Drone reed advice.

[LarryM]

I have had a problem with the bass drone reed of my pipes. The tenor and baritone play great but the bass reed has always caused a problem.

I really think that the problem would be best remedied by replacing the bass drone altogether. I do not want to ask Davy Stephenson as I understand Davy is unfortunately not in the best of health.

Also Jeff (Anima) has very kindly offered to make me a new bass reed drone (my hero!!), however my question is......

I can make chanter reeds without a problem (they are playable) so how much of a challenge should making a bass drone reed be, as I like to be reed self sufficient?

Davy uses composite reeds, however what changes would I see with say Elder or cane reeds? Do these need more or less air? More adjusting I suppose!

The composite reed seems to take a lot of air when playing, is this probably just due to it's overall poor functioning, or is it normal for the bass reed to take a lot of physical work to keep going? I mean a lot of work!!

All suggestions/ help gratefully received.

[djm]

Larry, elder/cane reeds seem to work best for people in more humid and more stable climates. I would be the first to agree they sound better than composites, but the composites never quit. In fact, they are more reliable than chanter reeds. I guess what I'm getting at is that your own circumstances may dictate that a composite is necessary, even though not better than a drone reed of natural material.

djm

[LarryM]

Thanks DJM, my problem basically is my house is really dry, my pipes fell apart when I first got them from Davy due to shrinkage LOL.

I have gotten everything re-adjusted, ie all the joints tightened, but I never was convinced that the bass reed was ever right..

So given a Sahara like climate, would I be better sticking with composites then?

Thanks

[djm]

Well, IMHO, you would be best off finding someone else in your area and find out what they are using. If they are using cane/elder, wheedle a reed out of them. If there's no-one near to hand, find someone in a similar climate to yours and find out how they cope. If they're using cane/elder, wheedle a reed out of them. If you're sick to death of frigging around with the damned thing, buy or make a composite reed and spend your time/energy playing. This is the composite reed's real strong point.

djm

[LarryM]

Thanks DJM.

I have asked Boyd to comment, as he lives up across the border.

Jeff has very kindly offered to send me one of his composites over, and no doubt could help me out if I want to make one eventually.

I think Davy might also still have a section on his site on making drone reeds. One way or the other I will just replace the thing.

Davy instructed me on the phone how to adjust it, but the reed eventually got a little bit over done, and refuses to play without taking the drone out every couple of minutes, it takes a lot of pleasure out of playing when things have to be adjusted like this all the time.

In the meantime I'll just stop the bass drone and continue with the baritone and tenor.

Thanks again for your valued advice and help.

[Davey]

Larry,
I use a similiar composite design as Bruce Childress. Both Bruce and I use composite reeds exclusively. I have found them to be cost effective, consistent, and stable.

What kind of bass drone issues are you having?

[LarryM]

Hi Davey,

Thanks for your help.

When I took delivery of the pipes from Davy Stephenson, the bass drone reed was very temperamental. It would sound for a few minutes then either lock up completely or start to make a roaring type sound.

Davy advised me that I should keep gently flicking the reed upwards and away from the staple tube. However eventually the reed stopped playing altogether probably through too much adjusting.

Davy suggested that he send me a new reed through the post, but one way or another I never received it, and I am not inclined to phone Davy about it since I understand that like myself his health is not 100%

I have been meaning to send the pipes up to Davy to take a look at the reed, but what with my own health not too good, a hospital admission etc I never got around to sending them.

This really leaves me stuck with a faulty reed.

The pastic of the reed seems to have gotten stretched beyond the point where it loses it's recoil. It has lost it's memory Davy would call it.

Like I say I can make an acceptable chanter reed, nothing brilliant but playable all the same, and was wondering how difficult it would be to start making my own drone reeds.

