So I have a practice set on hand and have decided to invest in drones now. I agonized about which pitch, but if I only end up with one set and I want to gig, eventually, I 'spose it should be in D.
Anyhoo, I recently contacted Andreas Rogge and he has a wait time measured in months. The price for drones is in my range, and I don’t see a downside. I know that he’s particularly well regarded for flat sets, but a fair number of folks like his concert pitch stuff too.
I’ve already factored in the hassle factor of dealing with an overseas purchase. I have a local source of reeds and advice for my chanter, and so I feel relatively safe ordering from a non-local shop.
Have you factored in the expense of getting a CITES certificate? This will be necessary to ship African Blackwood overseas legally (and many other woods too).
I was actually considering other materials, but it’d be good to know more about this. Anyone have a reference handy for CITES concerns and uilleann pipes?
Any instrument made of Dalbergia timbers after January 2nd 2017 needs to be delivered by the maker with a certificate, to document that the wood has been harvested legally or has been in the possession of the maker before Jan 2nd - no matter if it is shipped overseas or not.
In my (hopefully) humble opinion- Andreas’s drones are the best I’ve ever played. Bang on when you hit the switch and rock steady with his composite reeds. His bass resonator isn’t the standard “tinker toy”, but hollowed out for some additional volume and vroom.
Combined with top class metal and woodcraft and you’ve a set hat is worth the price just as eye candy alone (Can you tell I’m a fan?)
Beautiful work top to bottom. I have both D and C sets and never a problem shipping to the US.