I’ve been experimenting with straight-taper brass tubing lately for wide-bore D reeds but invariably get a flat 2nd octave. To compensate for this, I tried altering the reed head dimensions - figuring the that flat octave was due to small internal volume it would make sense that increasing the head’s internal volume would compensate. So I made a 15.3mm wide reed head as opposed to the usual 12.5-13mm. So it really looks like a spade in comparison.
The result was an in-tune reed in both octaves, although I’m still having trouble bringing the Back D and C# up from flat - I have this trouble on a lot of normal sized reeds too.
But what surprised me was that this whopper reed was incredibly mellow and soft in volume - softer than some narrow bore Ds I’ve played. At the same time I made several normal reeds using hand-rolled staples from the same cane and same technique, except fo the dimensions. These were of usual wide-D volume. I was thinking the greater internal volume would increase the sound volume as well. If I can just get the C# and back D in tune, it’ll make a good practice reed for evenings when my daughter and/or wife is asleep.
Standard practice o’er this neck o’ the woods. Trouble is, I often end up with a sharp reed by the time I’ve brought the D up to tune. I’m trying to work out how to make a flatter reed over all but still in tune overall. So far little success short of rushes. It’s a chanter thing no doubt - my chanter was made from reamers whose dimensions were taken directly from a Rowsome.
DJM, I put that question to this forum once and I think the consensus was that it wouldn’t so much flatten the pitch but rather stuff up the spread of the notes. I have used staple between 50 and 55mm long and there has not been any significant difference in pitch.
I have said for a long time,a wider reed give a more mellow tone,with out any doudt, :roll: I make my concert D reeds for the P.Hunter & D.Stephenson chanters 13.70mm wide, and 13.20-30mm for the Rowsome style concert D chanters, ausdag did you find the wider reed plays more easily than a narrow reed?, I find a wider reed plays a little more easily. all the best.
Hi Reedman, I have generally never gone narrower than about 13.2mm for my reeds. Never had much success with anything under that. As for the 15mm one - yes, it is much easier to play - require much less bag pressure and Hard D is effortless.
Still needs a few adjustments but I think I’ll pursue this a bit more. According to the data on Evertjan D’Harts site, O’Flynn’s reed is of about the same width - C15.2mm.
David,
Good on ya for venturing into the (generally) non-advisable realm of really wide reeds.
For a while, I was playing around with 14mm wide reeds to get around some flat second actave problems. One reed was really nice, but had the flat back D problem you’re having. Like yours, it played quietly despite being made of very hard cane and had an easy hard D. Unfortunately, I never got around the flat back D issue with the 14mm reeds, as trimming the reed shorter just screwed everything up.
I have had success bringing in a flat octave on my chanter by sticking with a 12.5mm reed and creating a wider bore staple - I re-bored a 4.1mm I.D. staple by wrapping some fine sandpaper round a 3.5mm drill bit and, using an electric drill, increased the bore to 4.5mm (up to the start of the flattened section).
Therefore, I would suggest, based solely on my own experience, that you might try a larger internal diameter staple to fix the octave problems and keep to a narrow head width to prevent the C# and back D going flat. If you’re rolling your own staples, a larger ID staple would also have a larger OD and so you would therefore create a larger ID in your reed head. Or there is always the carving of a tone chamber option.
all the best. 
