Concert D reed time

Uilleann Pipes
1

I know I"m stating the obvious, but the amount of time it takes to make a great concert reed …!!! :boggle:

I have recently had very nice results using Tom Aebi’s method. He soaks the entire head for 30 minutes and then ties on. Drying time is 24 hrs, or more if you’d like. I then readjust aperture via a quick scrape, and then the outside scrape. It seems as though there was far less tension on the head, as it had essentially molded to the staple.

Simultaneously, that means you cannot move the staple forward, due to the notch the staple made when tying on wet. So octave adjustment, should there need any, must come from adjusting the cavity (if 2nd oct. is too flat). Of course the idea is to have the right staple size, and if you’re using tubing…then the correct mandrel. If 2nd oct is too sharp, then You can slightly squeeze staple, or perhaps move the staple ever so slightly out, though I’ve never done this. There other things you can do (of course) depending on the entire “equation.”

Again, if your #s are good, you should be very close to begin with.

Glad I got that off my chest!

:smiley:

2

Sounds like the ould whiskey dunk method. . .I b’lieve I’ll make another. . . :smiley:

Bob

3

May I ask, how you adjust the aperature after you have tied on the head? Do you put sandpaper inside the reed? I can not really imagine how adjusting the aperature after tying on works.

4
5

All you do is untie, and put it on the cylinder to slightly sand. tying it back is is so easy, as since it’s molded to hug the staple from when it was wet, it goes on like a hand in a glove!

6

Ah, thanks for the clarification. I thought you would adjust the scrape when the reed is tied on.

7

Of course, you have to do that too (the outside scrape)! The scrape doesn’t only work from the inside out. Insdie scraping is only to finish the aperture, and to adjust the cavity should it need it…very little that is!