Anyone here have a stand of David Daye’s drones? Just curious what owners think about them (tone, construction…etc…)
Peace!
Reepicheep
Joseph E Smith may have a stand growing nearby his stand of Sweet Floreda Cane 
Cheers,
DavidG
Nope, harvested 'em and made a really keen water gun out of 'em. 
There are sound clips on his website:
To my ear they sound like fine drones.
I am getting a starter set in a few weeks from him, but have no personal experience with the drones.
I bought the first set of david daye drones in march of 2005
without a doubt they are the finest sounding drones anywhere.
Easy to tie into your bag and then tune up should take no longer than 45 minutes. They are easy to adjust and stay in tune well.The have the same if not better sound than many of the more expensive drones out there on the market.Being made of delrin and brass they are not affected by humidity or tempreture.If dave starts to build regulators I,ll be first in line.
I also have a eugene lamb set but I always use dayes drones with eugenes chanter. Daves chanters are great also.I hope this sheds some light on the subjact
[quote=“pat coyne”]
without a doubt they are the finest sounding drones anywhere.
quote]
Bit o a sweeping statement don’t ye think ?and sounds more emotional than factual…I don’t believe for one moment that ye have tried all drones with which to compare 
Slán Agat
Uilliam
Luke Niewsma has a half set of D Daye’s. I’m also planning on getting some pretty soon.
It’s certainly not the plastic that he uses for the bore that adds any stability to their tone whatsoever. And there are a multitude of makers and players who use synthetic reeds in their drones. While it’s true they tend to be more humidity stable on the general whole than a cane reed might be, to say that they are the best is completely subjective. In my own direct and personal; experience, I found Days workmanship to be average at best, and his customer service to be appalling.
There are some very sweet drones being made out there bu many of the better makers. Do some homework on their costs and lead times etc. if you’re serious about a good addition to your set. Knowledge is power. Any pipers near you that you can drive to meet and see/hear/play their sets from other makers? You’ll likely be supprised and amazed.
Cheers
I have had a set of D.Daye drones for about 6 months. I am very pleased with them. They sound very good and are quite reliable. I had them at the East Coast Tionol this weekend and they got several compliments. One professional piper who inspected them was quite impressed with their sound and quality.
Assembling and installing them only took a couple of hours. I took the “measure twice and cut once” rule to the extreme before I cut the bag.
They came with a detailed instruction manual.
I have not had any problems dealing with David Daye. There was a problem with one of the drone reeds initially and he was very responsive in resolving it.
The only drawback with these drones is that the mainstock will not accept regulators. When the day comes that I want to move up to a full set, I will need to get a standard set of drones also at that time.
There is a photo of my set on D.Dayes website
http://daye1.com/graphics/sets/halfkit_cust1.jpg
Liam
They look smooth, too. Nice that he has a kit option.
For the record, David Daye’s customer service is excellent. PM me for info.
Not for everyone. That’s a broad assumption from a singular point of view.
The customer service I have received from David Daye has also been top notch…
Isn’t it time to let it go Brian?
Nothing to let go - We all get treated differently it seems, and any prospective buyer is entitled to know the good and the bad. Wish I had known before I’d ordered anything from him. For the record, none of the other makers I’ve worked with, purchased from, called to ask questions of etc. have given an ounce of grief. There was just the one. This one. That stands to be mentioned.
Let’s put this issue with DD to bed now. I’m sorry your experience was unpleasant… but really, enough, please.
David Daye’s drones are very sturdy and high quality… I dont have a set but have had a chance to check them out… Very nice and not overpriced… I talked to David a while back and had him make me one of his famous penny chanters… Very nice work… David’s cool and does top notch service… 
OK, for once I’m going to stick up for Brian!
I’ve defended David Daye and the penny chanter before, but this time around, I thought that Brian’s comments were very fair. He wrote only about his personal experience and merely encouraged the prospective buyer to do his homework.
Joseph, please don’t cut off discussions like this, as long as they’re following the rules of the forum. If people are going to be allowed to make statements like “David Daye’s customer service is excellent”, then it’s important for people with different experiences to be able to speak up and give some balance to the discussion. I’ve personally had both really great service and really bad service from DD, so I’m quite convinced that both are possible.
If I remember correctly, Reepicheep is a large talking rat from the Narnia books, by C.S. Lewis.
Read C.S. Lewis’s “Voyage of the Dawn Treader” and all will become clear.
And FTR, Reepicheep was a mouse not a rat… and a swashbuckling mouse at that.
Peace!
Reepicheep
Oh right, a mouse, sorry. It’s been a while.
Arrrr! Swash me buckle, ye swabs. Arrrr! Keel-haul the mice and hang the rats! Ya-harr, feck, ya-harr!
Daffy Daffy Jonezz