I made up some brass drone reeds with brass tongues lastnight. I’m surprised at how good these reeds work compared to styrene tongues. Do any of you guys/gals use drone reeds with brass tongues? How do you like them or don’t like them? 
Hi doogie, Would you mind to tell me how did you made them?
I imagine that you forged them, but jus tell me in three steps the whole process, ´cause I wanna make some for my smallpipes.
Thanks
Hey Marcelo, wild looking brass chanter on your website.
I got the idea from http://www.songsea.com/syndronestopvalveplans.html
but didn’t use a tuning slide so I made the body a little longer. I used .10 brass tongue. I tried .16, and .12 first and they were too stought… Seth
I´ll send you a pic of my UP practice set then.
Thanks
Sound’s good, post it on the forum
When you say how good they work, do you mean they sound better or are more stable or ??? I have heard these in lots of types of pipes (NSP, SSP, uilleann) but the ones I have heard have always been a bit too loud and, well, clangy sounding, if that makes sense, and they were the same stability (i.e. very stable) as styrene.
Just curious about the specifics of them compared to the styrene reeds you have made before.
It’s the first time I’ve ever used brass tongues on a drone reed. Not to say they are any better than styrene. I was just impressed at how good they work being metal and all. They seem very stable in both octaves and don’t seem to clap shut like styrene tongues sometimes do. IMHO when you arch the tongue the metal holds its curve better and stays that way. I do have a set of brass tongue smallpipe reeds made by some guy in Tyler Texas and found those to be as you described. Seth
Doogie, my D Pracitce set si posted at “Pictures of your pipes” thread
I had a styrene tongue on a cane body that I eventually bent. I replaced it with a phosphore bronze tongue. It has worked ok for the last 6 months or so.
This is on a bass drone btw
t
Doogie,
How did you attach the tongues? I have toyed with the idea of using brass, but recall reading that they tend to tear up O-rings.
Robert Mouland
www.wireharp.com
hmm, should try it sometime . . . 
Right now I’m in the middle of a recording project, so I don’t have time to fiddle around with pipe innards.
Tom- how thick was the brass tongue?? I have a spare “dead” bass reed I could experiment with
I use dental rubberbands as a bridle, and attach the tongue with waxed hemp.. 
Another good way is to use shrink wrap tubing from Radio Shack.
I got the bronze in quantity (for making reg reeds) from David Quinn some years ago. I cannot recall the gauge of the bronze, as I am not good with numbers (my mother was frightened by an abacus while carrying me).
t
Doogie,
One last question if you will: how did you cut the .10 brass into strips? I am having a horrible time with it. The pieces are curling like an orange peel.
Robert Mouland
www.wireharp.com
Do you think the use of brass reed toungs are applicable for GHB drones?
I often use differnt types of reeds for the differnt drones, normally i’ll have two stable sythetic drone reeds (e-z) for tennor, then a cane or sythetic body reed with a cane toung for bass.
how dose the brass work with your lower drones? can it handle the low vibrations etc. and the higher drones?
what type of body did you use for the reed? certainly not a brass body, right?