Age at starting...why?

[Jack Macleod]

I noticed most people started at 30 and older.

Do you think it took most of us (I started at 28 ) all these years to mature and appreciate Irish music/Uilleann pipes?

Or did it take us all these years to make enough money to afford the bloody things?

[Lorenzo]

It just take a lot of time to get things right...there's so much to learn aside from piping techniques. And finding a spare set, that takes a while.

[Antaine]

money is definitely a factor. i became an irish music (and irish-everything) nut when i was a sophomore in HS. Know what started me? a fuzzy recording my grandfather made while at a Tommy Makem and Clancey Bros. concert many moons before. Been hooked ever since.

i played a little whistle, but i really feel my "gateway instrument" was violin, and a whole lot of irish tunes.

not counting my first practice set, which was a birthday gift, i have to work exactly 20 more piping jobs to be able to say my pipes have paid for themselves.

[tok]

I used to spend ALL DAY just to make one reed , and some few of my piping years were spent making reeds , as apposed to playing . But I can live with that as , I am not much for tunes , or for that matter playing the regs , other than on slow airs .
The time I spent regarding the pipes was time well spent , why not injoy somthing you love to do , and savor it ? Of course , there were some sunny days , when I would have been better off outside , as opposed to sitting making reeds . All in all , it has kept me out of trouble , and provides a life time of learning , and if the pipes are well cared for , they can be passed on to the next generation .
tok. lol,,

[fel bautista]

Or did it take us all these years to make enough money to afford the bloody things?

I honestly believe that; I started with fiddle and guitar, fiddle was relatively cheap; my Martin was a gotta have one of these days so I did, but its still less way less than my 1/2 set. My New Generation D whistle was ( at the time) $5.00

Getting started with the pipes is worse than trying to race vintage cars (well almost)-or become a catagory 3 in cycling, wanting/needing the latest and best carbon stuff you could buy- you could buy a full monty Lightspeed or Trek Madone for way less than a Woolf B set.

[djm]

I blame it on the Internet.

I didn't know anyone playing ITM back in the 70s. Just the odd album that drifted this way in the record store, or the very rare Irish group that drifted through town on their way to somewhere else. I met Joe McKenna this way in the early 80s, and was told I'd have to go to Ireland to get a set custom made - way beyond my resources then.

But now look at the wealth of UP info and players and recordings that are available through the Internet. I can go directly to Claddagh and buy albums in the same year they are made. There are more makers than ever, and you can order from them on the Internet, as well.

I don't don't think piping could ever have got beyond Ireland without today's global communication and entertainment networks, but especially the Internet.

djm

[fel bautista]

I blame it on the Internet. ... I don't don't think piping could ever have got beyond Ireland without today's global communication and entertainment networks, but especially the Internet.djm

Yup- I think, without the net, this community would have never happened and it made things better (or worse) for most of us. Took me 25+ years to find someone in So Cal with a set of pipes. Hats off to Gabriel, Pat, Larry, DARPA and all the rest.

[Cayden]

I noticed most people started at 30 and older.

Or did it take us all these years to make enough money to afford the bloody things?

Most people here. And if you all hadn't, prices wouldn't be where they are now. When I started the very most expensive full set had just gone through 1000 punt. My own first full set was around 650. it was only when silly bolloxes from the internet started buying pipes at three times the price their makers were selling them new that things went seriously ridiculous. Piping had travelled well beyond Ireland long before the Internet,pipe ownership has indeed increased since.

[AlanB]

[quote="Peter Laban"]

And if you all hadn't, prices wouldn't be where they are now. quote]

Are you laying the blaming on people who bought pipes "After Pete Laban" for high prices? That reads really smug.

and so what if some makers are very expensive, so they should be. There are good makers around who's prices are reasonable, it's just that people are easily led to believe that there is "only one god" so to speak.

Alan

[Cayden]

Fair enough Alan, there are makers who have reasonable prices, I do think though that post Riverdance [that would be more realistic than your description ] strange things have happened and prices have assumed heights that are not in all cases very realistic. Prices were forced up by people buying sets of pipes at auctions for well over 10K while the maker of these pipes was still turning them out for well under 4. This had an very significant effect on pricing and in it's wake all prices were hiked up considerably. And yes I think the people who brought this about are to blame for the current situation.
Food for thought: I recently had a student set up with a chanter by one maker and bag and bellows by another, both very reputable waiting list carrying makers, for 500 Euro. Your man was a promising 17 year old who just couldn't afford paying the full price. Both makers kindly helped out and admitted they were still making a [albeit very small] profit on the deal [which included chanter, four spare reeds, leather bag and bellows]. Paying well over 1000 for a chanter is OK if it's very well made and very well set up but paying well over 1000 for any chanter?

[tok]

I have to chime in here , in spite of some of my earlier posts , that were miles off topic concerning pitbulls and the like . In any case , I remember the days when a pipemaker was someone who had the guts and saved up enough beer money to get tooled up , and concidered themselves well off , at home in their shop making about 12 bucks an hour , a living wage , and turning out sets in a time frame consistant with the current lifespan of a human being .
I think that even If the set of pipes was made under gods left foot ,,,and vice virca,, lol, it still won't sound good If the reeds don't match the set . So , why get so hung up on the quality of the pipes , when the better half comes into play when the kit is set up with good reeds ??

[jenaceae]

so starting at 42 is too old? ::sigh::

Jenn

[djm]

so starting at 42 is too old?

Age has little to do with it. People here are griping about the cost, and those who bought pipes in Ireland many years ago bemoan how affluent middle aged foreigners have driven prices up through impatience. Mind you, younger people with fresher brain cells, fewer responsibilities and more time on their hands do tend to pick up UPs faster. No reason not to jump in at your age, but be prepared to pay through the nose.

djm

[Piobairi Uilleann Inis Fa]

I am sure that the interest in Irish music and the UPs has increased dramatically, caused by a number of attributes such as Riverdance, the internet, Braveheart, etc. However, the cost of pipes would most definately have risen a great deal anyway or we would have lost most makers or they would only be part-time makers. At $1000 or even $2000 a set, and between 4 and ten sets per year (i.e. Fromment and Wooff, respectively), these guys would be starving today. And in fact the catch 22 here, is the fact that if they worked at making the pipes only part time as they made a living at other jobs, supply would have also been constrained despite the lessor demand. So in all liklihood, even with the lower demand, the lower supply would have left us with long wait lists as well and would have likely resulted is some level of inflation. It is a circular argument, and many new makers arived on the scene due to the increasd demand. Its all about economics in any event, supply and demand, and making a living.

Neil

[James Connelly]

Yes, supply and demand, just good business. I've always suggested buying the best you could afford, and if you have to wait and save, then the better you will take care of your stuff, and in the case of the UP's the better the chance you will learn to play them.(speaking for myself) To much money not to take the time to learn to play them. I like them (practice "D" set)know 1 & 1/2 tunes, new piper, haveing a ball.