I have a new chanter with two reeds. It hasn’t been played in about 4 years. One reed is completely closed up. The other crows but is really tight. Anyone have any recommendations on a fountain of youth for this thing? I just need to coax it back enough to see if it’ll work and my bag of tricks is very small! My house is far less dry than the place where it came from so I’m hoping that’ll help a bit. Staple is as should be etc.
Have a read of the following thread:
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=48281&highlight=neets
I’ve used the Neets treatment on my chanter reed and it has worked well.
Eureka, I’ll try that thanks! Heck, who knows maybe I can revive both of them. Thanks much!
I’d strongly recommend that you try this only on the closed reed. Only if it works should you try it on the other reed.
Yeah, that was my plan, nothing to lose that way!
Have you tried simply opening the reed with the bridle? That’s why they have them. No need to resort to oil yet I would hope. Usually when moving to a more moist environment the reeds tend to open as opposed to closing down.
Try the bridle first - then report the results.
meemtp, how long have you had this chanter and its reeds? What Brian suggests (give em time to adjust) is the first thing anyone should do prior to giving up on them. I also vote against oil, preferring the crisp tone of a non-additive infused reed as opposed to the neatly muted tone of an oiled one. YMMV.
There are two varieties of bridle, those that are supposed to move and those that are not. Do not move the fixed variety, you could seriously (permanently) damage your reed.
I tried it with the bridle, no dice so far. I’ve been giving them some time to acclimate before trying anything too radical. The fellow I got the chanter from has a pretty dry house, the Maine winter and no humidification have probably taken their toll. The semi-open one probably has the most potential, but so far it only crows a bit in the first octave…nothing more from it! My place is consistantly 50-55% RH, so I’m hoping that may help. I’m planning on having the chanter re-reeded anyhow, I was just hoping to revive at least one of these to have as a spare.
I just picked it up yesterday Joseph, so I know I should probably give it a few days, just wanted to have some counsel ahead of time! I’m ok with some simple adjustments, but the rest of the black arts are beyond my scope!
Too bad, the previous owner had it reeded by Bruce Childress and said that it sang…then he lost that reed.. 
Send me the closed reed. I’ll get it going again for you if there’s any hope of it - and no oil.
Heh, I can now get a weak first octave G out of it…with huge amounts of bag pressure! Yeah…they’re both cooked. Adjusting the bridle and seating got me that far, but that’s about it, a high metallic sounding squeak in the bottom D is all else that comes out of it. I may try putting in the container that I keep my flute in when I get home tomorrow, ~65% RH, if no luck there, I may take you up Brian! Nothing to lose anyway.
Correct any leaks in the reed as leaks can do strange things to the sound you get out of a reed.
I scrub beeswax into the binding, polishing with a scrap piece of cane until the wax melts into the twine and gets shiny. That should eliminate any leakage through the binding.
Put a finger over the lips of the reed head to seal it off, then wet the fingers of the other hand and place close to both sides of the reed head and give a quick blow through the staple and see if any air comes out of the sides.
If you have a side leak, either use something like Elmer’s glue (Quinn and some other pipers don’t recommend this now, but it works for me) or PTFE tape to seal the sides.
I soak my slips in neetsfoot oil for two weeks (or more) before making a reed. I can’t tell any difference in the tone or volume of treated and untreated cane, except that the treated ones play much better in dry weather and require much less adjustment with humidity changes.
Hmm, I’ve surpassed my expectations for this thing. I can now get most of a 1st octave scale out of it with a decent A, bottom and super sharp back D. Of course it’s pretty sharp across everything (unrushed chanter) and takes a bit of extra bag pressure, but I’m only on the 2nd day of really trying to play it, plus the house has slipped back into drier territory with winter’s last gasp here. Perhaps I may achieve “reed whisperer” status someday! After learning to actually play the darn things decently of course. Thanks for the advice and encouragement from all.