This is only to those who have made successful playable reeds.
Out of 10 reeds; how many of those would be good enough to give to customers, or friends who are playing professionally?
6 to 7-after a few adjustments, roughly out of ten, for me, the rest I use or give as free practice reeds to fellow piping friends. all the best.
thanks for that.
have we any more serious reed makers out there?
Seth Gallagher, said that he usually gets one out of four.
I have made reeds that play in tune but I would only give .5 out of 10
or one out of 20 to another piper and not embarrass myself at this stage with my experience.
I am serious about my reed making and I am sure that my numbers will improve
Sticking my head warily up above the parapet,
on a run of good cane I’d expect about 80% these days that could go out there, but then I’m very familiar with the chanter designs.
Peter Hunter had a remarkable run if 47 goers without a failure following a trip by a piper friend to Spain to collect A1 cane!
Tim Britton told me he’ll get 10 out of 10. He also has his system down to a very controlled science. using a very small slip (3") so it’s easier to find a straight peice etc. then again, he’s been at it for 30yrs?!
Dave Hegarty told me he’d sit down and make 10 at a time an reap whatever comes of that lot. I know Seth to do the same.
Eamonn Dillon is using one of my reeds. Though, I am hardly a professional reed maker. I can make a very good sounding reed, but if i’ve laid off making them for a few months, which i thoroughly enjoy doing, i’ll make a mess out of a few slips before the feel comes back.
We’ve also heard this one before; If I’m making concert reeds and have to make a flat chanter reed, it is a bit of a mind bend before the visual aspect of the smaller dealings come into focus.
8 out of ten,or better since i bought the npu dvd.
Instead of concentrating on scraping or cutting (irreversible) or shifting and changing the bridle (all “exterior” factors) you also might unwrap the reed and try different staples, different “eyes” and differences in how far you push it in. You must of course learn to rewrap it 100% airtight afterwards. All this of course will take you much longer but the “success rate” then nearly is 100%.
Cheers,
Hans
I figured this out about 4 months ago and since then I’ve changed the staple in about 10 of my old (failed) reeds. About 2/3 of them are now quite playable (although I wouldn’t dream of trying to sell one).
Hans,
lets not scare the newbies. at first, untying and re-tying is a huge mind-hurdle to get over. “why would i want to take this apart after it took me a day to make?” says the neophyte. however, once you do it (practice on an old reed that isn’t working, or get someone to give you their scrapped reeds to practice on), it’s not a big deal, nor does it take much time to do. there are many caveats regarding EVERY STEP of reed making, e.g. if you’re careful and pay attention to detail at each one of these steps, you should be grand.
I guess it depends on what you are doing, if you are making a standard reed for a known chanter ( eg. pipemakers reeding their own chanters) you should get a high success rate.
On the other hand if you are trying to reed an unknown chanter, the success rate would be much lower as you could make many reeds refining the design at each step. Having said that, the reeds made 'on the way ’ could be described as perfectly good, just unusable in any known chanter!!! Perfectly bad reeds of course would not work in any conceivable chanter.
Cheers,
Charlie.
Ok then… for all this success… why the call a reed making book “Piper’s Despair?” Obviously, this reflects many of our experiences.
Readers; please elaborate
\
Now, before you get your knickers in a twist; I go on record as saying _THAT’S A GREAT NAME FOR A REED MAKING BOO_K, and I’ve been there!
Ok, now that I’ve disabled the reading into thereof and able flame-throwers;
..continue
I’d say 8 or 9, though the last 10 I made are all very good reeds. One problem I now have which I never expected is that I have 5 good reeds for each of my 3 chanters plus 2 each that the chanter makers sent. never thought I’d have that problem, hard
to keep them all played in. I have a C chanter that will play almost anything you tie up 
I even made one for it that I didn’t use the calipers and it is one of my favorites.
Never thought I’d be able to make reeds, when they went to $70. US, I guess that was the kick in the arse I needed.
It’s niece to not be dependant on a maker, and always mailing chanters back and forth which I find is horrible feeling,I just don’t do it.
Ok then… for all this success… why the call a reed making book “Piper’s Despair?” Obviously, this reflects many of our experiences.
What did you miss my post? 
Make 20 to get 1 good one now thats dispair 
David Power posted only a few months ago that he had to make 30 reeds to finally get a great one.
I suspect that the “holy grail great reed” is not happenig 10 out of 10 for Tim Britton or any one else for that matter. that being said I acknowlege your original question was not about creating the sublime reed mearly how many out of 10 would we give to a pro.
Maybe its that awful black gook you get on your hands when you are tieing the reeds in that is causing the problem.Mike
javascript:emoticon(‘:lol:’)
lol
true ..i was not asking about the sublime reed.+, your “sublime” might be another’s “reed-for-the-bin.”
I am certain that Peter Hunter, Sam Lawrence, Ben Koehler, Seth Gallagher, Tim Britton, Dave Hegarty, Michael Dooley, Finbar MacLaughlin, (to drop a few names) all have their own personal thoughts on what makes a reed eligable for “sublime-dome.” All of us “not so known” punters do as well, and that all good.
It was an interesting question, and one that I’ll keep pousing to any maker who’ll answer.
thanx
Huh? Wha…?
You guys make reeds?
Are those the things that just always seem to work when I pick up my instruments to play?
Whut do they look like? Post pictures please.
I find if you make your reeds so they can be easily stripped down to make adjustments, your success rate will be higher than the reeds made with glues and other tacky sudstances from scratch, which makes taking a reed apart more diffulcult, some of your reeds might not make top notch reeds for selling, but could make very good practice reeds which could be sold much cheaper and save playing your best reed for practicing on, I would say for the concert D chanter reedmaker if your success rate is 60-70% out of ten which are top notch reeds you are doing very well, we all hear about the so called reed genius that gets 10 out 10 every time, and also as another member has mentioned the concert D chanter has alot of different design features, but at the end of the day having some good cane makes the job easier and your success rate of good reeds will be higher also, remember practice makes perfect.all the best.
Huh? Wha…?
You guys make reeds?
Are those the things that just always seem to work when I pick up my instruments to play?
Whut do they look like? Post pictures please.
Come on jump in Doc anyone that can wield a paint brush with such facility could easily take up the dark art of reed making 