I am interested to know how long peoples reeds last.
The reed in my narrow bore concert pitch chanter is fairly old, about 15 years older than the chanter making it almost 25 years old. It plays great and I have travelled with it extensively without too much trouble. I am on the second set of drone reeds. The regulator reeds I made new not long after I got the regs and are still going strong.
I have the same chanter and regulator reeds in the B set that is now 2 years old and am on the 2nd set of drone reeds.
It seems to me that the drone reeds are more adversley affected by changes in humidity.
Craig Fischer made the concert pitch set and Geoff Wooff made the B set and both of them believe that a good reed should last for years and both of them have some very old reeds that work brilliantly in a number of different chanters. Some of Craigs old reeds look like they have been chewed by a dog but sound great.
I know some people that go through reeds like mad, a very frustrating thing i’m sure. I am interested to know what other peoples experience is.
I got a good five years out of my original Bruce Childress chanter reed. I still keep it as a spare, it’s just that it was too quiet once I added drones.
And I played everywhere with it, including outdoors in the rain on two occasions when I had no other choice.
My first chanter reed (made by myself) lasted 6 years with the most abuse (other than physically breaking it) you can imagine. From bone dry winter heat to mid summer camping trips with two solid days (or more) in a tent with pouring rain. I thought I might have a lifetime reed with that one.
Brian Lee:
How does one know when their reed has gone bad? Is it a night and day change or like fossilization - does it take eons?!
Mine wouldn’t play, no matter how I adjusted it and it quit between tuning it up at home and tuning up at a gig 3 hours later. I never could re-juvinate it with polishing the inside, etc. I finally deliberately broke it to keep from fiddling with it more. Then I made some more reeds. I will be glad when they behave as good as the old one did…
a good reed would be one that was well in tune and sounding a hard d and e, jumping the octave easily, responding to cross fingering and ornamentation properly.
If you had a reed that did all these things and then began to not do them so well, that is what I would call a reed going bad. It could be any reed that begins to perform less well than it had in the past.
It could happen gradually or quickly, it depends on why it is doing it, it could be the cane or the design or both.
I am interested to know other peoples experiences with reeds.
I’ve had the same reed in my CP for about 4 years now, and it’s going as good as it ever has - which isin’t to say it’s a good reed…It works pretty well but there are still some funky qualities, and I’m trying to get a new one in there.
When I take apart old reeds I’ve made I’m always appalled. “I can do that better!” Bad staple eyes, sloppy carving of the tails. All my old staples look like crap now that I know how to file the reed seats down properly. Live and learn.
My chanter reeds sometimes piffle out temporarily - the second octave gets to be too hard to maintain, usually. Like the one you were trying to play, Giles…I always have a reed on the bench that’s been incubating for a while, I put that in, and voila! back in business.
My elder and maple drone reeds are all doing fine after about 3 years now, but I never go out with the pipes much, and live in the most forgiving climate imaginable, so my experience is perhaps not the best example.
I’ve currently been using my chanter reed for a little over a year. The one before that lasted for two years and sounded great–I almost never had to adjust it–but then the climate dried up and it started leaking at the sides. It never recovered. My current reed was sounding great until a few months ago when it got super humid over here. I had to resort to using rushes and tape and things–my chanter looked a little like Frankenstein.
It finally seems to be getting back to its old self but sometimes the hard D is still a bit reluctant. I’ll be getting some reedmaking materials soon so that I can start making my own…
My drone reeds work great though! I’ve had 'em for two years and never had to touch 'em at all.
The reed in my narrow bore concert pitch chanter is fairly old,
I have never seen one of these Chanters before?, I have seen narrow
bore D Chanters, and a Concert D Chanters, narrow bore chanter reeds
should last longer than Concert reeds, they don’t work under so high of air pressure.
A well made reed will last whatever the pitch of a chanter. It’s a crock to say that Concert Pitch reeds take more air. It’s usually down to fannying about. The reason a Concert pitch reed may not last as long as flat pitch is usually due to the fact that they are less forgiving and may need more correction in climate changes etc.,
I play a Peter Hunter designed Concert D Chanter, and reeds don’t
last long, eight months then there out, I make a couple every month,
which I don’t mind, I just love the Chanter,
but for every half dozen good reeds I make there is always a cracker, getting good cane is a problem I find,I’ve just got two kilo’s from Spain today, I’ll try some this week and see if its any good,I hope its not to
hard, I hate hard cane.
Alan without getting to technical, if you listen to Ronan Brown on the
Drone and the Chanters,he plays a Peter Hunter narrow Bore D the finest
I’ve heard, and then listen to a Concert D, even though there in D they
don’t sound the same, it sounds as though the narrow bore is pitched a
little higher in pitch, in D not at 440hz but 443hz I know the narrow bore
chanter I have sounds much quieter and sweater than than my concerts,
but maybe its just the nature of the beast.
My current reed was sounding great until a few months ago when it got super humid over here. I had to resort to using rushes and tape and things–my chanter looked a little like Frankenstein.
