Price brackets for D Full Sets?

Harry · Post by **Harry** » Thu Apr 01, 2004 7:49 pm

Can we form a few price brackets that may be of use to the buyer? (preferably just as a useful 'at-a-glance' guide... without getting too judgmental, or just pure mental and/or bitchy).

'Less expensive' bracket?

'Average bracket'?

'More expensive bracket'?

'Paddy Maloney Only' bracket? etc...

From my experience with buying flutes it's good to keep track of these things.

Regards,

Harry.

The Sporting Pitchfork · Thu Apr 01, 2004 9:29 pm

Low price: Greenwood Pipes, Neil O'Grady
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Semi-extortionate: Seth Gallagher, Andreas "Buzz" Rogge, Kirk Lynch
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Paddy So-and-so Only:
Cillian O Briain, Alain Froment, Geoff Wooff, Koehler and Quinn

A little bit mental/bitchy all the same, although I wouldn't say a bad thing about any of those makers.

Anyone care to add to this?

glands · Post by **glands** » Thu Apr 01, 2004 10:26 pm

Interesting point. All parties would best be served, if at all, if this were simply a collation and subsequent tabulation of all makers and explicit prices for various and sundry degrees of sets from practice to full. The table could be organized from low price to high price. The term "expensive" is realtive. Value is as well. The poorest man on earth would work hard to somehow afford to purchase the most expensive set of pipes if it were of perceived great value to him. I know some folks who have made sacrifices to get the sets they dearly love. Why was Paddy M-O-loney's name invoked?

Royce · Post by **Royce** » Thu Apr 01, 2004 11:08 pm

The Sporting Pitchfork wrote:Low price: Greenwood Pipes, Neil O'Grady
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Semi-extortionate: Seth Gallagher, Andreas "Buzz" Rogge, Kirk Lynch
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Paddy So-and-so Only:
Cillian O Briain, Alain Froment, Geoff Wooff, Koehler and Quinn

A little bit mental/bitchy all the same, although I wouldn't say a bad thing about any of those makers.

Anyone care to add to this?

BC Childress. Damned good sound. Damned good work. Damned good value.

A word of explanation about Gallagher though, his prices for starter sets are pretty mainstream, on the high end, but worth it and still mainstream. His price for chanters without keys is very mainstream, and quality very high. Where you start taking it in the shorts is adding keys, which I think is 120 or more bucks a key right now, and a chanter can get very expensive very quickly. Whole sets are very high end both in quality and price, but delivery is very fast compared to other high end providers.

Royce

elbogo · Post by **elbogo** » Fri Apr 02, 2004 12:02 am

Seems like a can of worms here, better be careful!

I think for this kind of thing, it is best to keep descriptive phrasing out of it and just stick with the prices. Like around $4000, around $6500, around $8000 and over. Makes more sense, just the figures, not the emotion.

elbogo · Post by **elbogo** » Fri Apr 02, 2004 12:55 am

Seems extortionate really is a word. I had to look it up. I found, as an example: "spends an outrageous amount on entertainment."

Your use of "semi-extortionate" in only the mid level price range does imply levels of extortion not-with-standing, the lowest level perhaps only approaching it slightly, whilst the upper "Paddy" style price range borders on highway robbery.

Hm... You are in a "bitchy" mood.

You can't mean you are being forced by coercion or intimidation to purchase a set of Uilleann Pipes?

Rick · Post by **Rick** » Fri Apr 02, 2004 3:14 am

The problem with this stuff is that people will think low price means low quality.
Else i would have added Marc van Daal.
Low price, high quality, good service, etc.

Jim McGuire · Post by **Jim McGuire** » Fri Apr 02, 2004 5:03 am

Going directly to the pipemaker works best. Good news is that several pipemakers are publishing prices and what it gets them in detail - Rogge, Howard, Gallagher.