[djm]

For what its worth, my composites are made by coring a hard maple dowel, filling one end with cork and wax, just like on a cane reed, filing down one end/side with a VERY flat file to mount the tongue. The tongue is sugar pine from old recycled piano keys. This is glued on with Crazy Glue (sorry, I can't remember how to spell cyano-acrylic whatever). The tongue is then sanded down on the edges to match the sides of the dowel. The tongue is further shaved/shaped to get it to play. For a bridle I use 0.25"automotive O-rings. Sometimes a bit of wax is needed on the tip of the tongue, again just like with cane reeds.

Hope that helps,

djm

[giles b]

if you get a good cane or elder reed made properly and out of good cane it should last you for ages. I think that through the Uilleann Pipe obsession page you can get good drone reed cane or find someone who doea, perhaps Pat Darcy knows. Anyway, the elder reeds I have lasted for years before becoming leaky (difficult to play, needing a lot of air) they still sound lovely but hard to play so I made cane ones that continue to work. I made some new cane drone reeds for my flat pipes because the ones that came with them started to go up in pitch when it started to get dry here in NY. Just yesterday I put them back in as the ones I made began playing up and with a little adjustment, the original ones are working a treat. I guess that what I am trying to say is that with the pipes comes the necessity to be able to adjust the reeds etc to keep it all going and i do believe that cane is better than composite reeds.

[fancypiper]

If you want less fussing with drones, composite it the way to go.

If you want that buzzing sound in your lap (coming from the mainstock) but sometimes major fussing to get them stable/playing, go for quills.

I use composites in my D set as I play it in public at our gigs, so reliability and stability is the key.

I love the quills in my C set and I play this set for me, so I fuss with it a lot when I play the drones.

I use a brass body and cane tongue myself, with hardware store O-rings for a bridle.

Once I get a good tongue playing at the air I want it to use and stable with my needed bag pressure changes, it works with me very seldom touching anything except the tuning slides of the drones.

These aren't quite as "rich" sounding as quills, but they always get complements from other pipers on their sound, which is rather "big" sounding.

I have heard you can make the bodies of hardwood and use cane tongues and get nearly the same tone as quills, but I have no personal experience with that.

It seems as if tenor drone quills are scarce.

[Tony]

I have one cane drone reed that refused to play. I passed it over a match and it's much better now.
A few weeks ago, I snagged a composite bass drone reed (what's with me killing bass drones reeds?) against the table and it broke. I tried some pre-cut plastic hobby strips with no luck.
Suprisingly, I was able to get a sliver of balsa wood to work. Sill in 'experimental mode' I tried a thin strip of brass... it works OK and it's still in there now.

[boyd]

The climate where I am is variable.
It can get very dry here, in UK terms.
Both Sean Potts and Robbie Hannan have noticed it when they were over....Séan's chanter popped out of the bag neck during a concert ...the hemping had shrunk!

I hemp joints regularly.
I keep a slightly damp cloth in the case.

Drone reeds have generally been stable in different weathers, all the same

Boyd

[boyd]

Hanging out with more experienced pipers is the best way to sort out the common reed problems.

Making reeds is all very well, but sometimes a simple tweak can make all the difference.


Which type of reed would I vote for??

Whichever works best for me!!
I have cane reeds, with one or two having plastic tongues. The one wholly composite reed I have is fine too...but the best tone comes from another reed.

Boyd


Boyd

[Kevin L. Rietmann]

Drone reeds are a snap to make, whatever the type. If you can make a chanter reed drone reeds'll be no problem.
I'm a fan of the elder reeds. There are various posts which discuss them. If you're going to go with composite I'd try some softer materials out. Sugar pine's VERY soft, for instance. Maybe spruce? Benendict Koehler has made double reeds out of spruce, which of course is used for guitar/violin tops, piano soundboards, etc, and is fairly dimensionally stable. I made some dowel reeds out of harder tropical woods once, with cane tongues. Not bad, but I'd be more interested in trying out the softer materials, you might get a softer or more buzzy tone and some of the composite's reliability.
I wrote about shaping the socket end of a staple by filing it as it spins in the hand drill I tie reeds up with. Ted chimed in saying you can do this just as well by spinning it on your lap. This would be great for drone reed ends too.