Hi All - Recently I bought a lightly used Savinelli and the it smelled sour and ashy. It had very little if any cake and I lightly scrapped and sanded the bowl and cleaned with isopropyl alcohol. Still smelled. So I sanded a little more and soaked with Jameson for several hours. To my delight she sweetened up nicely. It remains to be seen if she smokes sour and needs more cleaning but I am happy for now.
In my experience, sour, funky tastes and smells are associated with build-up of tars and crud in the mortise and airways, as opposed to the ashy smell of a ghosted bowl.
I'd get lots of cleaners and q-tips and a good supply of alcohol and give the airways a good clean. Often dry cleaners won't reveal much if the pipe has not been smoked in a while as the crud within is inspissated and dry.
I often leave an alcohol-soaked cleaner in the shank overnight. Surprising how black and filthy it is when taken out the next morning.
Likewise the stem. Be careful with alcohol and acrylic stems. If the stem is acrylic, clean with cleaners and liquid soap.
Good luck.
