I have been making reeds for half a year, made 30 or 40 reeds but only few of them are satisfactory working.
I want to know the Success Rate of your reed making.
Can a proffessional pipe/reed maker 100% make a fully working reed when they understand enough about the chanter?
I made three reeds today, changed the shape slightly, one seems to sound good but has a little dull tone and a flat back D. The more trying to make a better reed, little time left to play the pipes. Tired…
reed making is a dark art best left to those who have been blessed with the correct conjucntions and alignments of planets!
Seriously even the greatest reed makers will struggle some days to make reeds. As one reed maker said it takes constant practice to make a reasonable sounding reed. and lots more to make a really good reed. He reckoned a really good reed would only come about once in a while, and then he couldn’t really say why as he made them all in the same way?
Make sure the reed’s wrapped up tight - it can shift after a while, and the reed will die after a few months for some reason. Some glue the blades to the staple. Make sure the wrapping’s airtight. I like machine winding much more than by hand myself, and many pipemakers use it as well. Get all the books, starting with Hegarty’s (new edition), which is the most all-around informative I think. The blades shouldn’t seperate from one another at all. The staple needs to be filed smooth where the blades contact it. And the blades need to be thinned down to where they speak fully, but not too much, especially at the tips. I wrap sandpaper around a thin metal ruler and sand the tips with that, checking carefully as I go.
These are the important things for me in making a reed that looks nice, plays well, and doesn’t fail over time, meaning that I no longer have to bother making them unless I really want to - which is what everyone wants, right?
I know that Howard - a professional pipemaker- made a reed profiler or reed gouger for himself. This apparatus copies a good reed. So 9 out of 10 are a succes now. There are bassoons gouger on the market look at forrestmusic.com
