I think that in fact the common ground are the sets costing between $3500 and $6000 and there are many that are pretty good. I am sure that we could all name a few makers like that. Some may agree some may disagree (feel free).
Childress
Jeffries
Angus…
Does anyone disagree that K&Q, Frommant, Woof in particular, and maybe Roggess and Galagher should not be charging more? (I am sure that I am leaving off names like Williams as well. Forgive me).
Neil
So you don’t think you should have to pay $7000 for a full set of pipes, that’s easy, don’t buy a $7000 set, but you’ve got to be kidding to suggest that builders “shouldn’t be charging” whatever price they want. If maker XYZ wants to build a 24 caret gold set of pipes and charge $75,000 for it and he thinks he can get that price, more power to him. Welcome to the wonderful world of capitalism.
What’s next, EU regulation of Uilleann pipe prices? Import tariffs for chanter reeds? Here in California we could probably make great headway on our budget deficit by taxing cane exports to pipemakers.
IMHO, the free market should dictate what pipemakers can and will charge.
Based on perceived quality and value, those who can afford to buy from pipemakers who are thought to produce the highest quality instruments will pay the price that the builders ask if they can’t find similar perceived quality at a lower price.
Those who can’t afford to pay those prices will either settle for another builder’s less expensive instrument, learn to make their own set of pipes, or seek a job that pays them enough to allow them to pay the asking rate.
M
No one can be objective on pipes. There is no world standard, the pipemakers do not agree on approach or tuning or design specs or materials for pipes, trim (if any), and bellows. No one has seen the latest and greatest from each of the pipemakers to even have a hope at a balanced opinion. ‘Ranking’ pipemakers is almost always based on rumor and second-hand information.
No one can say with authority where someone’s money is best spent - taking into account the world’s pipemaking industry.
While I agree with the spirit of this statement, the phrase “on the market” is a bit of misnomer when it comes to K&Q, Alain Froment and Geoff Wooff sets. I mean, it’s not as if just anybody who wants one and is wealthy enough to afford it can succeed in buying one of those sets in any given year. It also takes luck, connections, and or extreme patience. It’s that combination of desirabiltiy, demand, scarcity and impatience (i.e. we’re all going to die someday) that creates the perfect storm for rising prices and frustrated buyers. Socialists and capitalists alike. Are there any Marxist pipers out there?
Frankly, I think we’re approaching a golden age of availability of used sets, as the “Riverdance bubble” collapses. Seems to me that more sets are coming to market over the last year, but rather than lowering prices, I think its just redistributed instruments from the hands of those less committed to playing to those players who are very much committed. Overall, I think its a good thing, I don’t think that this is an instrument you take on just because “it sounds pretty”…
Of course, my Childress B set for sale does sound pretty, and you should buy it immediately for my full asking price, because, dammit, its worth it. 
M
C’mon Brian…the VW bug isn’t that bad…pick another car…such as the now defunct Yugo.
or the Trabant!
Yeah, but you live in that Godless “Right-to-work” (for minimum wage) state, Utah. When I left there 20 years ago we had engineers in my pipe band working for 6 bucks and hour, a buck more than they paid at McDonalds, and I see the wages haven’t risen since then as I went through this summer.
I also lunched the transmission in the family van in Rawlings Wyoming and jammed my way into Salt Lake City by figuring out how to fool the shift computer into sticking it in overdrive as long as I stayed over 40mph. I literally rolled down the summit into the valley and found a tranny shop still open at 6:00pm on Thursday eve, 3’d July–though I got the inspection performed immediately, I had to wait the long holiday weekend and come back Monday to get the change-out done but at least I got it done.
The proprietor of the shop was a Mr. Dennis O’Reilly. I asked him where the local session was and he had no idea what I was talking about. He did have lots of nice LDS literature and Church magazines in the waiting room but no idea where the nearest pub was.
But then, that was only the first leg of my “no piping content” vacation out west this last summer.
Royce
about violin bows…and cost…
yes, and no. There are signed bows into the thousands of dollars, but anyone can run out to a music shop and get a good fiberglass/nylon bow for $35 or a good wood/hair bow for $25.
Nobody I know in orchestras uses signed bows for their violins, violas, or cellos. They all use the bows the rest of us use. They have better strings than the cheapest steel ones (tho most don’t go to the expense of the $120 pirastro gut set with the gold plating), better instruments (still only $5000 tops), and far more talent than your average amateur violinist. Therein lies the sound difference. Actually, those I’ve spoken to where this comes up laugh at people with signed bows, gold plated flutes or trumpets - they claim there is no real difference in performance, it’s entirely a status thing and those using them are regarded as pompous.
