The joys and dangers of Ebay pipes

[WalesLax]

The Kintails came in, and it is sort of a mixed bag - positive, they are in most immaculate and untouched condition, negative - the seller did not do a great job of packaging them and the chanter and blowpipes both cracked (clearly they were in one piece when the listing pictures were taken). That’s a chance you take I guess. The positive is that I think I can repair them myself; the negative is that I don’t think they are actually ivory. The positive - for $570 all in, these are going to be a fantastic backup set, once I get them oiled and gently reintroduced to being played.

in many ways, this is literally the joys AND dangers of eBay! 🤣

[DCampbell16B]

I have to say I took a very deep breath when I read that the chanter cracked. The picture showed to be the sole. I started breathing again.

Very nice set. Well done.

[OC Richard]

Oh no!!

I didn't know Kintail was using that stuff.

I know Hardie was, during that time. I was working at a Highland Outfitter in the 1980s who carried Hardie pipes, and Hardie was switching their imitation ivory every few years.

Seems that in the late 70s/early 80s Hardie was using a strange plastic that had a slightly greenish tinge.

Then they switched to that stuff your Kintails has, kind of a marbleized stuff.

We would get shipments of practice chanters and bagpipes from Hardie with broken mounts fairly often. What it was, what the marble effect used two different sorts of plastic, one was brittle, the other was soft, and the mounts tended to crack along the border between the two kinds of stuff. A contributing factor was the Hardie didn't wrap their products very well: they would just toss dozens of loose Blackwood practice chanters in a box and ship them off.

Despite that stuff being brittle, I know of 1980s pipes mounted in it that have been in regular use for over 30 years that haven't had anything crack.

I'm really sorry about those pipes! I thought I saw Schreger lines. Had I known Kintail had used that stuff I would have been on the lookout, but I've seen dozens and dozens of Kintail pipes over the years and I've never seen one with that stuff before.

Sadly Ebay sellers often don't know how to wrap bagpipes. The worst thing is when bagpipes are shipped in a pipe case, because the various parts rattle around inside.

The Kintails I bought on Ebay had a case, but I told the seller I didn't want it. I asked him to bubble-wrap each part separately and put them in an ordinary cardboard box.

BTW for drone reeds my Pipe Major is using Balance Tones in the tenors and an inverted EzeeDrone bass.

So far, I'm using original Kinnairds in the tenors and an inverted EzeeDrone bass.

[imrichmond]

I think a number of pipe makers were using that same "marbleized" imitation ivory in the 1970s and 80s. I can remember one of my students purchasing a brand new set of Kintails around 1976-77 that had the same imitation ivory. I also had for many years a long Naill ABW chanter that dated from about 1979 that had a sole and ferrule of the same material. It was, to my mind at least, a very attractive ivory substitute.

[OC Richard]

I've seen Grainger & Campbells made in the 80s with that stuff. But Kintail surprises me.

I have a couple old Kintail catalogues and they show a plain whitish stuff, not sure what it is.

My Kintails made in 1981 and a friend's full-imitation ivory Kintails made in 1988 both have Catalin, which most pipemakers (Highland pipes and uilleann pipes) had been using since the 1940s if not earlier.

That makes me wonder why a set of Kintails made between 81 and 88 would have that marblised stuff.

Kintail using it in the 1970s makes it doubly strange, like they had both Catalin and the marblised stuff to hand and made pipes out of both through the 70s and 80s.

R G Lawrie used two types of imitation ivory concurrently (Catalin which turned amber and other stuff that stayed white) giving us those two-tone vintage Lawries (both bagpipes and practice chanters).





Another odd thing was that Lawrie would mix real ivory and Catalin. It was common for Lawrie Catalin-mounted sets to have ivory bushes.

Here's the opposite, which I've only seen on this one set: silver & real ivory Lawries with Catalin bushes!



I see this guy at various California Highland Games and I've examined these pipes. They're gorgeous and strange altogether.

[imrichmond]

In the late 1970s and the 1980s, Kintail was also using a material they called "imitation horn", which may have been the same marbleized material but with darker, greyish colouring. I recall that this imitation horn became quite popular, as it was a significant departure from the usual orange catalin and white ivory or imitation mounts. I believe Kintail was the only maker using it in those days. Kintails with chalice top drones and imitation horn ferrules and mounts were particularly distinctive pipes and were easy to spot in bands. Oddly enough, I have seen very few of those sets come up for sale used. Indeed, I can recall seeing only one, on one of the Facebook groups a few months back. It sold quickly, as I recall.

[WalesLax]

Oh no!!

I'm really sorry about those pipes! I thought I saw Schreger lines. Had I known Kintail had used that stuff I would have been on the lookout, but I've seen dozens and dozens of Kintail pipes over the years and I've never seen one with that stuff before.

There is absolutely no reason to be sorry, though I appreciate the sentiment - three people thought those looked like ivory, the seller couldn’t explain more and the pictures he sent weren’t bad, and for $500, it was worth the gamble. My thought had always been, if that is ivory, this is a steal and I’ll play them for special events, and if they aren’t ivory, I have a new fantastic backup set of pipes! I may sell my poly Dunbar set now, because they have never “felt” right to me. It’s not the plastic, it’s probably me, but for some reason, that has always been the most “difficult” set of pipes I have owned or borrowed.

For what it’s worth, I am still playing on eBay, looking for interesting sets to buy and/or post here.

Rob

[WalesLax]

I think a number of pipe makers were using that same "marbleized" imitation ivory in the 1970s and 80s. I can remember one of my students purchasing a brand new set of Kintails around 1976-77 that had the same imitation ivory. I also had for many years a long Naill ABW chanter that dated from about 1979 that had a sole and ferrule of the same material. It was, to my mind at least, a very attractive ivory substitute.

I agree - for an imitation ivory, this marbled material has a very nice look to it!

Rob

[WalesLax]

Not a bagpipe, but an interesting bagpipe related item for sale on eBay.

Rob

[OC Richard]

Yes, and only $10,000!

You can have my copy of Logans Tutor for a mere $9,000

Seems absurd to put such a high price on a book that's still in print.

It is cool when you pick up an old copy of a bagpipe music book and there's old handwritten tunes stuck in between the pages.

Back in the late 1970s I stumbled upon a musty old Scottish imports shop that was closing down and selling everything including all the displays, furniture, decor, etc.

For a few dollars I got a big box of new cane drone reeds (we still used them then), an old Lawrie practice chanter, an old Lawrie goose, various piping supplies, some framed pictures, and a pile of antique pipe music books.

One of the books had evidently been owned by an Irish speaker who had adapted a number of traditional Irish tunes to the Highland pipes (real Irish music, not Tin Pan Alley stuff) with the titles written in old Irish script. Another book had a number of arrangements from a US Army Pipe Band dated in the 1950s.