Cutting out drones

Uilleann Pipes
1

I have a set of old Peter Hunter drones that now play in tune, a bit of change from a few months ago, but the tenor and bari like cutting out mid-tune and that’s when I get them to drone in the first place under any but the lightest of pressure. And by that, I mean less pressure than it takes to sound the chanter, which is really just a bit useless. If I have the chanter going, it’s nearly impossible to start the drones. I’ve futzed with the reeds – fiddling with the bridles and with the bit of blue tac at the end of the tongues – without much effect.

Over the years, the bores in the slides (which are some kind of blackwood or ebony) have warped, I reckon, so they’re no longer straight, but rather slightly tapered. This makes tuning them a faffy, two-handed job and I have no idea if that could effect the tuning or general behaviour of the drone, but it might be a consideration. At the very least, it’s a hassle when you have to tune them since you can’t sound the drone and slide it one-handed at the same time.

2

Did you check the drones and the reed sockets for air leaks? Once that’s done you probably want to try flick the reed tongues a few times to open/loosen them a bit. Do it carefully.

3

The humidity in the UK has been up and down lately which might affect things.

I had a similar problem on some flat pipe drone reeds. The bridles were easy to move, so I fixed that because they were a bit unsteady. It also improved the pressure at which they would play.

A wee hair under the tongue is worth trying?

Re-winding the binding on the drone slides might cure the difficulty in movement. A bit of a faff, but nothing lost.

Pwrt