does anyone play pipes by these guys or know anything about them
I have met them all but have not played any of their pipes as far as I remember. Tom White is an older guy from the Dan O Dowd/Matt Kiernan school, during the seventies and eighties he was making pipes as a hobby, selling them cheaply to beginners to help them out. He’s a nice man I knew him relatively well and visited him once, around 1987/88 in Wexford in his workshop behind the garage he owned.
Askme,
By Michael, I presume you mean Mickey Dunne. I know Mickey a little and have played his Chanters.They’re very of the Cillian O’Briain (which is where he learned) style of pipes, they are fairly strong, but have some lovely tonal characteristics. He’s a good piper (and goodfella), which helps!
Alan
My impression of Tom White is similar to Peter’s, he was also very helpful at tionóil with people suffering from reed trauma. We were glad to have people like them before the renaissance of professional, research-based pipe-making which occurred in recent years, but I have no idea how his sets would compare with the star makers’.
Michael Dooley was involved in NPU, at least until he moved to Kerry a few years ago. All I can give from my limited knowledge, drawn from a few conversations, is a good “character reference” inasmuch as he’s a fellow-Dub and a decent skin, but again I’ve never seen any work of his. Have you checked out his website? I’ve lost my bookmark to it, but if you have difficulty finding it let me know.
I play a practice set in D by Michael Dooley, have done for the past 2 and half years, its in tune and sounds nice. Hope to make into a half set at some stage. He’s a sound bloke, very helpful and easy to deal with. The workmanship is top notch, my set is ebony with nickel silver ferrules and artificial ivory, chanter top is timber also,
hope its of some help,
Mark.
Michael’s website:
http://homepage.eircom.net/~dooleypipes/