The reed is sitting in nice. There is no more room to tune and it is like C#. Not sure what to do. Move string bridle to close tongue to it either shutting down or little tone change. Help?!?
Assuming that this is a D set, it sounds like your reed is too flat. If you have some sort of ballast attached to the drone reed tongue, try taking a little bit off – that should sharpen it some. If it’s too sharp you can add back a little of the wax or poster putty – that’ll flatten it again.
If the tongue has no weight on it, you can carve some weight off the tip, assuming it is a cane drone reed.
I have no wax on it at it…from all that I have read about drone reeds I am still lost where to turn now…it is a cane reed, looking to get to D. if I shave the back of the tongue that will be irreversible, that’s gonna be my last resort. The tuning slide on the drone is down all the way, still looking at C#…
A possible, reversible ‘test’ would be to take a short length of Dental Floss ( I can hear Ted screaming 
) and tie a single knot a trifle above your permanent bridle. This may, or may not close down your easy sounding reed, but will do for a test. If this will still sound, see if you have successfully brought your drone up a ‘smidge’.
If you cannot sound the drone, you should be able to roll the reed a little between your fingers and ‘ease’ the reed enough to sound it. Explore just how far up you might be able to slide this temporary ‘cinch’ without closing down the reed, and if you can bring it nearly up to pitch. This will give you an indicator of what you might be able to do with your permanent bridle. So far, nothing you cannot reverse.
If you cannot bring the pitch up with the temporary ‘cinch bridle’ without making the reed unacceptably balky, you may be left with unreversible options; such as the suggestion Ted gave, or possible very delicately shortening the overal length of the reed. . .a ‘white-knuckle’ alternative I employ with a ‘0’ jeweler’s saw.
Bob
What is an aprox bass reed length? Thanks for all the help. Cheers
Key of D 9/32 x4" cane size for the bass drone reed
Key of C 9/32x4 1/4" for the bass drone reed
Cutting it shorter will sharpen it?
Before cutting I tried a tenor reed and I am in the ballpark for D. Isn’t that odd?
Drone theory? Can’t we take on something easy like relativity or string theory? 
What is an aprox bass reed length? Thanks for all the help. Cheers
I gotta ask, who made your drones? Is this troublesome bass drone their’s or from some other source?
A baritone reed is close because it will “step down” and vibrate with greater strength at half its natural freq. . . .like emphasizing the off beats. The same would be true for a tenor, but emphasizing the pulse one in four. In my experience this is an unstable situation and leads to wonky drones.
Shortening the body of a reed will generally bring it up in pitch to a degree. . .but too much and the proportions can get out of whack and a reed will then get balky or unstable.
The idea is to match the drone reeds natural fundamentals to the fundamentals of the drone itself. So much for theory.
Bob
Its a van Daal full set. The privious owner fashioned his own bass drone reed which worked for a while. I am not able to replicate it. It is small as tenor reed with metal tongue tied on. Odd but it worked. Now full size bass drone reeds are not quite there. I have got to make it to some workshops. I think pipe maintenance is as tough as playing. Thanks all for help. Cheers
Without a ‘factory’ drone reed to work from, you’ll have to do a little bit of research on some basic measurements of your pipes. First, if you can, try to determine the diameter of the top end of the standing (butt) section of the drone. This will be just below the reed seat. Measure the max-min of the reed seat as well since whatever reeds you’ll attempt have to seat well and airtight or they’ll lead you astray. It would also be good to measure the outlet of the standing section before it enters the ‘trumpet’ or folded section of the drone. This will be a clue as to whether there is appreciable taper to the drone and just how sophisticated (or not!) the drone design is.
Write these measures down. Unless you give up the pipes you’ll need to know this SOMETIME.
If you are attempting a cane reed, you will have to search both up and down from the diameter of the standing section. At or near the diameter of the standing section is the norm for most modern drones. Too far away can lead to instability. Hegarty gives a good summary of drone guill sizes. . .but these are not ironclad. Longer, and sometimes shorter can also be found to work. Hegarty and Garvin also note that sometimes the bass resonator spool must be removed before a good reed can be fitted. (Or as it was once colorfully expressed to me by an old-timer:There are some sh*te drones in the world!)
A real reed Guru, like Ted. will have a box full of “master reeds” and should be able to quickly search through them to find a usable match, and use that to make up a useable reed. If you go to a workshop you should be blessed by meeting up with someone like this. As long as you have your set, you should keep information about your reeds at hand. Anyone buying them from you will thank you as well.
Bob
Thanks so much for the info. Van Daal makes great pipes I am just too green to get it sorted out on my own. Learning from folks like you is a big help. A hands on piper would be the best thing right now. But I’m in no rush. Thanks again. Cheers
why not send a mail to Marc and order a new drone reed
I have the same drone reeds of his make for 10 years now
Oh I did and this is the reed I am working on. Just not tuning to D. C c# at best. It must be length.
With the slide closed as short as possible and no reed in it, put one end of the drone close to your ear and tap a finger on the opening of the other end. The empty pipe will produce a pitch from the tapping. If the pitch you hear (the natural resonance of the drone) is flat of D, the drone itself is too long. If the pitch is sharp of D, futzing with the reed will help. Shortening the tongue by slightly moving the bridle is the first step. Shortening the reed will change to pitch some, but probably not enough to solve the problem. Taking weight off the tip or end of the tongue, up to an inch or so long of a scrape is the best solution, if closing the bridle does not do it for you. Start with a short scrape and be careful not to cut through the tongue or cut the edges of the tongue. Get help from an experienced piper if you are reluctant to try it yourself. If the natural resonance is flat of D, send the drone back to the maker and have him deal with it. If you will post the measurements of the drone reed, I will make you a new one that may work for free. That way you won’t be reluctant to modify the existing one. Use a caliper, if possible, to measure the diameter. Is the existing reed barely fitting the reed seat, or does it have a good amount of thread on it to fit the socket? Would also need the tongue length from bridle to the tip.
Your initial remarks say that the reed you have does not get sharper when you shorten the tongue by sliding the bridle either points to a drone with too flat in natural resonance, which would be unusual, or a fault in the reed, which is more likely. By all means, check the natural resonance of the drone first. If that passes the test, a new reed is probably in order, and you would loose little by taking off some weight from the tip of the tongue.
thanks again Ted, I am gonna have a go at that, will keep you posted…cheers.
Love all this info!!! Might I suggest you also inclose the wall thickness measurement?
I have eliminated the possibility of an air leak. I have the reed out all night with thread openning the lips, going to let that sit for a while more, and hope that is the fix. I did try an ezee drone reed in there and similiar results, still too flat. It’s all good experience to manage my pipes and I am chalking it up to that. More info for the tool kit. thanks all for your help…any local pipers here in the Garden State willing to sit over a few pints and help me sort it all out? cheers 