The outrageous cost of pipes

Uilleann Pipes
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I’ve been following this thread with something akin to “wry amusement”. It’s ironic that I’ve gone from one underpaid and undervalued career to another. I was a teacher for many years and always found it frustrating to listen to people who have never taught etc. complain that teachers are to blame for all their kid troubles and they are overpaid and get too much vacation time..I mean C’MON, they have their summers OFF! Right? My wife is a daycare provider, and at the end of the year when we figure out what she made “per hour” for all the time she put’s in..she makes nearly $2.50 per hour…no healthcare included.

So, I’ve not taken offense to anything said..er typed, but I would like to offer a different perspective, or maybe just behave as the devil’s advocate.

Alright. If pipes are too expensive, how much SHOULD they cost? Let’s take a chanter. What’s it worth to you as a customer?

Let’s go with a simple D chanter made from african blackwood, brass top, im. ivory mounts. So…how much SHOULD it be priced at? I mean, really…how do you take into account the years of study and experimentation, the equipment, the vast array of supplies, the TIME involved.?

David Quinn had it right when he said that pipemakers are really people who have no other choice..they are so obsessessed and driven to make these instruments, nothing else will do.

Stradavarious aside, I’ve seen Cello Bows sell for more than a full set of Wooff’s.

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I had a dream once that I found a full set of Uilleann pipes in the pink Barbie section at a local super store. The box they were in had a clear plastic window for looking at the regulator keys. You could get a Barbie (with accessories), a miniature guitar and UP’s all on one isle. I was glad to wake up from that one….

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Which Barbie did you end up getting? :boggle:

djm

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No way! Me too! :astonished:

Judge.

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GHB Barbie. She came with a kilt.

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in 400 years? who knows?

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the problem is, that unlike virtually every other instrument on earth, there lacks a low-range student model.

Obscene antique fiddles aside, my friends’ “professional” or orchestral instruments - and I’m talking violin, clarinet, viola, lever harp, trumpet and a few others. Those first “professional” instruments run them $1200 - $3000, roughly equivalent to a Childress class of pipes, but still $800 short of it. The superduper pro models that most bother to get can run $5000-$8000, again, in line with an upper-class of UP. But all those instruments can be bought “in stock.”

However, what is lacking is the beginner and intermediate instrument, and I mean a FULL instrument. I’m not talking about a practice set.

I have an intermediate trumpet…very nice, a Getzen. Ran me $600 and change. It wasn’t a “practice” trumpet…a bugle with no valves. Violins are made from wood and start (like most of the crappy asian instruments of all types) at $100, but like the others, decent student and intermediate models run $500-$800. They don’t come with one string. Harps don’t come “student” with levers to be added when one upgrades. clarinets don’t come with bare holes and no keywork…neither do student or intermediate flutes.

so, in general, a student model instrument (the kind you see in school bands) runs $100-$200 and decent, playable, intermediate models run $500-$800. THAT is what we’re missing. The problem is not that uilleann pipes are overpriced compared to other instruments…the sets made by hand fit right in between $3000-$12000. One would expect as much from a hand made trumpet or violin or clarinet.

What is missing is the student model. The problem is, our equvalent to the $100 chinese or korean violin is a $2000 or $3200 set of pakistani pipes. Would that yamaha could make a brass-and-molded-plastic full set (much akin, in principle, to Daye’s pipes) like they do clarinets with all their keywork THEN maybe we wouldn’t be comparing apples and oranges…

It wouldn’t take much…especially not in this day of CAD programs and molding equipment. Just some reliable plans and the will to rig the machines for them. It wouldn’t put a single pipemaker out of business.

Perhaps its an age thing, but the music majors I know who own and play GHB are doing so not because they actually wanted to play GHB…every one wanted to play the UP, but couldn’t afford a set, or actually wanted to get it in their hands before completing the second half of their undergrad (oh, what nerve :roll: )

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PS - 'nother teacher here, too…and a Catholic school teacher at that, so take a public school teacher, halve the already pitiful salary and take away the union protecting your underpaid arse from tuition-paying parents who honestly believe that they’re paying for their kid to get an A, not for you to teach them anything…

:roll:

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Please do! I think the tradition of pipemaking needs greater strength these days. I don’t have a problem with high costs, but I think each person who is able to, and has the passion, should consider pipemaking.

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I just priced a RT fare through Boston. And then one through NYC. And then one through Atlanta.

The cheapest was $987 for travel in August.

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What’s that got to do with the price of pipes? Strikes me as quibbling in the wrong direction. I was responding to J Maguire’s post of falling airfares.

djm

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About as much as the whole discussion will have on the price of pipes as this market space is purely market-driven. Demand is higher than ever; there are more pipemakers than ever; sales and marketing are easier than ever; sourcing materials is better than ever; worldwide information availability is better than ever.

There will be no decline in pipemaking or pipes sales for quite some time (if ever). Since the market is now global, pipemakers and sales are virtually guaranteed a constant demand from an area where an economy is thriving.

The time curve for an individual piper to acquire that favorite, great instrument is 5-10-15 years. That alone means plenty of secondary sets/items for sale.

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yeah, but a big company like yamaha has the experience, teams on payroll, equipment and suppliers it would take to keep cost of production down. I’m sure they pay less for raw materials because of how much they buy, for instance.

true, demand is probably why it hasn’t already been done, but there is demand out there…for beginners and experienced players’ travel sets. even a single machine turning out UPs could make at tidy sum at $500 or $600 each.

I can’t imagine any new piper that would opt for a $600 or $700 practice set when a full set could be had with no wait for the same or less…it also might increase the number of pipers who use the regs when they play. UP without the regs are just an oversized set of smallpipes.

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I disagree. When you can appreciate the Chanter and Drones without regulator accompanyment, and you don’t feel the need for there to be any regulator accompanyment, then you are starting to truly attain that sense of one-ness with your music. Regs are nothing more than an added bonus - akin to the foot pedals on a pipe organ. I would much rather hear good, skilled chanter work than anything on regulators. Not that that doesn’t mean that I don’t like them, or that I don’t aspire to play them. I just don’t believe they are an equally necessary part of irish piping. Neither do a number of other prominent pipers…apparently, anyway. Hence I judge a player on his or her ability on the chanter and chanter alone. But they do make a set look all that more impressive :slight_smile:

Cheers,

DavidG

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I already have a Bb chanter, actually a bit longer than a Bb chanter, hanging from below my belt buckle…oh. Never mind. You meant something else.

Royce

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I’m not going to touch this…er…perhaps I could’ve selected another way of putting this… :blush: