So I tried my hand once more at making synthetic drone reeds after I realized that David Daye’s suggested thickness for the tongue was .02" and not the thickness of, say, a cut-up old credit card.
Not that I was stupid enough to use something that thick for such small reeds but…you know; just as an example.
They crow and they work BUT they waver like you wouldn’t believe. Just from varying the pressure I can get a C, D, and E.
It’s a new one on me.
Suggestions?
Try using a .015" thick strip of styrene. This is the thickness I use for the reed tongue and it wavers less than any of my cane reeds. I think that .02" may be too thick, and .01 may be too thin. However, it really depends on the steadiness of your bellows/bag pressure.
The reed is going to be affected by extremes in temperature, like from 50* fahrenheit to 90* in the course of just a couple of hours, so if you live in this kind of environment be prepared to adjust the reed(s) often, regardless of what they are made of.
The best composite drone reeds (with an acceptable sound to me) were made with brass bodies and scrap Arundo Donax pieces.
I used the measurements out of Tim Britton’s My Method and for the tongues, I used scrap Spanish cane.
Tongues were 0.020" for tenor, 0.025" baritone, and 0.030 for the bass thick.
I soaked the finished tongues for 2 weeks, tied them on, used some O rings for bridles, adjusted and I have been playing the same reeds since I made them.
I asked around about flat set C drone reeds and never got any responses.
I used the same dimentions and made some reeds, and with a tubing extension for the bass and baritone reeds inserted inside, they quietened down and worked as well as my D set when adjusted.
Brass and plastic sound terrible to my ears.
Did you use sqaure or round brass tubing for your reeds? I used to have composite drone reeds by ROSS in my GHB,where the tongues were cane but the bodies were plastic. They worked fine for about a year, and then gave up the ghost. This was about 18 years ago and I haven’t used anything but regular cane since. I understand such reeds have made technical leaps and bounds in quality.
I used round, thinwall brass tubing.
Outside diamaters and lengths were:
tenor 3/16" X 1-1/2" long
baritone: 7/32" X 2-3/4
bass 1/4" X 4"
I file the lay, 3/4 of the length of the body so that about 1/3 of one end is filed away. I solder a piece of sheet over that end and file to shape, finish by polishing with 1000 grit sanding paper until shiny.
Tie the tongues on, apply bridles, stick in drones and start adjusting.
Thank you very much for the dimensions! I have been toying with the idea of switching from square to round brass tubing.
Do you flatten the tongues, or do you leave the natural concave in them?
I had the best results by using the bark side up. I sand the pith where it hits the lay of the body, finishing up with 1000 grit sandpaper keeping as even a thickness as possible. Make 2 or 3 of these as any warpage in the tongue causes strange things to happen and is hard to diagnose and compensate for. I use an alcohol lamp to heat and form and sometimes that will work and hold, but they are fast to make if you have some leather to protect your fingers.
Scrub the bark with some wax and they are easier to push around on the sandpaper.
IIRC, thickness of the tongues are 0.020", 0.025" and 0.030". The bass could possibly be a little thicker as I have a dab of poster putty on it.
Thanks again! I think I will give them a go.
Have you tried making reeds from Phragmites australis?
It works really well and gets right down to the diameter needed for the high drone.
John S
Just a thought, if you’re using pieces of cane for the tongue in a composite bodied reed, do you use it from chanter cane? If so, I have heaps of cane and scraps that are not suitable for double reeds just lying around doing absolutley nothing. Any takers??
Alan
Is that for a wide bore set, or narrow bore?
I ended up using them for both as I asked around for some measurements here and on the mailing list with nil answers. I figured I would just have to start with something and work from there and it was surprisingly easy to adjust for both a wide bore (Mark Hillmann makes the biggest bore I have ever seen) set design and a (Seth Gallagher chanter/Pat Sky drones/mainstock) flat set.
I used the exact same measurements for both my Hillmann D 1/2 set (some of the louder drones I have heard) and for my Pat Sky C drones.
For the C drones, the baritone and bass reeds had to have a sleeve inserted inside so I could effectively make them longer as I couldn’t get them stable and they indicated that they wished to be longer. The sleeve insert also quietened them down considerably so that they blend well with the Gallagher C chanter.