Sadly, must offer for sale my beloved full set by Geoff Wooff.
It is a narrow bore blackwood set with boxwood mounts, keyed chanter with stop key, great bellows, all reeds in good working order, unaltered in any way, just as I received it from the maker. No case. Regrettably, I am somewhat low-tech and cannot send photos.
This is an heirloom instrument that deserves a good home and regular play with a serious piper who will appreciate Geoff’s great talent. Located in southern USA.
That is just what I was thinking, "now if I could just win the lottery I would snatch those up. If they were C# they would be exactly what I want. But a narrow D would be very nice.
I know this set… saw it years ago in Mississippi. If the owner had not been a wholey Holy man, I would have figgered out some way to come into possessing it…
Tell you what Cathal, if I win the Florida Lottery tonight, I’ll give you twice what you’re asking for it… and that’s a promise… it’ll help a bit with hurricane clean up I hope.
Didn’t Geoff at some point settle on a certain style of turning, mounts, etc.? Perhaps when he moved to Ireland? His stuff from the 80s is all over the map - in a letter from the early 80s he says he’ll forge reg keys after Coyne, Egan, or Kenna (!), for instance, and sets I’ve seen from them days show a real diversity of style.
Is that a pipe cleaner in the chanter’s bell?
These keys are “Coyne,” BTW. Egan forged keys in the teardrop shape which the Rowsomes emulated and most CP pipes sport now. Kenna keys were generally similiar to Coyne but often had lovely little decorative notches filed into the sides - look at the cover of the first Drones and Chanters LP for a lusicous example.
The Wooff C I have was made in Australia before Geoff moved to Clare. It’s based on a Coyne I believe. It was renovated by Geoff in 1997 so I suppose the bore became Harrington based. I purchased it from NSW in December, 2000.
A Wooff narrow bore D was offered for sale on PD’A’s site earlier this year. Click here and scroll down to no. 13.
The set was made in 1984 of boxwood, brass and immitation ivory. The bellows weren’t Wooff’s. The asking price was 8,000 euros (US$9,500). Don’t know what it sold for.
Hope this helps people who are thinking of making an offer.
I am still trying to win that lottery. It is not going to happen, but for me that is about the only way I could ever afford the set. My family takes priority where finances are concerned.
But it is a beautiful set and you can count on Geoff Wooff’s work.
And it turned out the owner had varnished the set in a high gloss finish and scooped out the fingerholes on the chanter. I played the set when it was new, I saw it again when the new owner left it at Geoff (who put on a new chanter) 21 years later.
You do want to go look at a set before you buy it. Believe me.
