I live within an hour of Elderly. I will try and stop in next week and check out the set. I will give a full report.
I deal almost exclusively with Elderly. Their service is excellent and they will do anything within reason to insure customer satisfaction. I have been doing business with them for a number of years. Their are other excellent shops out there…12th Fret in Toronto, Mandolin Brothers in Staten Island, Gruhn in Nashville…but I have yet to find a place that equals Elderly.
I can solve the mystery of the Kirk Lynch Full-Set at Elderly Instruments, since it was originally built for me by Kirk Lynch in about 1990. I tried unsuccessfully to sell the set for about $4000 before selling it to Elderly about a year back. I had recently gone through a divorce and needed the money for myself and my three children. I hadn’t played the set much since the passing of Al Purcell, a dear friend who was teaching me how to play. In fact, it was Pat Cannady who told me about Al several years ago, so he has a good eye. He did see it played in the hands of a beginner. I was that beginner.
The mysterious black object over the pin block area of the “G” regulator key is acutally a piece of bicycle tubing that I put there. There is nothing wrong with the “G” key. I used to slip the piece of inner tube up over the key to get a “G” drone when I played some tunes in the key of “G”. The inner tube held the key down continuously giving me a continuous “G” sound or drone. I guess I forgot to remove the piece of inner tube before selling the set to Elderly.
By the way I also used filed down guitar bridge pins to plug up the drone ends. This helped me to tune one drone at a time. However, if I remember correctly I removed these end pins before selling the set.
As for the quality of the regulators, all I can say is that at the time I sold the set, everything was working. However, my playing had advanced to only a low intermediate level, so I wasn’t playing the regs like they were meant to be played. A true test would require someone far more advanced than I was at the time of the sale. I hope this clears up the mystery. And if the set has sold, I wish the new owner many happy hours of tinkering with reeds and playing tunes.
I suspect it may need reeds after sitting unused for a while, but there weren’t any defects with this instrument. It may need to be adjusted to the buyer’s dimensions. I had forgotten that Greg put that piece of rubber on the bass reg G key block.
I think it’s a good price on a very sound, well made instrument and were I better positioned financially I’d probably buy it.
Greg, I’m so sorry you were forced by awful circumstances to sell your pipes. I hope you’ll come back to the music some day, you seemed to enjoy it so. I can’t imagine, it must have been so awful to have to do that. I wish you nothing but the best in future.
I stopped in to Elderly Instruments yesterday. Played the Kirk Lynch full set (concert D), as well as the Daye practice set which has a bag and bellows made my Lynch with Daye Penny Chanter.
The full set is a typical Lynch set. Great workmanship. All components are there, and in working order. The chanter reed has been tinkered with, specifically it looks and plays as if it has been trimmed down on the end of the reed. The trimming is rough looking, and seems to have had the effect of making the reed susceptible to overblowing and gurgling. It also does not have much volume. The back D is very flat in relation to the chanter, but all other notes seem to be in tune relative to the bell note. The bellows and bag are airtight, but the flapper valves should probably be replaced as they tend to hang up from time to time, creating backflow. I guess what I am saying is that the set likely needs at least a chanter reed. The drones were easy to tune, but the mainstock is located in such a way as to make it hard to play the chanter without touching the regulator keys inadvertently. The regulators are sound, and the keys are all fine. I say this due to the questions of one appearing to have been broken in the picture. Again, the reeds have obviously not been played in a while and sound like it. I did not visually inspect the regulator reeds. I guess what I am saying is the set needs an experienced hand to tweak it, but overall is probably a very good buy at $5300. One might even be able to bargain on the price as it is on consignment. If I were in the position I would have bought them on the spot.
The Daye/Lynch set plays very well. It has one key. The reed is in tune, and plays very well. I had no problem with the scale all the way to the b in the second octave. This is a loud reed but it is balanced. I might consider buying this set just because the chanter plays so well. The bellows and bag are airtight, but I kept blowing the air intake out of the bellows. I grabbed some dental floss and gave it a couple winds, and voila, everything was great. This price is no bargain, but no rip-off either. It is a very good practice set and would be a great starter set for someone. Again, if I didn’t have two chanters and bags already, I would scoop this one up immediately.
Oh man, and I’m not in East Lansing for another two weeks…
If they’re still there when I get back to school, I’ll take a gander on down to Elderly and check them out…
Ah, Jeff, so you bought this set, excellent! Congratulations, especially since it is still a long wait to get regs from Kirk. I was thinking about it myself… right!
Congrats, Jeff. You beat me to the punch. I was going to have a terrible time explaining to She Who Must Be Obeyed why this was such a good deal. I think that once you resolve the reed problem you will have a wonderful set. I thought the setup needed a little work, but overall this was a very good deal.
actually… the set was returned to Elderly instruments.
A combination of factors -
the reg keys were a little wonky but could probably be made to work. Cane reeds in the regs - I’m a brass reed reg fan
Some of the reg pads/springs weren’t sealing quite right I’m not sure exactly why but they would need some work.
Cane drone reeds varied with pressure - I would have swapped out my Koehler composites but then I would be trying to sell a half-set with wonky drones to the next guy
I have a couple regs from Seth (brass reeds and all) on order. They should be delivered relatively soon.
My personal finances just took a left turn… anyone need a very qualified and proven Filemaker developer/Network admin?
All this said -
The chanter on the Elderly instruments Lynch set is GREAT it played incredibly well with the Lynch reed I use on my current set.
With some work and some new reeds it would be a good set - I just don’t have the inclination to take on the project right now.
This set is back on the market for $5300. I sat down with them for about an hour today, and I must tell you that someone is going to get a great deal. I am building a new outbuilding with a full workshop in it, so my money is tight. But I must tell you that if I could spare an extra $5000, I would make an offer on these in a heartbeat. I am not affiliated with Elderly in any way except as a long term customer, in case anyone is wondering. I do not stand to gain in any way from my comments.
Let me tell you what is wrong with them first. There is one key on the baritone regulator that will need repair. This key was NOT broken when I last looked at them a month ago. Additionally, there are two keys that need to have new leather and/or springs. The chanter reed that was in it last time I played them has been replaced. When I looked in the ditty box, I saw two other chanter reeds, and several extra regulator reeds. The chanter reeds had a nice crow to them. The drone reeds are cane, and I would replace them with composites were they mine.
The chanter has three keys and the premium wood chanter cap.
What is Kirk’s waiting list right now? Probably 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 years? I priced out what this set would cost new, and it would be about $7100 with shipping. Admittedly there is probably $300 to $500 of repairs, but one still gets a Lynch Concert D set, with the upgrades, no wait, and a great instrument.
As far as Elderly goes, anyone who has dealt with these folks knows that they are likely the finest shop around, in terms of service (before and after the sale) and prices are very fair. This set is a good example of that.
I was likely the last one to mess with these keys.
In an attempt to avoid opening multiple holes with each key I did bend the keys a la Kieran O’hare’s set.. but to my knowledge everything was in working order and not broken when I shipped it back but…
If I in some way messed this set up while I had it I need to help to fix them.
Big Mick please contact me in a PM so I can understand more about what broken key problem is.
He said that each returned instrument is checked before being put back into inventory (and before crediting the purchase price back!). This set was checked and was in good condition when it was received from me.
As stated before, it is a good set that needs a makeover but will be a good prize.
Did I mention before that the chanter is great? If I could have bought just the chanter- I would have done it in a heartbeat.