When Ian told me he was dropping the website I asked why… he replied he had a 2 year waiting list and nearly all his customers were from referrals.
Maybe, you’re trying to derail my sale.
Ian doesn’t have a site anymore - doesn’t need one. But he makes ‘budget’ and ‘non-budget’ sets. Many of the pics I’ve seen of his pipes are the budget variety - brass chanter top, limited or no mounts, coffin-shaped bellows etc.
Last quote for a full set, full mounts, imitation ivory , brass, was about AU$8000 incl. case. = about US$5680
Cheers,
DavidG
I like Tony’s Simack chanter, very nice… I would like to see more pics of Ian’s pipes…
Look in the gallery section of my website, the second and third photos of our Brisbane pipers’ group. Guy in the background playing a 3/4 Simack - hard to make out though but you can see the wooden chanter top with stop key mounts.
Cheers,
DavidG
This used to be Tony’s SIMACK full set.
That’s a nice looking set 
Thanks…
I had a CT scan the day it happened (went to the emergency room of the local hospital) and they concluded no tumor, no blood.
The ER Doctors said I had Meniere’s Disease. My family doctor confirmed Meinere’s and the first ENT specailist confirmed Meinere’s.
I later had an MRI with contrast and again, no tumor no blood was found.
I’ve been seeing 2 ENT’s that specialize in neurological disorders and they both say it’s not Meinere’s. Like you they are leaning to ‘some virus’ must have caused it. However, it’s all speculation.
I get different ringing sounds in my ear from time to time slmost like it’s trying to ‘kick in’ and I’m still hoping to have some hearing restored but they all say after 3 months the odds are slight.
How was your recovery?? gradual? did you receive therapy for the loss of balance?
My case was very mild. Initially, I was hearing everything in double in my right ear, but the second time it was slightly delayed and distorted. I couldn’t and still can’t listen on the phone with my right ear. Also, as I’m right handed, I have difficulty tuning my guitar. I have to hold it cello-style and tune using my left ear. I had no dizziness or nausea (apart from that brought on by drink 
). The doc’s advice was more or less, get used to it - my hearing might spontaneously improve some day but otherwise, nothing could be done.
For 99% of what I do in a normal day, I no longer notice the sound distortion. The only exceptions are when I’m trying to communicate with people in a crowd or when there’s too much background noise (machinery, etc). Tuning instruments (guitar, chanter, drones, etc) is tricky. For the guitar, I mostly use an electronic tuner. The chanter I can tune by listening with my left ear. The drones are trickier. My hearing loss is mainly low frequency so the baritone and bass drones are tough to get right.
I have a set of Ian’s pipes that look identical to Tony’s full set shown above. Got them on E-Bay from US for $2500 US last year (Nov). Sent them back to Ian (from Perth to NSW) for an overhaul, which he did for extremely reasonable price. This included new reeds, joints re-done, and some re-boring to his current specifications. Now I just got to learn to play them![/img]