When you are young and full of life and high spirits you should play a concert pitch set, a bit head strong and in your face like a lot of teenagers and people in their twenties,you might be a little bit out of tune here and there but it doesn,t matter as your too loud for people to notice
but then, as you mature a little, but still have a little spark of youth you may play a c sharp set .Not so brash as concert pitch but still with a little bit of youthful spirit in the background
.Then at a certain stage in your life you realize your youth is gone, you may have young children or teenagers of your own and you have settled into middle age, this is the time to play a Cnat set
.Now the kids have grown up and left home your probably retired from your job and you.ve slowed down quite a bit . get the B set out .
Your teeth and hair is long gone and you eat your dinner through a straw you can only walk with the help of a zimmer frame you live in a home called the twilight zone and are only waiting for the grim reaper to come knocking on your door ,thank God for Bb
I,m not putting any ages on this stages of pipe playing and life as some people reach certain stages before others . I myself like to play concert pitch but I do like to listen to the flater pitches as I might like listening to an old man telling a story
RORY
I’m twenty, and I favor B and B flat pipes anyday over concert pitch. Flat pipes just sound so darned smooth. Excuse me while I go wipe away the drool from thinking about it too hard. 
-Mike
… don’t slip, watch your step.
I think you have it correct up to a point.
Once you have reached the zenith of Bb, it is all down hill.
The old fingers can no longer stretch to cover the holes, so you slip from Bb to C, from C to C#, then, because you love the sweetness of the flat-sets, you slide down to a narrow-bore D set.
But your ears aren’t what they used to be, and the narrow-bore sets are a distant nasal buzz, so you end up back where you started - playing a goose-honker of a concert D and reminiscing about the good old days when you could handle a Bb.
In the end, you face the nadir of Irish trad – giving up the pipes and playing whistle as your first instrument.
A fate worse than bodhran.
Time is a cruel master.
Mukade
I guess this explains why I don’t get all excited about B sets like the rest of yez.
I’m too young! (ok, at least young at heart) 
Justine
Wait till you develop adnoids. The charm of B sets will become abundantly clear. 
djm
I looked up adenoids but I’m still confused.
I guess I’ll just wait till I develop them…
J.
Think Julia Child: “Bon Appetit!”
One of my all-time favorites is still listening to the young Gabriel McKeon playing Lord Gordon and The cup of Tea on his 190 year old Coyne flat set pitched in C.
Before they were sat on by someone in a pub.
One of my all-time favorites is still listening to the young Gabriel McKeon playing Lord Gordon and The cup of Tea on his 190 year old Coyne flat set pitched in C.
With a Matt Kiernan chanter. All he more or less had was the Coyne regulators and bits of the drones, which Matt restored/repaired.
I think Gay has them in C# nowadays. Much Like the Ennis set.
Tommy
That’s sickening. I’m curious to know the rest of that story and if they were ever playable again. There’s a lesson or two in there somewhere.
EDIT: Thanks for that, Tommy.
They were repaired but never sounded the same again.
What a shame. The sound of those particular pipes is what really turned me on to the UP. Very Coyneish, so I thought. I’m listening to them right now as I type. If that’s a Matt Kiernan chanter…well, that’s amazing–the tone and everything.
I was just listening to the young Robbie Hannan again playing his Hughes D set on The Piper’s Rock. After listening to him on his Kenna B set now days, it’s almost painful to go back and listen to him straining on those D pipes.
I like that, Mukade.
I like it so much, I might have to pretend I thought of it!
Now that is a fate worse than the bodhran.