Well, it’s that time of the year again. Furnaces are being turned on and the humidity is dropping in our houses. If you were in So. California this weekend , we had the Santa Ana (or Santana) offshore wind patterns which makes for very dry air. This is a time that tweeks our chanter reeds.
So I was wondering, what do you notice going wrong first with your reed as the air dries out? With my chanter, it starts with the bottom D getting hesitant and not wanting to play instantly, especially when coming off of a high note. An “a” cut will help, but when it gets really dry, even that won’t work. Sometimes, in really dry air, the bottom d sounds like a chain smoker coughing.
Mine does this wierd choky sound when the reed clamps shut on mid-D. Bottom D gurgles.
The Santa Anas have done weird things this week. It seems every joint on the set became loose. I had to rewrap everything to get them air tight. However, as I type, the humidity is 40%. as opposed to low 20s, so I’ll probably unwrap stuff tonight.
NE USA: sickly weak back D. 2nd 8ve sharps. overall volume drops.
Drones want to be longer.Temp changes brutal: cool+ comfy @home in case: cold+ dry on the way to gig; hot + dry in venue. its murder.
Another not-so-obvious sign is leakage under the tone holes from your fingers not sealing as well as they normally do - from dry skin! Boo! Usually a little hand lotion will fix that.
#1 sign for me: giving serious thought to learning the two-row button accordion Or one of those delrin flutes from M&E
I know an old fella from Clare whose red Paulo Soprani box was riding on the family truckster’s luggage rack en route to a feis (his kids were all dancers) back in the 70s when it fell off, rolled along the highway for about a hundred yards, and came to rest in the middle of the highway.
Result: 1 shattered accordion case. Apart from a few scratches, the accordion was in fully operational condition.
Maybe a Taylor set might survive such an accident, but I doubt it.
Tommykleen’s mainstock shoots out of its cup at the session.
My chanter reed actually plays its best, now, because JES made it for me in a 30% humidity situation. Which reminds me, Joseph, I need to get some humid- and arid-weather reeds made. I’ll be getting back to you on that when I can bear to be without my chanter. When you make the humid reeds, I think you’ll have to do it in the bathroom with the shower running. Just a thought.
My favorite reed I made last November. In summer, it plays without any tape and best with just a wire rush. Now, back D has gone very sharp, 2ve is sharper, and it’s quieter. I just adjust it: I change the reed depth and tape the back D. It can be adjusted to play nicely enough, but it never sounds as good as it does in July.
I’m working on a batch now, one of which will hopefully make the cut to be my “dry” reed for winter.
Back D and C# get wimpy. Everything gets quieter, weaker, sharper. Adjustment helps, but only to a certain extent. The other piper at my session seems to have an iritatingly stable reed these days. I aways have to adjust things a few times during a session to stay with him, I keep going sharp and he doesn’t.
I think I have a dry weather reed in the works though.
My wee machine tells me it drops from 65% average in summer to 40% average in the driest months in winter…lower if it snows or if the central heating is on a lot.
Under 40% all my reeds start to do really weird things.
Any sudden change in humidity and/or barometric pressure will also mean there are subtle changes eg individual notes are out.
I once had not one but two regs come loose while I was playing in a pub.
It was mid-winter.
The end-caps and tuning pins suddenly blew off…
Or one of those delrin flutes from M&E 