Harry · Post by **Harry** » Fri Apr 02, 2004 7:29 am

I was thinking along the lines of 'expensive' being relative to pipes that are 'less expensive' (i.e they cost a smaller sum of money), is that so terribly complicated? Are pipemakers everywhere bursting into floods of tears? A full set of uilleann pipes are widely considered an 'expensive instrument' to obtain regardless of their quality (relative that is to almost every other instrument used in ITM), I am quite aware that they take much more work etc. but we are just talking sums here. I agree that a ballpark price would be a better bracket heading.

Paddy Moneyonly's name will be evoked in slagging while he still plays circus music and refuses to make a solo piping CD preferably with drones and a regulator tap or two.

...Now that IS meant to be judgmental.

While I don't think that the present state of affairs re. costs of sets is particularly unreasonable for the customer I do feel that people are entitled to consider these things expensive... and that's relative to their income, or what they feel an instrument should cost etc. It would be more useful if we could do it in a reasonably detatched way of course... but how likely is that to happen here!?

Regards,

HB.

stew · Post by **stew** » Fri Apr 02, 2004 8:03 am

Hmm'

1 you buy what you can afford,

2 you only get what you pay for,

3 don't waist money on key mounts and keys on chanters, basically if any C nat is really the only key you really need, these extra's can put a few hundred pounds or Dollars on the price of a set.

4 Do your home work, start with a practice set first,see what the chanter
plays like, and then check the craftsmanship and if your happy go on
and have drones fitted by the maker.

the main problem pipers have is obtaining a good chanter that plays well in both octave, but then again its amazing what a good reed maker can do to a set that sometimes don't always come with the best of reeds?.

I don't agree that the most expensive pipes are the best.they may look the best but they don't always sound and play the best.

djm · Post by **djm** » Fri Apr 02, 2004 8:16 am

You haven't defined what you would include/exclude in your definition of a "full set", so I will define one here as a chanter with 7 or 8 keys, plus a shut-off key, three regs and three drones.

Based on the above, and going by what I have seen as current rates, I would say anything under $5K is ridiculously cheap, $5K - $6K low, $6K - $8K middle, $8K - $10K as high, and over $10K excessive.

I would qualify that there could be extenuating explanations for higher prices if rare/exotic materials are used. These are US dollars, just to forestall the quips about Canadian dollars. There is no accounting for those who would pay more for what ever reason they feel justifies the price. A fool and his money are soon parted.

Is that what you were looking for?

djm

glands · Post by **glands** » Fri Apr 02, 2004 9:14 am

"There is no accounting for those who would pay more for what ever reason they feel justifies the price. A fool and his money are soon parted."

Now that one requires some explanation! If one feels the price is justified.........

Kevin Popejoy · Post by **Kevin Popejoy** » Fri Apr 02, 2004 9:53 am

djm · Post by **djm** » Fri Apr 02, 2004 10:12 am

Glands wrote:Now that one requires some explanation! If one feels the price is justified.........

Fair enough. I'm just listening to Céilí House, and they're talking about how someone in the US had found a full Rowsome set, and that Benedict Koehler was refurbishing it. The set had been handcrafted using a foot-powered treadle lathe. A 20-page manually written piping tutor was with the set. It had sat in the box unused for years and never played. What a waste!

Similar would be anyone who starts off buying a full set before they even learn to play, or know if they will like it enough to keep at it. Joe Kennedy tells me he has given up trying to offer practise sets, or low priced beginner sets as there is no market for them. Everyone wants to start off with at least a half-set. Considering how many sets have been made in the past, the growing number of makers, and then compare this with how few players there still are, I think it is fair to say there are a lot of sets hidden in basements and attics all over. That's a lot of time and money spent for nothing.

djm

mconners · Post by **mconners** » Fri Apr 02, 2004 11:10 am

I would put Charles Roberts somewhere between the low end and the "semi-extortionate" level. Closer to the SE level.

His pipes are a good value, IMO.

I recently parted with a Roberts half set with a Gallagher half set on order.

All the bests.