I,ve just won the national lottery and I fancy treating myself to one of those old taylor sets .Nicholas Burke,s set (imam page 280 ) would do nicely but Eddie joyce,s Thomas kerrigan,s or Patsy touhey,s would do as well ! dream on —_-
But seriously anyone ever heard of these or any other taylor sets coming on the market and for how much?
I know there are still plenty of them about .Micheal Dooley has a set and I know of another chap in Cork has a set that never see,s the light of day(kept under his bed )but he wont sell them,Geoff wooff has a staple from a reed from achanter owned by Patsy Touhey but I dont he,ll part with that either
Congrats on winning the lottery that is so cool. Try a google search you might come up with something the internet has everything can’t tell you what it would sell for cause I don’t play U.P’s I play GHB’s I assume it would be the equvalent of a Henderson if you have any idea about what I am talking about.
It’s surprising how little information is available on the Internet on the Taylors and their pipes. A Google search turns up many, many mentions of them, but very little of any substance. At least three of the sites that have anything that seems substantial are illustrated with pictures of pipes that aren’t by the Taylors. There’s more to it than regulator keys that look like tongue depressors. I think the one site where you are likely to find a fair number of pictures of the real thing is Pat D’Arcy’s Uilleannperversion.com.
One contributor to this forum managed to turn up a very nice set of authentic Taylor pipes a couple years back, but it took some doing. If you are serious about owning a Taylor set, you either have to be steeped in luck to the point where one falls into your lap (as sometimes happens, believe it or not), or you have to invest a good quantity of shoe leather. It took this fellow years and years of arduous research and intelligent detective work to find a good example. There are some bad examples, too: things that were perhaps not that hot to begin with, or that have been improved by latter-day masters who knew more than the original makers. Other good sets are known to be available, but you’d have to part with all of your lottery winnings and hock your helicopter to come up with the money that’s being asked. And some of the pipes being offered as Taylor pipes aren’t. It’s a jungle out there.
The question is, of course, “why?” I know why I admire the Taylors’ work. Why do you admire it? Or, for those of you who don’t, why not?
Lack of information works both ways. How would I know a Taylor set if it fell on me, since, as you note, there is little to no information or pictures available about them? Although I have seen references to their innovations, I don’t know that an old Taylor bros. set would sound particularly better than what is available by today’s makers. Also, I have heard that they did strange things like invert the staple on the reeds. How would I deal with that when I needed to make a reed? Where would I get sufficient info?
I think I would have to hear a few pretty remarkable Taylor sets to be convinced they were superior in any way before I would go to the efforts you suggest to obtain one. There is bound to be some who are afflicted with the collector’s bug who would track one down just for the sake of saying they own a set, but I am not one of them.
Peter, thanks, but I was referring to looking for info on something as obscure as reedmaking for an inverted staple. The list you provided the link to is as enticing as a laundry list. What would make me want to comb the world and spend thousands of $s on a Taylor set based on a list like this?
As I noted, this may attract someone who is obsessed with ownership, but I have not yet been given any reason to get obsessed in the first place.
Maybe listen to the recordings of Patsy Touhey, Tom Ennis, Mike Gallaher, Mike Carney, Early and McFadden, Barney Delaney, Joe Shannon, Eddie Mullaney and Paddy Stack., Sean McKiernan, Bill Ochs, etc.
If there’s no incentive in that, they are not for you. :roll:
There is that mystique surrounding them. But if I found a set and could manage to pay for them, I probably wouldn’t play them enough to do them justice.
I think I have heard 3 Taylor sets (that were all Taylor and not just some Taylor parts stuck on another set).
My only dislike of them sound wise is that either the chanter is too quiet and nasal or the regulators are too loud. Nice drones, not like mine (Mark Hillmann) that are real loud (to me) when I play solo.
In noisy areas, though, I can hardly hear them, but the chanter always seems to cut through I was amazed at the first session I went to, so I just turned the drones off.
I never thought that tongue depressors were very pretty as keys, but it’s the sound, stupid!
You could also talk to Benedict Koehler as well. I saw him reed his very first Taylor cold with no reference reed. He actually had to make 2 before he was satisfied.
His first staple was smaller at the top and after he tried to play a tune, he ran up the scale listening carefully, then rolled another staple, whipped up another head and put the big end of the staple in the head and had it humming in about 40 minutes from start to handing it back to it’s owner.
I wish I had been sitting in the front of the room when he asked for a chanter to make his demo reed for.
That indicates that it might be somewhat difficult getting them reeded correctly.
"I know there are still plenty of them about .Micheal Dooley has a set and I know of another chap in Cork has a set that never see,s the light of day(kept under his bed )but he wont sell them,Geoff wooff has a staple from a reed from achanter owned by Patsy Touhey but I dont he,ll part with that either " Rory
There are some bona fide Taylor sets in Ireland, and one Taylor set here in Sweden. There are 5 confirmed sets in Ireland: the Cork set, the “Kerry” set, the Galway set, and two sets in Clare. None are for sale which is as it should be
“I’d say there are a few more, the Thomas Kerrigan set is in Ireland, there are chanters knocking about [Iplayed Tommy McCarthy’s Taylor chanter]” Peter
Yes, I was thinking of full sets though. In Clare I only know of the Kerrigan set and Willie Clancy’s old set. Then the Hanafin set over here now. Nothing dubious or mysterious about them. From what I’ve seen it’s not hard to identify a genuine Taylor set or chanter as some claim
The Kerrigan set isn’t in Clare and neither is Willie’s , Billy McCormack’s is though and one in Ennis is supposed to be Taylor though I have never seen it, may be Taylor-ish. I thought you meant those two.
, Billy McCormack’s is though and one in Ennis is supposed to be Taylor though I have never seen it, may be Taylor-ish. I thought you meant those two.