help me please

Uilleann Pipes
1

I’m a Japanese piper just starated playing pipes.I bought a narrow bore D practice set made by Brad Angus.I’m very satisfied with the pipes but now having reed problems.
The back D and C# sink about an half note when squeezing the bag hard.I tried moving the bridle but it doesn’t work.When I move the bridle up,the problem seems to be eased but then D,C# notes goes too high and too hard to play.
I bought 5 spare reeds and 4 out of 5 seems to have this tendency.
Can it be adjusted? or is there a possobility that the reeds I got has some serious problems.Should I send it back to the maker?
Please give me some advice.Thanks reading!!

2

Hi,

You might want to try contacting Jun Fukuda. As far as I know he is in Japan, not exactly sure where though :frowning: His website address is at:

http://www.mars.dti.ne.jp/~junf/

Hope this helps,

Patrick.

3

Hellow Patrick!!

Thanks for replying.I know that he lives in
Japan but he lives far away from where I live.He says in his website that he can’t give an advice if the reed itself have a problem.Can you give me some advice?

What a nice website you have!!It helped me when I decided to start UP.I got all information from your site.Thanks

4

If you’ve tried adjusting the bridal and still have no luck, you might want to contact Brad directly for specific instructions. Often, you can chop a tiny bit off the tip of the reed to help cure a sinking back D. Reeds can get softer as they break-in.
There are a few websites that go into reed making and reed adjusting, here is one:
http://www.uilleann.com/reeds.html
This is Seth Gallagher’s website and it has a chart showing some basic troubleshooting tips.

5

A common problem for beginner pipers is to push too hard on the bag at first. If you have 5 reeds mabey use the worst of the bunch to experiment with to start.

  1. Try leaving the reed locked gently in a small vice for a day or two. This will open it up slowly over time. Try it out ,and if too strong use plyers to close it down some.
  2. Insert a small piece of thin wire, into the staple . The wire should be around one third the total length of the staple .This will lower the pitch,overall and may help a sinking back D.
    3.check everything for air leaks, including the chanter top itself ,and or any keys that may be leaking. If pitch is too low after these tricks ,unwind the wrap and move reed further into chanter.
    good luck!! :slight_smile:

[ This Message was edited by: tok on 2002-06-26 11:35 ]

[ This Message was edited by: tok on 2002-06-26 11:36 ]

6

I would suggest phoning Jun. His webiste is a little out of date so I’d say he knows a lot more now.

Apart from that you could have David Daye make you a reed for your specific climate. “Tok” has a point though, that you might be pushing too hard, try eassing off and see what happens. Play the reed that’s in it for a good long time too so you get used to how th pies work… the reed might be okay?

Do you have the NPU vol. I video?

Patrick.

[ This Message was edited by: Patrick D’Arcy on 2002-06-26 19:42 ]

7

Tanks Tony,tok for good advices.
I asked Brad what should I do and he told me that I should

  1. unwrapp the reeds, separating them and let the reed heads