reed altering question

Uilleann Pipes
1

so i have a reed by bruce for a bruce chanter. I have two actually. Since the recent shift in weather, my old sweet reed has been less so, and so I put in my spare and it works.

It works save the octave is a bit unstable…sometimes it kicks up when i’m playing low and sometimes it kicks down when i’m playing high.

one of the corners is chipped (not a lot, but easily visible), but only one blade. In other words, out of four possible corners, this reed has three.

bruce’s reeds are made with twisted wire bridles and i don’t think they’re meant to be fooled with.

so, yeah, my question…I was reading about clipping corners and I began to think…should I clip the corner which is the mate to the chipped corner? If I do that, should I clip the other two as well for symmetry? what changes can I expect if I do?

2

I don’t actually understand the terminology here.

But to answer your question, I have experimented a fair amount with clipping the corners (of a new reed). I don’t personally think it has much impact. We might like to think that reeds vibrate from their edges, like a spring, but this is a gross over-simplification of the mechanics of a double reed’s action.

However, a chunk missing from the side of one blade may affect the reed’s performance. It wouldn’t be unreasonable to speculate that this might introduce a leak since the vibrating part of reed blades work together.

As I said, I don’t understand what the trouble is so I can’t guess if it seems like a leaky reed problem. However, I personally don’t think there’s any harm in chopping off the corners. The reed might act different afterwards, but you really couldn’t generalize about the effect of doing this.

Oh, and what would be the use of a bridle if it wasn’t meant for adjustment?

Eric

3

the octaves are unstable. the lower octave has a tendency to overblow when I’m not trying to, and likewise the upper octave has a tendency to drop down into the lower. the C# and back D are also too easy to send flat with little extra pressure.

the reed is actually my first one and is several years old, but some of that life has been spent in a box as my spare.

the amount missing isn’t exactly a “chunk”…its about as much as you would clip if you were going to clip it on purpose (as far as i’ve been able to tell from pictures i’ve seen of clipped reeds)

4

Certainly sounds leaky to me. For the reason stated, chopping might help this supposing you don’t have a leak somewhere else.

I’d avoid chopping the other corner just because I believe less is best in reed adjustment.

If the reed dies, you’re in good shape to make a new one since a post-mortem will give you reliable dimensions to shoot for.

Be sure and test the crow (if for no other reason than your own education)

Eric

5

Hope this gives an indication. Anymore clipped and you will lose the staccato response from a reed. It is said this can make 8ve e ‘purer’ in tone and ease up the reed too. If you are dropping and overblowing, it’s possibly a leaky reed, you might want to look to leaky fingers too.

Alan

6

that’s about the size of the chip…perhaps a bit less…so i’m in good shape there.

i will trim the other side, and leave the undamaged corners alone unless matters get made worse by the reed being asymmetrical

I tested the crow. he was able to hit the button to get the birdseed eight times out of ten. I need to see if my skinner box needs altering…

7

Hey, the secret on those reeds is to squeeze the bridle with your fingers. Just a little finger action, sometimes fairly stiff, will open it a bit and often make a world of difference. If the chanter is also very quiet then it’s probably relaxed too much and closed down on you. Yes, those bridles work but they’re also pretty stable so the tendency is to leave them be for a long long long time as long as the reed keeps playing. Eventually though, you have to put a little tension back into them. Do not slide them up or down.

If you use pliers, needle nosed perferably, be very very very careful.

If you ever want to free them up to keep them from being too squirrelly, use an emory board, fairly fine, and sand evenly over Bruce’s scrape, stay the hell away from the lips and don’t widen the V near the bridle. It won’t take much, they come pretty near ideal. Of course any reed will go nuts or crap out on you without explanation, but Bruce sends out fairly easy, pretty much finished reeds that only need that bit of bridle squeezing now and again generally–they’re not like some where it’s a kit you have to finish, so don’t go crazy on them.

If you feel a need to stabilize back D, you can clip the lips but only a very very small sliver. You can also file down the bevel right near the tip of the lips so it’s more gradual–Bruce’s reeds have these thin lips with a fairly sharp bevel that thickens them up over the first little bit of the scrape. Don’t ever thin that out at the lips any more, but you can take out the steep slope there, especially if you clip it. I have one like that with the weird back D right now, was fine when I got it, now it’s gone weird. Two others that played perfectly along with it a few months back still play fine, even though I broke my own rule and didn’t remove the cap from the bag so I could better control the egress of the chanter, so when I pulled the reed out at practice one day I clipped the edge of the stop valve with the corner of it and I’ve just glued it back together on both blades which both split just off the cane at the side of the V. Still plays great though–also broke my other rule, it was playing fine I just wanted to see if I’d got it back in straight. Never take your reed out if it’s working, especially at a gig or a practice.

Royce

(Also, clipping the corners works fine on those, especially after shortening and sanding to beef up back D if it feels really tight then, and you’re right, I think I would just even out both sides for the sake of superstition.)