T’day I’ve been a ceritfiable reed head. I experimented w/ tubing staples (though I normaly use rolled. I wanna know from someone w/a couple hundred reeds under there belt (that’d look weird, but it’ll gets girls) what their experince has been regarding the relationship between the size of the stape eye and the back d. please elaborate
thanx
How can you explain the magic involved in making reeds…
To slow the response to changes in humidity, I soak my slips for the reed heads in neetsfoot oil for a minimum of two weeks.
I find that the eye opening may have more effect on the C natural (it will play C# with a too small an eye opening) than the back D.
For a stable back D, I shoot for fairly thick lips at the reed opening.
I never have had any success with a tube, I had to roll a conical staple and play with the taper and length until I get the octaves parallel. Sometimes my scrape will have a “scoop” just above the bridle. I prefer a fixed bottom, bridle rather than the movable ones. The movable bridles seem to have trouble holding the octave A or B depending on the bridle’s location on the reed head.
I have one chanter reed that I used 3 turns of steel wire just above the binding, like the reed design that Northumbrian pipers use.
YMMV
Fancy has hit on the BIG ONE, for me. When scraping/sanding the reed head be very careful not to get the lips too thin. Also, you’ll want to keep the the natural curvature of the cane (or actually, the curvature of the staple eye) pretty much the same from the binding to roughly mid reed.