I think I found a mistake I consistently make when making reeds and wanted to broadcast it and see what other reedmakers think.
The reed is typically very nice, save for 2ve A – often 2ve B will be easy to get and at the right pitch – but 2ve A just drops or cannot be held except under powerful pressure.
Rule out: leaks
Rule out: V too thick
Rule out: lips too thin in center
I think it was because at the lips, the edges were too thick. I sometimes clip the edges to an angle and this morning when I did this it seemed to have solved the 2ve A dropping problem.
So can I conclude then that 2ve A depends on thin edges at the lips-tip of the reed?
I had been following a philosophy of sanding and scraping until it worked, but sometimes that meant I got a weak reed overall or ruined reed. I wonder if, when it worked, I had not noticed that I sanded the lips more uniormly at the edges.
Hello. Not entirely. I think it’s important to have a very clean cut at the lips for what you might refer to as the ‘staccatto’ (sp) response (you want the reed to cleanly pronounce the note each time you lift a finger, none of that small windy sound you can sometimes hear on the notes ‘attack’). i.e. that the reed lips are free from small imperfections that might allow for minute leaks through the lips when closed by your wind pressure. Most of this can be avoided by using finer grades of emery to smooth your slip. (I never use more than 400 emery and that seems okay).
If your head sides are not sealing properly you may find that this causes dropped notes.
Also, if your shoulder is too narrow and/or you have bound too tightly then this tension can make the blades too can’t think of the word and they want to open too quickly
So, that might also indicate that your staple eye is too fat.
Well, I guess I’ll have to reply to my pitifully boring post myself… Thanks to AlanB for a very helpful reply.
Made another reed - sure enough, trouble with previous versions was what I will term “fat hips”… See pitiful mspaint drawing below…
Rounding edges now a bit more like GHB reeds.
Question now is… what am I going to do with all these reeds I’m making? I feel like if I stop making them I will stop gaining skill and, well, it’s a nice hobby anyway…
I have noticed that many of my ‘non-working reeds’ had fat hips. I have gone back to give some of them a bit of weight loss and have gotten them to work. It is quite a tricky process to make a working reed.
I haven’t made a good reed yet, but I have one in my chanter now that works. I was going to post a reed question today, myself.
Experimented using slightly curved blade I found in an old wood carving kit I bought years ago. Used this to finish the reed instead of flat blade - it helped me avoid the fat hip problem and avoid making center area too thin.
Second octave is nice and not too hard, especially high A. Whole reed tunes nicely - although still bringing in bottom D.
I always thought of the scrape as flat, but maybe that’s not quite best?
Well, I guess I’ll have to reply to my pitifully boring post myself… Thanks to AlanB for a very helpful reply.
