The Fife you had, was it bought directly from our workshop in N Ireland ? as we dont have your details on our database.
Thanks for your offer of wanting to try another Fife, but We have plenty of musicians who have already given their opinions
Have a Nice Day
Well, this thread has been an interesting exercise.
Personally, neither I nor the other Mods have any opinion one way or the other on the quality or suitability of Angus Fifes. By appearances and comment only they seem to be fair instruments for a fair price. At least two of the posters have mentioned tuning/intonation problems, but others seem satisfied with their instruments.
If nothing else, we can thank dangus for triggering a policy review by the Chiffboard Moderators here of how to handle aggressive attempts to manipulate thread content by the use of well-known reputation management tactics.
As for Ben’s offer/suggestion, there’s ample precedent on this board of makers standing behind their products, whether purchased directly from the maker or not. Based on the discussion here, it’s not clear what Angus Fifes’ policy in this regard might be, and it would pay to check before buying. To be fair, Ben no longer owns the instrument, and he didn’t indicate whether he attempted to work with the maker to address his dissatisfaction before selling it on. On the other hand, giving an established member of our community a chance at a second review would, in our opinion, be far more effective approach than the “optics” created by the tactics that were seemingly employed here.
Another established approach might be an instrument tour to allow a sampling of our members to try for themselves and form and post their own independent opinions. While the Chiffboard Mods are not in the business of organizing tours, we’re always happy to facilitate them and to provide a platform for documenting the progress of a tour. And there may be no better way to generate a range of independent reviews free of suspicions of maker bias or manipulation. But a willingness to accommodate our members and their opinions with a tour is, of course, entirely up to the maker.
There have indeed been past comments about Angus Fifes in previous Chiffboard threads, as the Search function reveals. And to the OP and others, a review of those comments can be a part of answering the OP’s questions.
And with that, let’s close out this thread and allow the Mods to wish everyone very Happy Holidays.
Just a brief coda …
After a follow-up exchange with Ben Shaffer, I’m convinced that his comments are simply an expression of his personal opinion, nothing more.
He also made the interesting point that the traditions of American Fife & Drum corps and of Irish Flute/Fife & Drum bands differ in many respects. And that these differences are something that a potential fife buyer might want to take into account in choosing an instrument.
Cheers, all.