That having been said, I’d love to see the reed market look like the violin bow market. It would be great to go to the nearest music shop, buy two reeds off the shelf based on wide/narrow bore + bore length in inches for the price of one now, and take them home confident that they can be plugged in and work just fine. It works that way for oboes and bassoons, who use reeds just as difficult to manufacture - indeed, oboe reeds are virtually identical to UP reeds in all but scale.
Eskin, more sets are coming on the market simply because they do not play right, I’ve been in one music shop and tried three different chanters, my opinion, don’t even go there, at the end of the day there are pipes and there are pipes!, you only get what you pay for,it takes ten~twelve weeks to make a full set of pipes, 40hrs per week, £10 per hour,that =£400 aweek,10 weeks at £400=£4000, then materials, the maker has to charge £10 per hour min,then he has his stamp and tax deductions and over heads, if a maker has a good design and his pipes play well in tune he should have no problems selling his product, I’d like to see a maker who’m would really cater for the the beginner and advanced player, e.g practice sets and halfs sets, which the beginner could really rely on, not
bogged down making full sets for the invester.
all the best stew 
Just to add here. I’ve visited two different makers shops in the last three years, and BOTH stated that if they had nothing else to do except work on the pipes - meaning no day jobs, if they added up the time it took them to produce a set from start to finish they could easily (and single-handedly) crank out a top notch working set (by each of their respective standards) in under two - three weeks tops. I hope most makers aren’t spending 10-12 weeks full time on one set! But I don’t make them, and that’s just what I was told by the makers I visited.
B~
Brian, like I say there are Pipes and there are Pipes,all the best stew
I can’t imagine buying any set of pipes from a music shop unless it was run by the builder. That they are in a retail shop tells me that something probably isn’t right.
At least that’s the way it is over here in the US. Sets around here seem to either come direct from the builder or from someone who bought it from the builder and is either upgrading or deciding to move on to some other hobby.
I’m specifically talking about sets coming up for sale from quality builders, not junk. I know, I’ve bought very nice chanters and sets built by Kirk Lynch, Bruce Childress, David Quinn, and Seth Gallagher on the used markets over the past two years from private parties and all have been excellent instruments. Doesn’t seem to me like that trend is slowing down, but the prices are definitely going up.
M
I’m in a perfectly good poison right now, thank you!
Ah, well. I like these Irish pipes more than any other instrument by a long sight, and just want to get some interest going in making them the best they can be. Brad Angus is the only maker I know really well; but I talk to him about every week, and know how he goes about things quite well. All Brad wants to do is make the best possible sets he can; and for him the best possible sets are Wooff and the work that Wooff is copying: the old boys. Beautiful looking, sounding, playing, very reliable. Why more makers don’t shoot for that I’ll never know. It makes a complicated instrument even more so; but are they content knowing they are failing to do the best job they can? It’s only 3 weeks of work compared to 2, Brad says.
Without question a reference for pipemakers would be a great thing. I tried to make the Angus website into something of this nature, by listing all the things Brad does, and indicting other makers by process of omission; but no one seems to have noticed.
Why put multiple tapers in chanters, taper drone bores, voice fingerholes? It makes for a better instrument, and we need mo’ better Irish pipes. We should be getting our $6000 worth.
Can anyone say “Cartel?” It’s an arms race with each maker constantly looking over his shoulder to see what the other guy is getting for his pipes. As has been stated, as long as a “demand” is perceived there is no business reason to hold the line on prices. It’s a seller’s market, and will be until the pipe maker’s phone stops ringing. The wild card is the guy experimenting in his garage who develops an acceptable and affordable solution. However, I suspect that will not deter the makers of the high-end, quality instrument who will continue serving a more discriminating market. I think they will happily walk away from the “entry level” segment and just wait for upgrades from serious, committed converts. Regards.
“The wild card is the guy experimenting in his garage who develops an acceptable and affordable solution.”
ahem…buffs fingernails on lapel…
but you’re right, any affordable solution will be a stopgap measure until a real pipemaker can be located/afforded…
the makers will charge what people will pay. it’s that simple.
Cartel is hardly an appropriate designation for the pipemaking industry. Pipes prices are purely market-driven and interest in the instrument is higher than ever in its 200+ year history.
The population of Ireland in 1841 was ca. 8,100,000. Assuming one piper for every thousand people - which seems low to me - that’s 8,100 pipers. What was the figure arrived at for the number of people playing now?
HUH?