I seriously doubt pipemakers would get tons of requests. As for stealing ‘ideas’ and/or measurements, all one has to do for that is look on the net for measurements or get their hand on a chanter and make their own measurements. These portions of pipemaking aren’t secret by any stretch of the imagination. One could even get an x-ray of their favourite chanter through a friend with access to an X-ray machine, or at a local animal hospital.
Considering the work that would go into making a set of pipes, I can’t picture someone apprenticing to a pipemaker with the idea of stealing ‘ideas.’ To get beyond this, of course, wouldn’t be too difficult with the apprentice signing a paper that says he/she will not share these ideas with other people or use them to build pipes for sale without having served at least a ?year’s? worth of apprentice-ship. Besides. The idea is to make better pipemakers, and to increase the number of pipemakers.
Yes. Each apprentice represents competition. Competition is always good. “The business is hard enough.” - Really? Is that why all the good pipemakers have waiting lists approaching 5 years to a decade? They can’t find enough work? All sarcasm aside, any decent pipemaker seems to have at least a year and a half waiting list. I don’t think there is a dearth of requests for well made pipes, and I doubt there ever will be. Every generation brings a new group of students and lovers of the pipes and it seems currently that each successive generation has more people interested in learning.
There aren’t quite a few very good makers out there. There are quite a few makers out there. As for used equipment being easy to find, that’s not generally true (as discussed in a seperate message - Most sets that come up on ebay or through other channels seem to make the rounds again and again). The “entry” instruments are pretty much limited to David Daye’s set of pipes, which are very good and relatively inexpensive compared to purchasing a ‘practice’ set from a maker (which may involve a wait). Practice sets aren’t ‘relatively inexpensive’ to anyone, unless you are talking about a Daye set (which I would reccomend to anyone starting out on pipes with a smaller budget).
You contradicted yourself. You said there is something to be said for ‘doing it yourself,’ then went on to note that it is ‘amazing how much one has to learn and be able to do to make a decent set of pipes.’ It makes more sense to have apprentices learn those basics towards making a good set of pipes in a shorter amount of time so that they can then concentrate their efforts towards improving design, experimenting with new designs and/or techniques and polishing their already good work into excellent instruments.
As for ‘studying,’ you will find there isn’t much information out there other than measurements regarding making a set of pipes. Last time I checked, it would be hard for most people to build something like an x-ray machine with merely the schematics. There are many things one could learn from hands on experience building with a pipesmaker who could offer advice, guidance and visual/tactile clues right as you are learning. Getting ‘advice’ from the community means asking a bunch of people who may or may not know anything and sorting out the useful information from the chaff.
Again, “proprietary information like chanter measurements,” isn’t. Anyone can make measurements of a chanter they like. They can either borrow one from someone who owns one, or purchase one themselves to make the measurements. They can even go into serious detail and take x-rays. Some people have even gone so far as to make bore molds (though I would not suggest this to people). There is nothing ‘proprietary’ or secret about this information.
You’re right. You don’t know if a “system of apprenticeship is in out[sic] best interest.” No one does for certain, but I think it would be a valuable thing to the piping community and towards furthering the number of well made pipes out there and reducing the number of borderline-quality and poor quality pipes. And no, the market doesn’t eliminate poor makers. Just ask any number of pipers who bought from a maker who produced a borderline set for them. Yes, it is partly their fault for not doing the research, but it is also because they found the multiple year long waits for some of the better makers unbearable and because they expect an artisan selling uilleann pipes to have some sense of how to make a decent set of pipes.
Considering how many good makers there are in the world, and how long an apprenticeship (and further study) would take to complete, there would never be 20-30 more skilled pipemakers tommorow. Some apprentices won’t work out, some will and will continue to go on to produce sets. While they were apprenticed to the makers they would be slowing their output by a minor amount at first and then upon learning the basics would be increasing the speed of their output. This would shorten the wait-list period over time and makers could eventually catch up to demand. Will they surpass demand? It could happen, but I seriously doubt it will.
Yes. Eventually supply would go up. Just as demand has been constantly growing in recent years, I imagine it would be a good thing if a supply of good pipes came to the market. What would happen to the prices? Supply over the past 10-20 years has steadily increased and I can say with certainty (having purchased pipes myself) that prices have increased. If you have knowledge to the contrary, I’d love to hear it because I would love a beautiful set of pipes at a less expensive price.
No pipe-maker would price their pipes low having gone through the apprenticeship to learn what they needed to learn to make pipes. People value their skills. I think you are projecting quite a bit into what you think other people would do. Not everyone is a thief who would ‘steal’ ideas, try to destroy the work of other pipemakers, try to corner the pipe-making market, price their ‘competition’ out of business or sell their soul to the devil to draw all the work to themselves.
Are you sounding fatalistic? No. Do you sound like a naysayer? Yes. Debate is always good, though.
Dionys
