Mostly just out of curiousity, I was wondering if anyone has used a “second party” reedmaker (not their pipemaker) before to reed up a chanter? I am getting ready to try such a thing to reed up one of my spare chanters for a friend to use and, quite honestly, the low cost of the reedmaker is worth not bothering to make a reed for it myself.
Maybe send me replies directly?
One of the main purposes in an open forum is the sharing of information.
Sending replies directly would nullify others gaining benefit from your question.
Many of the pipers here have tried 3rd party reedmakers. All that I know of recently have had great success.
There have been a few horror stories from years ago about chanters being modified to suit the reed… hopefully those days are over.
You advertise yourself as a pipemaker. To many, learning the art of reedmaking comes long before the acquiring the skills of pipemaker. Why then would it be so hard a task not to handle yourself?
God willing!
FYI - Your web site’s Taylorique pics are not working.
Elbowmusic states this himself in his blog. One thing I do know is that reeds can chew up a helluva lot of a pipemaker’s time. Finding a good reedmaker to outsource to is probably a good idea. Pipemakers I know see red about one thing more than anything else, and that’s customers expecting the pipemaker to down tools at the drop of a hat to re-reed a chanter because said customer couldn’t keep his fat-nosed pliers away from the original after only a day and then getting shirty because the pipemaker expects a fee. No wonder we’re seeing waiting lists going through the roof.
OK, Elbowmusic said clearly that, while he could make a reed for the chanter, the third party had a low price that was hard to say no to. He just came to this forum to ask if people had any luck with third party reedmakers, not for a discussion on his right to claim to be a pipemaker.
I have had good luck and good service by using a certain third party reed maker. I am not sure if it is ok to state his name here. The moderator might have a hard time deciding if this is appropriate, since it is . . . himself. Of course it helps that he lives in a very similar climate to where I live and I think that is an important consideration in picking a reed maker, although my main chanter is a KQ with a BK reed, made in Vermont and now being played in swampy Houston, Texas with no problems whatsoever.
For the record I have also made reeds but do not have the time right now to mess with it.
Agreed. If you read Elbow’s www site, you’ll soon figure out that he is apprenticing in Seth Gallagher’s workshop… which to me says something about Elbowmusic’s knowledge of both pipes and reeds… it says to me he knows how to do those things to (at least) some good degree of success.
As John pointed out, Elbowmusic’s question isn’t about his pipemaking, it is about whether or not using a third party reed maker is a good idea. Beyond this, I really cannot comment further as I am a third party reed maker.
Let me see… I need to correspond with the reedmaker, write the check, pack the chanter, go to the post office and wait in line, wait 2 or 3 weeks for it to come back, test it and make evaluations or adjustments.
That’s about the same time as making a reed.. isn’t it?
Unless it’s for the experience how someone else might make the reed.
I think that the wait for a new reed from a pipe maker could be considerably longer. Your mileage may vary from maker to maker.
Always call ahead so there aren’t any suprises. You certainly don’t want to send a chanter out and later find the pipemaker was away for 2 weeks visiting family!
My experience has been a 2-3 week turnaround with US makers. That was a few years ago. O’Grady was making reeds in batches so I coordinated my order with his next group but it wasn’t a long wait either. I know I had to wait longer for Mackenzie when I ordered 10 reeds at one time. Probably 5-6 weeks but I didn’t need to send the chanter.