The reason it smokes bad is because of the proximity of Jupiter being the closest it’s been to the Earth in 59 years… It’ll be fine if you just let it sit for a few years in a copper pyramid and by then the Jovian influences will have subsided enough to allow for a pleasant smoke.
I’m always amused buy the types of responses these posts get.
Shitcan it…, put some (insert magical substance of the week here) in the bowl…, sand the chamber to bare wood…, etc.
If the chamber and airway are reasonably clean, there should be little to no effect of any previously smoked tobacco. And after smoking several bowls of whatever you’re smoking, I would expect that any off flavors will be covered up by the tars and oils of the new tobacco.
One method I guess I’d recommend is filling the chamber with activated charcoal and putting the stummel in the oven for a few hours, at around 150-175 F. Use the granulated activated charcoal, the kind that is used for fish aquarium filters. Set the pipe in the oven on some aluminum foil scrunched up so it keeps the stummel level.
Then again, there are blocks of briar that are just off and can’t be resurrected.