It’s all about humidity… friggin humidity…
AMEN. It’s so funny, I recall being told that bellows-blown pipes are easier to pick-up-and-play than are mouthblown pipes because you don’t get your wet breath on the reeds and drastically change the humidity every time you pick them up.
Well, I’m here to tell you, highland pipe reeds are so thick that once a set (of reeds) is played in, you can usually get in tune and stay in tune after 15-20 minutes of warm-up. Tell my uilleanns they’re low maintenance, would you?
Stuart
Thicker is better only for heat shields on the space shuttle . lol. 
[ This Message was edited by: tok on 2002-12-05 23:36 ]