2. Ebony, lignum vitae and brass budget or student chanter.
This chanter has a C key which I think is necessary for the student piper. I believe you’ll find the need for this key with in the first year or so of your piping journey so it’s included in the price. There’s a simple lignum mount at the upper end of the chanter. I’ll use what ever lighter coloured wood (boxwood, lignum). I may used darker wood when making these chanters from Rosewood and Mopane. There’s just a brass ferrule at the bottom and no other blocks. These changes from my regular chanters reduce the costs a lot and so I can sell these at a much reduced price but they sound as good as any other D chanter i’ll make.
$550!
Update on chanter #1.
It now has a Bb and an F key too. I had to install them for a performance last weekend where two of the pieces were in the key of F maj. It was quicker to make more keys than finish a C chanter!
the reason I ask is because if you did and brought a load of pipes with you you could sell them to irish and british customers without them being clobbered by the charges imports from the states are subject to
the unkeyed ‘simple’ chanter that’s on ebay looks a good deal but would cost about a quarter more if posted to the uk adding a bit of a sting
John,
I go back to Ireland most years. I may be there later next autumn. I thought of bringing a few chanters/practice sets/half sets and leaving them with my sister (a fine piper & fiddle player too) to send on for me. It a bit expensive for business to make at that stock and have them sitting around waiting to be sold though.
I read somewhere in the past that there might be a customs and excise reprieve for 'bag pipe parts"?
Anyone have info in that. I searched for ‘bag pipe parts’ in the HMRC website and I got VAT reliefs for disabled persons!
Bill Haneman is the guy to ask about VAT, excise, etc. When I sent him a set for repair last year, he ended up paying quite a tidy sum (VAT, I think) before being able to collect the pipes from Irish Customs, despite the paperwork I’d filled out stating the shipment was for repair, not a sale.
If there was any sort of “bagpipe parts” exception, I’m sure he would have tried to use it!
Generally speaking, you have to comply with whatever decision customs make before you can collect an item. Then you can appeal. In the mean time, of course, they have the money!
In the case Mick refers to, there was really no recourse or appeal. Because of recent ‘harmonisation’ of EU laws, lots of the previous official or de facto exceptions are gone. What I had intended to be a ‘free repair and renewal’ ended up costing me the equivalent of over $1000 USD. (Sorry Mick, I did have to charge you a little for the work - I had really hoped to do it gratis!)
Eventually after much haggling I was granted a temporary exception for ‘testing and evaluation’ but by the time the parcel finally arrived on my doorstep, the exception had expired! I had previously tried to reject the parcel, but as the carrier had already paid Customs, I was liable for the duty even if I did not accept the package, and I was threatened with collections agencies.
The whole EU now uses a single form for import, and the proper codes must be filled out on the originating end; this means in practice that in order to avoid paying VAT on receipt, a receiver must have his own customs agents pick up the package and originate the shipment. (Otherwise everything gets classed as an ordinary commercial importation.) This is not so difficult, as an account holder can work with someone like FedEx or DHL to make the pickup in the customer’s country, and thus arrange in advance to fill the forms out appropriately. The problem is with the way the EU form must be filled out…
According to the best sources I could find (including folks quite high up in Customs and Excise, and clearance people within DHL), there is now ONLY ONE way that I can legally receive goods for repair from outside the EU, even if those goods ORIGINATED from my own workshop in recent times, without being liable for over 25% in VAT and fees. That way is via the “Goods Inwards Processing” mechanism, whereby an EU entity imports goods for processing and re-export. The problem is that Customs will not accept paperwork with this code from anyone who is not pre-approved by Irish Revenue as a Goods Inwards Processor (or whatever they call it). I pursued this for awhile but could find no one at Revenue who knew how to go about applying for approval!
It’s a mess and doesn’t seem logical; at the very least it is a serious barrier to export for EU-based artisans, who cannot stand by their work if exported outside the EU.
This would be a good case for NPU to take up with the Irish government, particularly in the light of its efforts to promote pipe-making in Ireland.
As a piper, I’d be less inclined to order a set from Ireland (or the EU) if I thought that every time I’d send the instrument back to the maker (repair/reeding), I’d be faced with either a large invoice for VAT or a mountain of paperwork, or both!
I’ve always suspected I paid about $1,000 less for that set than it was really worth (even pre-overhaul), so as far as I’m concerned it all evened out. And most importantly, it now plays really well.
Next time it needs work, I’ll just bring it over in person!
