My bass drone reed set-up right now has the bass drone slide pulled way out to get it spot-on on D. It is nice and stable, but it is at about the end of where I would want to pull it to. Anymore and it will fall off quite easily.
Should I tweek my reed a bit to get it’s frequency up (by adding mass to the end, or moving the bridle up), so I can push the drone slide in a bit more - or should I just leave it there, 'cuz it sounds so cool all the way out? Any thoughts, folks?
The longer your bass drone the more stable it will be. You can choke up on the tongue a bit to reduce the length, but if you go too far (shortening the tongue, that is) the bass will get very sensitive to pressure.
djm
Nonsense. Shorten the tongue, you sharpen it, therefore the bass drone needs more extending to drop it into pitch. Lengthen the tongue by dropping the bridle and/or adding weight to near the tip of the tongue.
And why should a bass drone be more stable if it was shorter? My old Pete Hunter bass drone was a killer, fruity and stable and was quite a lot shorter than many.
Alan
Hey Tom,
I was in the same boat, (with the B set), only I had nowhere to go with the bridle. A smal blob of wax at the end of tongue did the trick.
-Larry
Ooops, I meant to say “move the bridle down to make the tonge longer”.
Yes, I have this great red Endevco accelerometer wax I have been waiting to try out on a drone reed. I like it better than beeswax.
Apply a dull hatchet to the material in question and give it a good WHACK, then take the head of the stuffed goose firmly in hand and…oh…must have the wrong thread…sorry…carry on. 
…I was recently at an event that took place in an trading post in the woods of northern MN. Anyways, there was a piper there whose bass drone needed help. I couldn’t find any decent wax or anything to stick onto the tongue of the reed..so, being the ol’ boyscout that I am, I grabbed a chunk of pine pitch from the nearest white pine, chewed it up and lo and behold it made a GREAT piece of tacky gunk to stick onto the tongue!..of course…it tasted like @#$@
just call me Magyver!
I have NEVER EVER thought about using that stuff for a reed. Brilliant design reuse
Another theory/consideration/observation I’ve heard/pondered/experienced, is that when any drone gets out too far, the relatively huge chamber that is necessarily formed by the slide bore being opened up to mammoth proportions, can/may/might actually make the drone more unstable, or create a hypersensitive tuning spot where very tiny movements of the slide either way can shoot the pitch up, down sidways, sometimes in the opposite direction intended. Likewise, setting up too short can often/sometimes/occasionally do the same thing.
Royce
Well as you all might have guessed. I added some wax to the end and nudged the bridle down just a tad and now I have to push the slide in about 1/4 of an inch or more to get D. The only bummer is that the drone is now more unstable with air pressure. foo-wee! So I’m going back to the old set up and live with it pulled out there near the edge.
p.s. the accelerometer wax worked great : ) Want some, Fel? I’ll bring some to the So Cal tionol.
Hello to the forum. This is my second post to the UP forum. I am most interested in making some synthetic drone reeds, so the discussion relating to drone length and it effect on the stability of the tones is extremely interesting.
I was under the impression that UP drones are designed as closed pipe instruments (as are Highland pipes). Given a constant bore, the standing waves at the open end of the drones are such that the velocity and pressure curves are close to equal values (ideally zero). Theoretically, the pressure and velocity curves would always be minimal at the end of the drones, but the so-called standing waves are usually traveling waves. The more precisely the physical length is tuned to produce the slowest traveling wave, the more stable the tone. For a given pitch, this ‘perfect’ drone is a tuned exhaust system with the proper back pressure being applied to the reed tongue to produce the desired pitch.
It appears that physical length does indeed contribute to the stability of the drone for a given reed. Do I have an (some) incorrect premise(s) here?
Rick
Nope. You’re right, but no formula seems capable of taking into account the differences from one reed to another.
djm
The size and pitch of the reed should correspond with the size and length of the resonating chamber for the ultimate experience. If you pull the slider out too far, the new length and internal volume would become more appropriate for a lower pitched reed. There’s a coordination between the reed and the tube size/length. There’s an ultimate spot for maximum tone/volume to resonate and amplify. The difference is probably subtle.
Good sounding drones are good because of more reasons than one.
Try it without moving the bridle. You don’t need to move the bridle at all, and that sets the perfect operating pressure for one, which you do not want to change, and it also makes a set point whether the increased second octave pressure bends pitch up or down or neutral. If you’re already at perfect operating pressure, and your octave pressure is neutral pitch bend, you don’t want to move the bridle. Add as much wax as you need to drop reed pitch and move the drone in as far as you want. It may not take much or it may take a lot, depending on the reed tongue’s material.
Royce
Thanks, Royce. I’ll try that tonight.
for staying power, and ease of removal…i’ve always preferred funtak (that blue stuff for hanging posters) on reeds…i love it and carry a small blob in my case at all times (along with a toolkit that would make a mechanic proud…)
I might note that, since I’ve been re-setting all my drones for a new chanter, that in shortening the tongue/stabilizing the bass etc, you will probably hit a point where the bass–in my case with the slide out far enough so it’s got an open slide bore but the hemp tenon is still covered by an inch of brass comfortably–has to be “struck” in to hit the stable mode. You can’t ease in or under-blow your way in. If mouth testing you’ll have to puff it in, or in the stock, you’ll have to have pressure up and make a quick, firm opening of the stop valve to lock up the bass/others at first blast. If you wheeze your way in it will/may go into a flatter, and not very stable mode that changes markedly with 2nd octave pressure in the sharp range, and is also a lot louder and coarser.
Once locked in, though, you will have to drop pressure a lot to fall out of it, and it will not appreciably sharpen no matter how hard you lay into it. Once you drop out though, you will have to strike it back in again, but like I say, you’d have to seriously underpump and drop the chanter out to lose the lockup.
Royce