Other-Other C reed dimensions

Any have any other C reed dimensions? I’ve just made a sparkilng reed for **PJ’**s Matt Kiernan C chanter sounds good using SG dimensions but I’m lookin’ for other dimensions for experimentation. Know of any other that could yield similiar results.

D.

What are you using for your staple? And how are the Cs behaving on that chanter?

Hey Bill, Nice to chat with ya again.

The C’s are acting sharp a bit and I’m using a tapered copper staple using Seth’s dimensions. I don’t have the dimensions on hand right this minute but is a nice sounding reed in this particular chanter just a tad sharp though (5-6 cents)

I have put a wire-rush inside the staple throat but with little success, in the flattening dept. I could enlarge the staple eye or retract the cane lips down the staple further to cure it.

What are your thoughts??

Daryl

From your comments I assume your second octave is sharp relative to the first?

When I asked about C’s I meant the C/C# combination, i.e. “nominal Cs”,. Are we on the same page? Unusual for both to be too sharp.

IIRC Kiernan Cs need larger staples than usual for C, but I’d want to know what your current staple and octave situation are like before hazarding a guess.

:smiley: Most regards, the staple dimensions are too small, but I’ll confirm with you tonight when I arrive at my house.

Thanks,

D

…a reed isn’t going to resolve the tuning issue for PJ’s Kiernan chanter. The C hole is going to have to be tuned physically.

I really don’t want to start some kind of flame war here, but if by that you mean “move or enlarge the hole”, you already know that I will disagree [1].

We know Kiernan chanters are famous/infamous for having odd C/Csharp combinations nowadays. This suggests that any such issue with PJ’s chanter isn’t unique to that chanter. Aside from the fact that I don’t think one should ever condone irreversible modifications to other makers’ chanters, I find it hard to believe that this problem was as severe for Matt himself, or that there was no way to reed around it in the day.

In any case we need to establish the degree to which this was a problem for Matt Kiernan himself, with the reeds that were being made to his specifications when he was making chanters, before drawing too many conclusions.

regards

Bill

[1] - and no, I don’t consider moving or enlarging a tonehole to be “reversible”, even if you can “put it back” or re-fill with wood dust