Hi Guys,
My drone reeds are made from Buddleia some times elder,
I was wondering how many pipers use composite reeds
and why, do pipers experience more problems with
natural materials. 
They don’t, or shouldn’t. My cane drone reeds give me no trouble. smirk
Alan
I like cane for drone reeds , but the composite reeds are worth a look , If you want to have one less thing to worry about , or for spare drone reeds .
tok
Alan,
I don’t have any problems with my Buddleia reeds they sing, but from
what I can gather there seems to be quite a few players that use composite, are they being used more frequent now or is it just less troublesome, I think natural reeds give the best sound by far than
composite, in the tenor drone I use a peace of one year old honey suckle works a treat I like all three drones going all the time but thats me.
I love the sound of cane drone reeds, but have never had any luck with them performing consistently. I am currently using composite reeds by Joe Kennedy - a cored maple dowel with a sugar pine tongue. They are not quite as mellow/smooth as cane reeds, but they work all the time. I do not have to worry about them cutting out in front of others (it always happens in front of others).
I have also heard composites made from a brass tube with a pine tongue. Again, very consistent, but even more “buzzy” sounding than the dowel ones. My biggest complaint with the composites is that they have a noticable high buzz like a ciccada that I personally find very objectionable, but some others don’t seem to notice. The dowel reeds I have now are not too bad for this, though.
djm
My experience is with Scottish Smallpipes, but the same thinking applies. I had troubles with my cane drone reeds, particularly in session environments and the like, where there were environmental differences, and they were sustaining a bit of a pounding playing wise.
I went over to plastic reeds from Ezeedrone, a Glasow firm, a couple of months ago, and I have to say, the difference in tone is not worth talking about (I have long suspected that those who talk most about tone and how good theirs is have little else to be proud of).
I imagine if more than a half a dozen people asked Ronnie MacShannon (who makes and develops the reeds) for an Uilleann pipe version he would be happy to give it a shot. He’s already developed reeds for half a dozen makes of smallpipe, and his GHB reeds have been the standard plstic drone reed for years now. His email is pipe.dreams at virgin dot net.
I put up a review of the reeds on the web; it’s targeted at GHB players, but the recordings should give you some idea of the tone.
http://www.callingthetune.co.uk/ezee/
Cheers,
Calum
A cane drone reed with a plastic tongue offers a nice compromise between the two extremes…sounds good, works in a variety of climates/environments.
Boyd
Cane reeds are great when they work. They are, however, sensitive to changes in climate and one must fool with them on occasion to keep them going. I truly dislike the composite reeds that have a single thickness polystyrene tongue. This type of reed seems to require more pressure to blow than most chanters would require to permit adequate chanter work. It seems as if the tongue does not work in the same way a cane reed would work, lacks springiness, and the reeds do not seem to help themselves work. I have in my set composite drone reeds made by Benedict Koehler. They are brass body and the tongue is a little wedge-shaped plank of spruce constructed in such a way, at least to me, so as to permit the weighting based on graduated thickness, to help the reed want to close and pop open as an inverse reaction thus requiring less pressure to blow, almost never closing even if more presure is required on the chanter, and never requiring any sort of adjustment to keep in tune, especially since my drones are of delrin.
For years (about 7 years that I actually played), I use to have problems all the time with cane drone reeds. Problems included closing up under different weather conditions, one too loud…the other too soft, going out of tune or not staying stable under higher octave pressure, etc.. I probably had about 30 different reeds to choose from too (all inferior I now believe).
But, much to my surprise, my new set of C. Roberts pipes came with cane drone reeds that need nothing…they always work fine and are well balanced. I owe it partly to the construction of the drones themselves and partly to the quality of the cane and the reed construction.
Last weekend I played for three different weddings. One reception was held outdoors in E. Oregon at about 3500 ft. el., by a river, 75 deg., late afternoon, damp grass (from sprinkers) everywhere.
After about 1/2 hr. of playing, the tenor drone tuning slide had to be pulled out about 1/2 in. That’s the first time in several months that I’ve even touched the drones, and the first time outdoors. I owe it to the change in humidity.
There’s good drone reeds and bad ones. You can’t just say cane vs. composite. The quality of contruction of the reed varies too much. The only real comparison between the two would be tone. I have some composites but I prefer the tone of cane. I think comparing the stability or volume between the two varies too much to really just compare outright.
Composites for GHP are another thing…apples/oranges.
Has anyone tried a Delrin tube with a natural cane/wood reed? Just a curious thought. Some of the Delrin flutes I’ve heard seem to have a sound similar to blackwood - I don’t know if this might translate into the more mellow tone of a natural all cane reed.
Just thinking too much again…
B~
Brian,
It is not so much the material for the tube that matters, as how the material for the tongue reacts with it. Some makers use suger pine from recycled piano keys for tongues, some have tried various types of brass from horn reeds, various types of plastic, etc.
