I plan to build me a gadget to measure the air stream of a drone/chanter/reg (for a better comparability and more independence from “feeling”). Would yous know a good measuring instrument to buy for this?
If you want to measure pressure drop across the each reed, you can get a 0-60 in/h2o (or mm/hg) pressure gauge.
I just turned a wind cap with a port to accept a gauge to measure pressure on new chanter reeds.
Tim
It isn´t the pressure but the air consume of the reed I´d like to measure. The pressure-problem is “minor”: You get manometers of 0 - 60 mbs. That is about the range you need.
Isn’t a flow meter used for this kind of thing, giving either flow rate and or totalisation 
I think so, too. Could you recommend one?
Alternatively, I was thinking about this very simple thing: I thought about one of those most flexible air-baloons - you know them; you mostly get them from coin-boxes 
- fix it onto a pipe with a switch, fill it with a certain amount of air and measure the seconds until it is empty - seriously .
I think it is a laminar flow meter you would want for this.
A flow meter used for welding gas or medical O2 could be used.
The floating ball gives you CU/Ft/min at a given pressure.
A new one is about $100cdn, but you see them surplus a lot.
Tim
I gotta question the usefulness of all this. Get yourself a G Marine Band. Tune up your kit, close your eyes and play.
Agreed for tuning (only). This one - depending on usage - might even be cheaper and definitely more convenient as it gives an audible constant drone:
http://cgi.ebay.de/Stimmgerat-Tone-Generator-f-Gitarre-Schlusselanhanger-/370400870927?pt=Allgemeines_Musikinstrumente_Zubehör&hash=item563d9cc20f
That looks like a handy keychain. I’ve suggested before that, although it is possible to tune pipes to a single sine wave, a harmonica gives a nice wide range of frequencies to aim for while tuning pipes. I use a G because that is the key that the regulators are the most flexible with, but a D would work as well. It takes no hands to turn it on and off, just breath in and out and balance the pipes to it. Tuning to a tuning fork, tone generator, or other single pitch doesn’t give your brain much information for balancing the tuning of notes other than the one single frequency of the device. I found that my tendency, while tuning an A to a tuning fork, is to adjust my pressure to satisfy the desired pitch. And while I may be able to get my A to sound perfectly at 440, I can also make it play very sharp or flat. The G harmonica is handy because you can tune your regs to the G chord on the blow, and A’s and D’s on the draw. By running up and down scales while playing the mouth harp in and out, any inconsistencies in notes other than A are immediately recognized, and the pipes adjusted accordingly. I think it helps to give your brain all the information it can simultaneously process.