Does anyone have any experience making Elder chanter reeds and/or regulator/drone reeds from Elder? Are there any resources out there for methods, or is the method mostly the same as cane reed-making?
Dionys
Yes, drone reeds. articles have been written, not sure if it was An Piobaire or SRS journal, can look it up
It is different form cane in that you should cutt the eldersticks while the sap is low and cut the tongues before drying, this seems to give the best results.
I have been making my reeds, chanter, drone and regulator, from elder for several years. I have made a number of commercial recordings with them and will never go back to cane. There will be an article by me on this topic in the next Pipers Review.
I’d just like to say I’ll answer any questions on the board about elder as it is a passion of mine!
Will your article be a how-to on making Elder reeds? If not, have you considered a web page and/or short booklet on the process?
Dionys
There will be a how to element in the article. The principles are similar to cane, if you can make a cane reed you should’nt have trouble with elder, but I wouldn’t try it without trying cane first. One of the big things is the material itself, knowing where when and what to get
The article which Peter refers to appeared in An Piobaire a couple of years ago. It’s by Ken McLeod, who can be offputting in the dogmatism with which he expresses some of his views. But he bases the article on a considerable amount of empirical research (i.e. trial and error!), his general approach is scientifically rigourous, and I am sure that his advice is entirely reliable. I’ll check it out if Peter doesn’t beat me to the draw.
The article in An Piobaire is in Vol. 4 no. 6 (July 2000). It deals only with drone guills.
The author invites comments and reactions to be sent to his e-mail address which is ken@coillidh.fsnet.co.uk
If you can’t get your hands on the Piobaire article, I’m sure he’d e-mail it to you.
I suspect that Andreas Rogge may also have experimented with elder chanter reeds, as he has even tried Fichte, which I think translates as spruce or fir.
Even though this post is rather old: Fichte in German is the Norway spruce (Picea abies).
So long,
TiE
I tried emailing Ken at ken@coillidh.fsnet.co.uk, and got back a message that the email address could not be found. Is there are more current address for Ken?
Best Regards,
dave boling
I have made a few elder chanter reeds. I had some 3/4" dia. dried elder, which I gouged and sanded the slips over a 1 3/4" dia. cylinder. This yielded a slip that was 0.060" thick at the centerline, with the same elevation between the lips that I get with 1" cane when I tied them on the staple. I sanded and cut the scrape normally until I got a good crow. I then let them sit overnight. The next day the reeds had opened up and took too much effort to get the crow back so I deepened the scrape at the bottom (near the wrap) to close the lips. I let them set overnight again and the same thing occured the next day. I again widened and deepened the bottom of the scrape with my reed knife and let them set again. Eventually they all settled in and I did not see further opening of the lips. I ended up with the lay of the reeds being longer than with cane, and a a short taper from the back of the scrape to the lay. The reeds all had good tone and volume. Paddy Keenan said he used elder to make muted reeds when he was young. He tried my elder reeds and said he had not cut as much in the scrape when he was making quiet elder reeds for practice. I have noticed elder to be more sensitive to weather changes than cane, but I like the sound of elder reeds. Elder drone reeds have a very nice purr to them and work better than cane in some drones.
Ted
Alright, so lets have it. 
Where and when can you get find the stuff at it’s peak? I would love give it a try. Currently I am playing on a Basswood chanter reed I made from hobby shop stock. It works pretty well, but I have been hoping to get my hands on some elder.
While hiking this summer I ran across what I thought was Rocky Mountain Blueberried Elder. It looked just like the pics I have seen in reference sources but as a mature plant, I found it to be smaller than I expected.
A chest high bush with multi-lobed scaloped edge leaves about an inch or so across. (oh, and lots of blueberrys) The branches were reasonably straight but not much bigger than my little finger at the base making them unsuitable for chanter reeds.
Any help you can throw this way is appreciated!
Scott McCallister
Got Ken McLeod Email address and this is it doc@quilly.demon.co.uk. It was listed on http://www.pipers-hut.com/UPIL/netPipers.html
An elder reed article by Brendan Ring:
http://www.irishpipersclub.org/Page003.html
The fence in this picture is about 6’ high. The young stuff is kind of reddish colored on the bark, not so green as in the first picture. I sent Ted a picture of this stuff growing in my back yard. He said that was the right stuff. The trees do get a little larger than this.
Are there any mystical properties of Elder??
“…Elder-Berry was a favorite tree of witches who enjoyed residing among its branches…”
Excerpt from: http://nt9.nyic.com/willner/descriptions/31402.htm
Elder was mentioned on another forum so I’m adding two links I’ve bookmarked:
http://www.datura.dk/myst/elder.html
http://www.arcadian-archives.com/elder.htm
I had a discussion about elder drone reeds with Benedict Koehler recently (So. Cal tionol to be exact). He was of the opinion that the native N. American species (genus Sambucus) were not up to the task. One really needs to use one of the European species due to their superior woody quality (paraphrase).
Does anyone know of a good source for this type of Elder? Got a species name perchance?
t
I inserted “Holunder” and found this link that might be helpful at least to those who have German and it is guaranteed all European:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holunder
See the pictures. It gives five “Arten” (kinds/familys) and says that sambucus niger is European and according to Tacitus this was used for whistles (among others). sambucus nigra must be the right stuff.
The European Elder in question is Sambucus nigra the “Common Elder” and is very common throughout the UK and Ireland.
http://www.pipers.dk/index.html?indhold=elder.html
Above is an article on making Elder Drone reeds for UPs.
I’ve collected a lot of elder this year, not primarily for drone reed making but for Whistles and Flutes.
Now is a good time to collect before the sap starts to rise in spring. I’ve made GHB Drone Reeds from Elder and they are good.
I remove the bark when green and allow to dry; you can always re-hydrate the reed by bringing to the boil in a kettle (well that’s the way I do it)
Elder is very variable in the wall thickness for a given diameter but a bit of experience with the material will let you collect the stuff that you need.
Good Luck
John S