Forgive me, as I suspect this was covered before. I live in Michigan, have
a D chanter (Roberts), humidify the room, and play with other instruments. My chanter is playing well and is in tune in both the 1st and
2nd octive, except for the back D, which is almost a half step flat and gets
worse with pressure. Any suggestions as to how to remedy this?
By the way, as a newbie, many thanks to all the experienced players who
have taken the time to answer our basic questions.
Hi avalk,
One question - why do you humidify the room? Perhaps that is your problem - excess humidity weakening the back D. Just a guess. I live in a very humid climate and I find that on an average summer’s day with humidity often up in the 90% region, my back d can get a bit weak. Playing in a dry, air-conditioned room seems to help strengthen it.
Just a thought.
Regards,
DavidG
I with Ausdag on this, living in Florida and playing here is a humid affair 80% of the time. Turning the humidifier down a notch or two may help. You may also want to experiment seating the reed in or out (which I believe Ausdag has already mentioned), and/or sliding the bridle (carefully) up or down the read head to try and fine tune it. Toward the bindinding sharpens it, toward the reed’s lips flattens it…likewise with seating the reed…the further in sharpens it and vice-versa. Good luck! 
Bubba Burger, you ever live in Michigan? It’s dryer than shite right now, just like here in Milwaukee, directly across the big lake.
Never lived in Michigan…but I grew up in Duluth Minnesota, and it gets pretty dry during the winter there…especially if you are away from the largest body of fresh water in the world (or as they say in Duluth, ‘over the hill’)…but you would know that too.
avalk, do you know who made your reed? If it was Roberts, or someone that knows how to fashion a narrow staple for Roberts, drying out your place may help, but ½ step flat on the back D would rather suggest the wrong reed/staple. Reeds made for regular wide bore chanters will do that immediately on most narrow-medium bore Roberts chanters.
Humidify the room, sink the reed, and push the bridle a fraction of a mm up towards the reed lips. Those Roberts reeds are notorious for not working over here in the US. Many a great pipers from Ireland have had reed problems here.
avalk,
I have a Roberts chanter and have observed the following behaviour with the reeds as I move the opening of the reed lips from very closed (opening the same width as a single lip) to very open (opening about four times the thickness of a single lip).
- Back D flat and top hand 1st 8ve flat, 1st & 2nd 8ve E and bottom D sharp, bottom hand 1st octave unstable (gurgling bottom D, ect.).
- Back D on and stable, both octaves in tune, bottom D stable. Entire chanter vibrates (most pronounced 1st 8ve F,G,A).
- Back D flat (along with most of 1st & 2nd 8ve), second 8ve very hard to get and maintain. Very loud.
The adjustments between these areas are very, very small (some on this board have use the term “width of a spider leg”). I don’t know what kind of bridle you are using, I use one that is left in the same spot just below the scrape. I just squeeze the sides or the flat with my fingers to open or close the opening a tiny bit.
The other thing you may want to do is look at the edges of the reed from the inside through the eye to look for tiny edge leaks. I usually hold it up to a window. If you have a small leak, you can use a pastey mixture of beeswax and olive oil to seal the edge.
I live in the dry year round so your mileage may vary. I do know that when I took my reeds that were working quite well at home to the lovely (in a humid sort of way) State of Alabama, I could play for about 45 minutes before everything would go way flat and the reed could not be opened enough to stop the bottom D from gurgling.
Good Luck,
John
still a rabid newbie
DISCLAIMER: This information may or may not apply beyond 150 foot radius of the center of my living room. Any implied or inferred preference for any pipers or pipemakers living or dead, piping techniques, or music in general, is purely a figment of your imagination and should not be construed to be the policy of the management.
Hey John, you may also want to talk with Dave R. about llama spit. He says it coats reeds quite well, and can cure just about any leaks - including air passing through the reed at all! 
Supposed to be better than all these waxes being used now… 
Public notice: I have never used living or dead Llama parts and no Llamas were harmed in any way in the production of this posting.
I am however, working on a flat back D problem in a dry climate.
Dave
Speaking as a regular ‘over-scraper’, I have found that the more you scrape a reed, the flatter the back D becomes. Therefore, I reckon that it might have been a little over-scraped, but I’d say that the humidity issue is more at fault. If the note becomes gradually flatter when more pressure is applied, bridle adjustment should improve things. However, if the note reaches a sudden point where it drops in pitch, the lips are too thin and need to have a slither chopped off with a stanley knife (utility knife). I suggest that you have a good search on the net about reed adjustments before stepping things up a notch with a knife - (I’ve found David Daye’s adjustment chart useful for finding the right cure for a given problem).
Something that is not always included on reed adjustment pages is a disclaimer mentioning that it is possible to kill a reed with repeated adjustments so although reed adjustment skills are often a necessity for pipers to learn, remember to go easy with it and play the reed in for a few minutes before making an adjustment.
Good luck.
Anyone think there’s a possibility he’s just overblowing it half a step flat? A lot of reed/chanter combinations play sharp back D’s with a bit of blowing, then drop to the solid pitch with just a bit more. But if you push past that they’ll drop half a step flat and get worse with blowing. That’s what they do. They aren’t Highland chanters, they blow flatter, not sharper.
Also, I’ve had to clip Roberts reeds a bit to get them to play true in the upperhand/back D etc. But we don’t know this, because the guy’s a beginner and openly announced it.
As others have mentioned, we don’t know either if it’s just a case of shoving the reed in a bit more or not.
Royce