ben's situation. The eBay description indicated the set was recently fully reeded and re-hemped by the maker. It was in mint condition.
It was sent from Ireland to England not great weather differences... yes? Why then is he so disapointed with it's playability?

[irishduffy]

I can't blame peolple nor will I blame anyone about not telling a name, it is their choice to do as they feel right. Yet, to tell you the truth it is a godsend when people inform the community, I am about to get my first set of practice pipes in the near future, and although I believe in being informed, I could easily be misled from the lack of my expeience. Yet through a few good people on the board, I put my trust in their advice don't get me wrong, I invest time and research, but their is only so much avalible about the uilleann pipe. It is not like a guitar where information can be found anywhere.

So to those who will put their neck out on the block, I thank you.

Irishduffy

Note this is a general statment, as for this thread Djm explainded some factors why he would not name names. I must respect them as a valid point, as to me they all are.

[Cayden]

It was sent from Ireland to England not great weather differences... yes? Why then is he so disapointed with it's playability?

Who's to know. Maybe the set had been sitting on a radiator for three months, maybe the reeds were stiff and not played in (very likely) and he didn't like them for that reason.

I have seen Wooff chanters return to the workshop deemed unplayable by the recipient that were going beautifully for hours when I played them before they went to the postoffice (and on their return still played well). Who's to know how someone deals with the transition to new pipes?.

On the question of unreedable chanters.
Martin Rochford once pulled a Coyne C chanter out of one of the presses and asked Geoff to reed it. geoff pulled a reed out of the box while Martin was outside, fiddled around a bit and had it singing like a lark. On his return Martin said 'several pipemakers told me I could use that as a bird's perch, nobody could do anything with it.'. Who's to know which reedstyles a pipemaker attempts before dismissing a chanter?

[benwalker]

Im sure the set i bought has the potential to play very well. I just don't think the reed that was in the chanter was really playable.
The drones play after a fashion
The reg reeds are simply not playing.
The seller had not really played the pipes much.
It certainly wasn't A1 playing condition.

[djm]

It certainly wasn't A1 playing condition.

Yeah, but it looked good. Maybe that's all an inexperienced person was going by.

djm

[benwalker]

Looks were all I had to go on plus the reputation of Alain froment as a world class pipe maker.
I'm sure once the reeds are going as well as they should the set will be all I hoped for