As Lorenzo has noted, when you get a good piece of cane, you’re in heaven. Unfortunately, you can go through an awful lot of cane and still not find the good stuff.
For any other composite materials, it becomes a matter of trade-offs: are they steady at different pressures? are they stable under varying climate conditions? do they have side-effects? do they hang too low in the morning? - critical stuff like that.
As has also been noted before, you are at the mercy of whoever made your reeds. I absolutely hate it, but I cannot find a way around the need to learn how to make one’s own reeds. Then the only person one has to blame is oneself. 
The debate about cane vs composites always comes down to what we decide we can live with. After spending hours and hours frigging with a reed (any kind of reed), I believe you will find that you can learn to live with a lot. 
djm
I don’t know about uilleann pipe makers, but the plastic body/cane tongue combination has been tried by several Highland pipe reed makers. I used to have a set of Ross plastic/cane reeds in my Highland pipes about five or six years ago. Sounded great and they very easy to manage. Then the quality of the reeds Ross was making suddenly took a nose dive and I haven’t used them since. I don’t know why this idea hasn’t been used by more uilleann reed makers…intuitively, it seems like plastic bodies might produce less of an overt buzz than brass ones, but what do I know?
seems to me that some folks are gifted at playing pipes , and others are gifted at making them . If you can’t make a reed , then have them made for you . You will be doing the world and yourself " yerself " a favor , as you focus on what you do best . Why bother to make a reed for your self If in the end it does not work ? I think that it is rare to find a good reedmaker , pipemaker , and pipe player all on one person .
tok.
Wise words, Tom. The problem is that if there is no-one nearby to supply you and you’re subject to the vagaries of climate, it’s good to be able to make reeds in case you wreck your one and only good one with repeated adjustments.
I started to learn reedmaking when I began to learn the pipes, but stopped when I realised that the time that I was spending on the reedmaking at home would be better spent practising playing. But in despair at the effect of the climate on reeds where I now live, I’ve started trying my hand at reedmaking again, with some modest success.
Rather than teaching reedmaking ab initio for beginners at tionóil, it would be helpful if experienced reedmakers offered some tuition on adjustment and tuning, so that pipers could at least carry out “line maintenance” tasks and reduce the incidence of unnecessarily wrecked reeds. Evertan 't Hart planned to do this at the last Dutch tionol, but unfortunately he had to leave early and the class never took place.
when i was developing my middle drone, i used a natural cane reed for a while as the brass and styrine sounded too harsh in that one. what i noticed was that it had to be adjusted(move tuning slide)almost daily. i finally settled on a tough small piece of river cane drilled -bored out to a chosen diameter with the styrine tongue.
everything has been very stable for 6 m0nths now, including chanter reed(crosses fingers) 
Well said Sean,
Since when has this thing about beginners having to make do with second
grade pipes been O.K,? weather ÂŁ300 or ÂŁ700 the chanter should play in
tune, I would not buy a practice set that was not able to be up graded to a half set due to poor quality, their going to have to start all over again
when the time comes that they decide to play on drones, thats if the beginner ever manages to learns on a set like this as mentioned, he or she needs a good chanter from the beginning. people are not as poor as you think! why do you think the reputable makers books are full, people
are lost to were to go for a well crafted set of pipes, people are now
just taking a chance because Uilleann pipes are scarse and they want
a set, they are being ripped Off! the pipes end up back on the net for
sale for some other innocent person to go through the same procedure,
its so easy to use lots of excuses and make easy money with Uilleann
pipes, Uilleanns are not hard to play,people give up on them
simply because they’ve been sold CRAPP,RUBBISH, there are much better words I would love to use to decribe such sets but I’ll have be Cevil. 
~
YES’ Whether not Weather 
~
[quote=“stew”]people are not as poor as you think! why do you think the reputable makers books are full. Uilleanns are not hard to play,people give up on them
simply because they’ve been sold CRAPP,RUBBISH.quote]
Utter tosh. If I wasn’t as “poor as you think”, I wouldn’t drive a clapped out car, I’d own my own house, I’d have Holidays every year, etc.,
And the pipes are extremely difficult to play, big full stop! Why do you think they use the term “A poverty of pipers” to describe a group? Just take a moment before clicking send?
Alan
Alan, speak for self, and no offence ment,but their seems to be plenty of pipers attending festivals and piping weekend gatherings which cost money,also pipers buying sets for $1800 upwards for half sets,people
are prepared to pay for good quality pipes if they can get them,I drive a
second hand car and I’m not poor nor am I rich, I would not think of wasteing money on a new car, but I would on a set of pipes,down our street everyone have at least two cars all on the never~never everyone lives the way they want now, having bank loans now a day seems the trend, its not the way I live but everyone to their own, people buy what they want now and they just get a bank loan.
I’m with Alan.. grin