We all know that the likes of Williams,wooff and froment have huge waiting lists but what are the waiting times for other makers?Someone I know is looking for a practise set and wants to weight up reputation against waiting time
RORY
There’s a really good practice set (or chanter atleast) available 2nd hand on this list at:
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=20150
Patrick.
ahh secondhandphobioitios
Too bad you can’t practice while waiting for your practice set or, wait, maybe not, send for my Air Chanter Practice Kit instructions. In that lesson, I’ll teach you how to simulate blowing a set of bellows (both leaky and tight), playing different pitches of chanters, and how to adjust your air reed (and what to mutter when you look at it).
Seth Gallagher’s website (http://www.uilleann.com) estimates a 10-month wait. Seth’s delivery estimates are usually right on target.
No E
Perhaps you could include the average wait time as part of your pipemaker bio pages. 
djm
I would think that unless a maker is regulary constructing sets for “off the shelf” production sets, then the year wait is going to be at least as long as you will wait. Wood, as rumors have it, takes a very long time to stabilize and bores have to be fine tuned after a long period of time.
From what I’ve garnered, you can’t simply create a set over a month and send it out. The aging process is part of the precise process of making the uilleann pipes and thus a cultural and refined part of ordering a set and it’s inherent time expectations. Thoughts?
Who is that addressed at djm? I think it’s a great idea but there is no way on God’s green earth, come hell or high water or in a blue moon that the list could possibly ever in reality be kept up to date.
Amen,
PD.
If the maker can work in batches or knows what is going to sell for a few years in advance the work can be ‘staged’ to allow proper seasoning so the delays won’t be related to ‘waiting on the wood’.
I think Seth works this way.
Hey Tony,
Yes you’re mostly right on that. Seth does have a bit of a production line going - of the highest quality I might add. There are custom components, naturally, but generally speaking it works very well for him, and obviously he’s able to get those sets out quicker.
Whip it, into shape!!
Pat, reference was intended for RoryBB following this related thread: http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=20996&sid=0ab83e662cdbafbdcab92258cf88c5b6
Paul, that is also my understanding. the bore isn’t reamed all at once, but in
progressive stages, with the wood being allowed to rest/stabilize for a week
or more between cuttings. As to stocking wood, you can’t ever be too certain
of what you’re buying, even if it is being sold as “kiln-dried”. In order to meet
the suggested stocking plan, a pipemaker would need to know five years in
advance that he was going to become a pipemaker. These things (sufficient
stock put by) take time to develop.
If you ever get a chance to watch the progress of a set of pipes in the
making you come to appreciate that a year’s wait isn’t much to ask at all.
djm