Bronze regulator reeds for a Kirk Lynch concert set...

Uilleann Pipes
1

I’ve been so spoiled by the bronze regulator reeds in my Quinn flat set, I’d love to give them a try in my Kirk Lynch 3/4 concert set.

Kirk doesn’t do bronze reeds, so I was wondering if anyone had a recommendation for someone who might be able to provide bronze reeds that might work in my tenor and baritone regs.

Kirk’s cane reeds are running very well, stable, and well in tune. However, ideally, I’d like to have regulators that sound at a lower overall pressure and are stable through both octaves on the chanter. Closing down Kirk’s reeds doesn’t really achieve what I’m looking for, they seem optimum in their current configuration.

I already have messages into David Quinn and Seth Gallagher to see if they might be able to help me out, but I’d love to hear of any success stories.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

Michael

2

This may sound kinda dumb, but it works. Use a paper label, the kind with the sticky backing. Cut out a triangle to match the scrape on each side of the reed. Stick’em on. The extra weight seems to slow the reeds down. You may have to retune the regs a bit.

djm

3

Kirk already does that on the reg reeds using black tape… I’m looking for like a 30% reduction in pressure, willing to sacrifice a bit of volume, but need pitch stability…

4

The only other way I know of to reduce the volume is to close the the reed down at the lips. This usually screws up the tuning on a chanter reed, but should not have too great an effect on the regs, as they have a much smaller tone range to play. You will still probably have to retune (the thing I hate about the aggravators most is the constant retuning every time I muck around with them).

djm

5

I’m holding out for bronze… figure that the current cane reeds are set for their optimum operation right now and I don’t want to futz with them since they play and are in tune.

I’ll either build, buy, or steal a new set of bronze reeds to try if I can work something out… :slight_smile:

Cheers,

Michael

6

Try writing Bruce Childress

bruce@bcpipes.com

Maybe he makes these critters. I was just reading about them last week, and I’ll be cursed if I can remember what, where, and who… figures…

7

I ruined both of Seth Gallagher’s bronze reg reeds (tenor and baritone) for my C set trying to get them stable and in tune with the rest of the set.

The middle notes tended to be pretty pressure sensive and also in opposite directions, so there were very few notes that were usable.

I am in the process of making cane ones as soon as I get my new drone reeds and chanter reeds blown in and stable.

Don’t you just love new reeds?

8

Well, I’m going to try a set of Seth’s reg reeds and see how it goes. He’s apparently had other customers with positive results using his bronze reeds in Kirk’s regs…