When the number of sets made by a Pipemaker is at such a figure that if each customer has a problem, that requires the maker’s intervention, every four years he/she will run out of time, due to repairs, to ever produce another new set. That is why it is important that the maker tries to produce instruments that do not ‘go wrong’… unfortunately the ‘owner effect’ cannot be taken into account.
In my defence, the dog legitimately chewed the strap off my bellows…. I did offer to post Derrick my dog for reparations.
I’ve seen some home fixit jobs, well, you’d probably get a better result at the local panel beaters…
Pipes, pipe makers, it’s great fun. It’s probably not comforting that at some point I’ll be stood over a set with a Ryobi cordless drill, beads of sweat on my forehead.
Hope you’re keeping well Geoff!
Liam
the dog legitimately chewed the strap off my bellows….
That’s easily fixed without the pipemaker’s intervention isn’t it? 
That’s easily fixed without the pipemaker’s intervention isn’t it? >
Hm possibly Peter, but perhaps the original maker has straps “in stock” of a suitable width and thickness to fit through the footman loops, which can simply be posted to the piper, rather than try and have a local leather store cut a piece to size.
I think that makers should be suitably remunerated for repairs and replacement reeds (excepting perhaps “manufacturing defects” which fail after little use). Additionally, it means that they hear the sets they have made sounding well, which according to Geoff is very rewarding…
Whilst legitimate dog chewing can be a problem, I feel the need for better pipe maintenance courses and ‘Proper’ reed making classes.
I find that those of my customers who play regularly, in reasonable circumstances , have very little problems with their sets.
I am just having a gripe as the autumn equinox draws close and men look at what they might do during the coming winter… like play their pipes for instance… Three requests for an overhaul in one week !! … Oh well, when I and my type are gone you’ll have to do it yourselves.
This is not aimed at anybody … just a suggestion that we all should understand how to look after , and know how to make the reeds for our pipes. 
Maybe I’m a bit of an outlier.
I’ve owned more pipes than I can remember over the last 49 years and I’ve never sent pipes back to the maker.
When half the pipes you play were made by long-gone makers you get in the habit of looking in the mirror for “customer support”.
Well, I am a stickler for originality, and since Derrick made me a lovely set of pipes I figured a new strap from the workshop would look a sight better than a belt from K’Mart.
He was good enough to post me one, which I affixed with a screwdriver and my own bare hands. Not all lovely tans and long vowels down here in Oz.
On the general maintenance side I hear you Geoff, unless it’s something defective in terms of materials or manufacturing, you’ll need to do something as a player to keep a set running.
I just recently replaced the arm strap on my own bellows. To my mind, these things are consumables and in my experience any decent leather shop or saddle maker will provide good quality replacements. I get mine from a leather shop in Limerick: arm strap made from offcuts @€3. Anyway, it didn’t seem something to worry a pipemaker with (in any case and if I recall correctly, the original ones came from an Australian army surplus store to begin with, but those were replaced long ago). That is the position I was commenting from but YMMV.
That said, Geoff did replace the bag on my C set recently. It replaced the original 1986 one. I can sympathise with your sentiment re originality and I didn’t like parting with it so I procrastinated over the replacement, probably longer than I should have. However, the old bag served me well and owed me nothing at this point. It was time and if the new bag will last half the time the old one did, it will last my days, and more.. 
(what comes to mind here is this story of Séamus Ennis doing his routine at a NPU concert or some tionol about the leather bag his father designed and had made. From the back of of the audience a piper shouted ‘that’s fine Séamus but if they don’t hold the air, they’re worth F*ck’)
I’ve returned pipes to makers to have keys added. Most other things, I can handle myself.
The one thing that would be helpful is if makers made their reed dimensions available. Many makers are happy to share this info, but not all.
A maintenance manual would be great - assuming anyone bothers to buy books anymore. Maybe just a document. Bagpipe 101 isn’t rocket science.
I think Denis Brooks said something in his tutor about a follow up volume on maintenance, setting up pipes, etc. That was about 40 years ago… still hasn’t hit the shelves.
I recently replaced the crummy giant naughahide bags I’d sewn years ago with new ones from Brad Angus, since the old ones were crummy as mentioned, and also a remark somewhere from Geoff about a French pipemakers’ study using different bag materials, which concluded that leather is best for tone. Plus it’s old school, I like that. And to throw a little more money Brad’s way, of course.
There’s so much random odd bits of lore about the pipes. Compiling it all would be a nobel endeavor.
The late Pat Sky produced a book that covered maintenance, reedmaking, playing, etc. Copies pop up for sale from time to time.
As I recall those French pipemakers were studying the tonal difference between various types ( and thicknesses) of LEATHER.. as in Goat,Sheep , Cow, Kangaroo etc. but I think their reeds and stocks may have been more closely attached to the bags than most Irish Pipes.
It’s discussed endlessly and obsessively in Highland piping circles. And in addition to various leathers there are also Gore-Tex bags to consider.
Bottom line is that the effect on tone is widely believed but not provable through any scientific means, sheepskin believed to be best, Gore-Tex believed to be worst.
On the other hand it’s clear that various materials have an effect on how much moisture a bag will retain, and how evenly the bag maintains the internal moisture level, things that are critical with mouth-blown pipes using cane reeds.
Hi All,
I firmly believe it would be of great help to all that pipe, bag, bellow, chanter and reed maintenance be included in all Tionol’s. It took a long time for me to get my set of pipes - 17 years - they are a Seery Set from the late 80’s. Coming from a Highland piping background I know some maintenance but they are different beasts altogether. I sent my regulators to Ireland to get them fixed - thank you Donnacha - and I had to have another pipemaker whack my mainstock loose so it could be moved into playing position - things I could not have done on my own without a huge learning curve - and I couldn’t afford it (monetarily, or emotionally) if I had damaged my instrument. Which brings me back to what someone said earlier and I agree with - I think it would be helpful, especially for those of us who are far removed from makers nearby - to include classes to help with maintenance and troubleshooting.
I’ve only attended Tionoil here in California, all have had a room set aside staffed with reedmakers and pipemakers getting people’s pipes set up and working.
As you say it’s essential, one reason being that many of the people attending our Tionoil live in far-flung remote places, with the closest uilleann piper to them being several hundred miles distant.
It’s simply impossible for a beginner piper in Ireland or the UK to be as far away from another piper as many beginners in the Western USA are.