How much do different reeds affect loudness?

Baen · Post by **Baen** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 10:22 pm

How much can you affect the loudness of a particular set of pipes (both chanter and drones) through changing the reeds?

Knowing very little about the fine art of reeds and reedmaking, I don't know if this is possible or not. Some guides to reedmaking on the internet seem to launch right into the making of a reed, without any discussion of whether one wants a hard reed or soft reed, a loud reed or quiet reed, or the overall quality of sound. I would assume that the type of cane used, as well as the physical construction of the reed, would both change depending on what type of sound one is looking for.

The reason I ask is that I'd like my half set to be quieter for playing indoors. I live in a small place, and so there aren't many places for the sound to go. For someone in a larger place, this probably wouldn't be as much of an issue.

thanks for any thoughts,

Baen

goldy · Post by **goldy** » Wed Oct 18, 2006 12:50 am

Baen,

You are right in your assumptions about what makes a reed quieter or louder. The chanter material and design will contribute, but it is largely in the reed.

The thinking is that hard cane makes loud reeds and soft cane makes quieter reeds (I have found this mostly to be true), but I think that reed design contibutes the most. You can make a soft cane reed with thick edges and a big bridle to muffle it, but this won't be a good reed. I got into reed making because I wanted to make quieter reeds so I can appreciate your focus.

The final design I settled on in my quest for a quiet reed was one with very thin lips (about 0.2-0.25mm) and a small lip opening (distance between the lips = about 0.5mm). When you close a reed right down like this, it doesn't vibrate very easily so you have to scrape/sand a bit more than normal to get adequate vibration at the lips. This sort of reed is more likely to fail early on, but once you've honed your skills enough to easily repeat such a reed, you can get away with it. I determine whether I've been successful in making a quiet reed by comparing the pipes against a penny whistle - if the pipes are the same volume or slightly quieter than the C note on the whistle (just held between the lips and blown without covering any holes), I know that I won't be able to quieten the reed any further. I usually play in a very small room where the pipes sound very loud so I like to double check against the whistle before I go fiddling with the reed.

Another warning - bear in mind that very thin lips cause the back D note to break easily and a very closed reed will cause the back D to play flat/bottom D to gurgle. You may therefore need to scrape the reed until the gurgle goes which compounds the flat back D and then raise the bridle to fix it. You will have to learn to regognise the limit in how quiet a reed can be made (I went through years of frustration before I recognised it).

I don't know what will work for your chanter, but my reed specs are as follows:
Overall length - 78mm in most cases (no shorter than 76mm)
Staple - 50mm with a 1.6mm eye
Slip - 100mm long, 12.6mm wide, *1.2mm thick, 0.3mm edge thickness, 28mm tails with corners rounded
Sanding block/Former - 50mm

*the 1.2mm slip thickness will vary according to the cane tube thickness, but all other measurements remain constant

I hope this helps

Baen · Post by **Baen** » Wed Oct 18, 2006 9:53 pm

Many thanks, Goldy-- this was exactly the type of information I was hoping for.

Baen

gregorygraham · Post by **gregorygraham** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 7:40 am

I live in a small place, and so there aren't many places for the sound to go. For someone in a larger place, this probably wouldn't be as much of an issue.

Have you tried playing in a clothes closet? Clothes hanging all around makes great sound insulation. Sounds weird I know, but it works.

Joseph E. Smith · Post by **Joseph E. Smith** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 7:42 am

gregorygraham wrote:
I live in a small place, and so there aren't many places for the sound to go. For someone in a larger place, this probably wouldn't be as much of an issue.
Have you tried playing in a clothes closet? Clothes hanging all around makes great sound insulation. Sounds weird I know, but it works.

... yes, and eventually you'll come out of the closet to play, and not be troubled by the opinions of others.

idiotboynumber1 · Post by **idiotboynumber1** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 3:23 pm

"The chanter material and design will contribute"

what type of wood would be regarded as giving a quieter or more mellow sound for a chanter?

goldy · Post by **goldy** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 5:10 pm

idiotboynumber1 wrote:what type of wood would be regarded as giving a quieter or more mellow sound for a chanter?

As a rule of thumb, the harder woods (i.e. ebony and blackwood) are the brighter toned chanters, thereby making them seem louder. The softer woods are more mellow (e.g. boxwood). However, the chanter design can throw this rule of thumb out the window. For example, I've played an ebony version of my chanter which seemed really loud (great tone though) and I've tried a blackwood chanter made by Ian Mackenzie that had a really mellow tone (kinda like Davy Spillane's sound). I play a tallowood chanter, which is much like boxwood and has a sweet sound as you would expect.

It seems that nothing is black & white in uilleann pipes land!