I recently picked up NPU’s DVD on Regulator playing, and i am extremely frustrated in my regulators…
When I press on the keys, there is a slight delay (about .5 seconds) before the note is sounded. I play a gallagher set, and he uses brass regulator reeds.
Could the lack of response be a result of the brass?
No disrespect meant to you but you should probably call Seth and discuss it with him before posting here.
Could be a number of things, but I suspect that it is the piper and not the pipes. Follow Peej’s advice and have a chat with Seth, or another piper who is experienced in playing the regulators.
the regs can overblow if they are set as light as the chanter…
…the pressure difference should be very subtle and slight, whereas your pressure difference may be more than ideal.
Inflate your bag or squeeze it at normal speed in playing, and the chanter and regs should appear to be simultaneous.
Here’s a simple test which has to be done gently and in a subtle way if it is to be useful.
Turn off ur drones.
Finger the chanter for an A and then pick a reg key and depress it.
Do these 2 things without inflating the bag or squeezing it.
Then…
Inflate and squeeze the bag at an incredibly gentle rate, and after 20 or 30 secs or more the A will start, followed in up to another 1 or 2 secs at most, by the reg[s].
Its a very subtle test of the relative playing pressures of the chanter vs reg reed. If you are steady in ur increase of bag pressure, there should be only a second between chanter and reg sounding.
I would hazard a guess that your pipes will be different, with the reg taking a lot longer to sound.
Boyd
( in other words, either
a)your regs need a little too much pressure to play, and 1 or more reeds need to be adjusted down somehow…
OR
b)your chanter reed is set a bit too easy overall, and the bridle needs moved or whatever to make the reed play at a higher pressure)
Its a bit of a skill getting the whole set playing at roughly the same pressure. Especially if you live somewhere that can drop humidity suddenly.
Some nights I find things have changed a lot and I just have to play 2 out of 3 drones, or avoid 1 of the regs. I’m only in trouble if all the drones are playing up, or if the chanter reed is!!! 
If the set plays well at a certain setting for 70% or more of the year, I’d be loathe to footer with it to get it right for the other 30%. Just live with a few compromises or pull out a whistle or flute.
Boyd
I should add that the aim is to just start getting a note out of the chanter, doesnt need to be a fullblown in tune A.
Just some sort of tone. Same for the reg.
I say that because some of us play with a higher pressure set up than others.
Cheers
Boyd
I’ve been using phosphor bronze reg reeds (from Seth Gallagher in a Seth Gallagher set) for several years without any problems.
Boyd gives some excellent advice, and I’m sure that Seth will be happy to help you out.
No E
I, too, would guess that this is an issue of having the chanter set up at a lower pressure than the maker intended. A lot of the big name pipers really crank hard on their sets. There are arguments back and forth of improved tone and control by having a higher pressure. Regs can be tricky in that if you set them up to play too light they will squeal or jump octaves on you, so they are usually (as far as I know) set up stiff, and require a bit higher pressure to get them to sound.
djm
I would certainly try to lighten the regulator reed before stiffening the chanter reed.
I’ve certainly seen well-behaved sets whose regs were not hard to blow, so it can be done.
Bill
If everything is balanced for medium or hard pressure… and the chanter is too light, you must adjust regulators and the drones too. Yes?
1 reed versus 6.
‘Kearny’ doesn’t appear to be complaining about his drones, nor has he given any indication that the chanter would itself perform better with a harder reed. So perhaps 1 versus 3… but I really don’t think that’s a good argument. Would you rather save time adjusting the reeds, or save effort in playing the end result? If lightening the regs works, then the end result will be easier to play. Since Kearnybagpiper is acclimated to the current chanter reed and it seems to be playing well, making it stronger should be a last resort if the regs can’t be lightened successfully.
If Kearnybagpiper’s chanter is sounding weak or feeble, with a weak back D, then that might indicate that it could benefit from a slightly harder reed (or at least a different reed or more open reed). What I disagree with is the notion that the chanter reed should be adjusted to suit the (up-until-now unplayed) regs, that seems totally backwards to me; more likely the regs are poorly adjusted because they’ve been unplayed for awhile.
Bill
It may not be a matter of adjusting the reeds, but rather of adjusting the piper. Just because one has been accustomed to playing the current chanter reed at a given pressure does not mean that that reed couldn’t take a little bit more pressure - enough to satisfy the reg reeds. These are UPs after all, and if someone is at the point of learning the regs, they should be aware of the need to change the pressure in tiny amounts. As Billh has pointed out, these reg reeds are new and probably need to be broken in somewhat, just as a new chanter reed needs to be played in.
Let’s not get too many wires crossed in this. The initial complaint was about the length of time it was taking from pressing the reg key to the time the reg started to sound, and this ISOLATED issue is pressure-related. It does not necessarily mean one should start wildy hacking into the chanter reed. It means that a slow, measured response is called for to find a new pressure balance for the new amount of tubing and the new number of reeds involved with adding regs to a set.
djm
I have a Gallagher set and had the same issue when I started to use the regs.
The bronze reeds are pretty stable and are adjustable but they don’t play quite like a cane reed when they’re too open. You get a delay in the sound at too low pressure - exacty what the OP is experiencing.
There is one player related issue - if you don’t open the reg keys crisply enough you can get a slight delay to the sound; however the OP’s descriiptions sounds like they are too open.
They can be squeezed shut but it’s possible to squish the reed, so I suggest a call to Seth for instructions is in order.