I haven’t touched my instrument in over a year for certain reasons, started again about a couple weeks ago, I am relieved that my reed sounds good as ever and works fine. It’s about 8 years old now, plays completely fine.
Do any of you have/or have had durable long-life reeds?
The reeds in my tenor and baritone regs are still the original ones made in 1985.
I made my drone reeds in 1983, I think.
Most of my chanter reeds are between 10 and 20 years old.
The chanter reed in the Lynch set, just sold, is still humming after 14 years. The drone reeds are original to the set, which if I remember correctly make them 29 years old.
dave boling
On my D set, I made the chanter reed in 2009. It requires a slight adjustment from time to time but has been working fine since. My bari reed is original (2007). The tenor is 2013, bass 2010, and E reg (2010). I’ve been lucky with my reeds, but then I rarely take my pipes out of the house.
My D chanter reed is from 1998, made by Dave Williams. My C chanter reed is from 2002 by Geoff Wooff.
I’ve been playing the same chanter reed since 1982.
It had “Dan Dowd” written on it in pencil which has since mostly rubbed off.
I had purchased a full set that year, brought back from Ireland by an American who intended to learn to play but never played the set at all.
Some of the pieces were stamped “Dowd” and some were stamped “Bourke”.
The chanter reed played great in my David Quinn chanter (better than it played in the Dowd/Bourke chanter) and there it’s been ever since.
When I bought my full set from Kevin Thompson in 1984, he was raving about some ´soft California cane´ he had. I was worried about the effect air freighting the set to me would have on the chanter reed, so I had him tie up and bridle six, but with no scrape, reeds as part of the deal. This gave me six staples and six ´blanks´ ready to scrape. Predictably, I ´killed´ my first reed within my first year. I scraped my first blank and got five years from it before it died by jumping at my reed cap. . . 
I scraped the second blank and got about eighteen years years from it. And so it went.
I currently have a Cedar reed about five years old. . .and barring mis-adventure this should last out my term.
Bob
The reed in my Dixon chanter is presumably the one that originally came with the set when the first owner acquired it around 2005 or 2006. But I have basically had to ‘play it in’ myself since the instrument was barely used at all before I obtained it a couple years ago.
I made my tenor and baritone - drone reeds in 1992, the bass drone reed is made in '95, I think. I can’t remember how they look like.
They are made from natural drone cane. After all the yaers they play absolut stable. I’m very happy about.
My regulator- and chanter reeds are not older than 2 years. I’m always testing other configurations at the search for the golden or perfect reed.
This is all very interesting, and impressive.
Heard that Liam O’Flynn had an old Rowsome reed that he played for the longest time.
I remember being a stupid newbie (seriously I cringe reading those old posts, wish I could delete them lol), being worried sick about having my reed die after it’s first winter, once I understood what was going on during the seasonal changes, everything was ok after. Only problems are an autocrann and an erratic back D, usually I just try and play a soft D.
The reed in my Brad Angus chanter is about ten years old. It sounds better than ever.
The oldest reed I have and first reed still playing in my Andreas Rogge C Plumwood chanter dates backs to when chanter was made December 2008. Reed my A Rogge.
Only a few wee adjustments over the years need for this C reed.
I’m guessing my reed was over 10 years before it stopped working. I have no idea who the original maker was.. If I touch it with a wet cloth it makes a sound but is far from usable. Anyone know a method to revive a dried out piece of cane?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhZeMpwbZfc
I’m not sure, but this might be worth a watch I reckon.
My drone reeds are the original ones that Cillian Ó Bríain made when I got my drones from him 20 years ago. I’ve been playing Bruce Childress’s synthetic reeds in my regulators for almost two years or so; I suspect they’ll last a very, very long time. I played a Brad Angus reed in my Galloway chanter from 2008 until a couple of months ago, and it sounded great the whole time, but I just got a new chanter from Makoto Nakatsui. I hope the reed he made for it lasts a long time 'cause it’s absolutely deadly!
(As an aside, I’ll likely be putting the Galloway chanter up for sale sometime soon, so if you know anyone interested in a left-handed 4-key boxwood chanter, have your little people call my little people.)
I got my practice set back in 1977. Had an upgrade to a full set in 1978 (all by Brian Howard) and played witrh tha same reed all the way until about 1990. Then i choped a pice ott one finger on my right hand. No piping and no flute for quit some time. Around 2010 i went back to the pipes again and the reed was still working, but a bit hard to blow. I ordered a new form Brian and it worked plug and play and in tune. I still have the original reed and it stil plays.
Regards from Denmark
Good to hear that you’re playing again.
Interesting, I noticed my reed has bit a bit harder to blow since the hiatus too…
Reed was made in 11’ ,when I got the chanter, I was spending a good deal of time learning reed making, but have not given reed making a go since. While I like the idea of being proficient in reed making, I just don’t see the point. Any amateur reedmakers who have lucked into a good reed, still spend time making reeds?