I’ve been playing around with an old reed, as much in the spirit of learning as anything else (with a view to maybe starting to make my own soon). It wasn’t great to start with, but after a few bouts of surgery it’s playing very nicely.
EXCEPT, that is, for the top B, which just refuses to sound at all. Doesn’t matter how much pressure I apply, whether I open or close the lips, whether I approach on a run or a slide, or whatever else I do.
Does anyone happen to know what might cause this? Every other note speaks well and is in tune, and the hard D is reasonable - it’s just the top B causing trouble. I’ve scoured Dave Hegarty’s guide for advice, but so far to no avail. It’s not the chanter (a Preshaw D), as this has no problem hitting B with any other reed.
As I say, it’s an old reed and I don’t mind b***ering it up completely in the effort to get it to play properly - I’d rather learn what the problem is so I’ll know for next time. So I’m prepared to give anything a try..
I’ve recently had the same problem with a new reed. Everything was great except the second octave B. The best advice I got was to give the reed a few weeks to get used to its new home. It worked. Now I can play B’ whenever I want.
One of the things I initially had to do with my new reed was to play it with the G and F# holes open, or to lift the chanter off the knee while I was sounding B’ (not just popping but keeping it off the knee). Now I can play the B’ with the G and F# holes closed (although I have to clip the G to get to the B’).
In your case, it might be that adjusting the old reead might require a few weeks to allow the reed to find and settle into its new form.
Assuming that you’re taliking about the note playing a first octave B instead of the seconfd octave,
A brand new reed is often reluctant to sound the note and some playing-in (softening of the reed) fixes this.
The eye of the staple could be a little too big so closing it by one tenth of a milimeter may help (it also helps a reluctant or growling octave E)
A reed that is too scraped and too closed makes both the octave B and Cnat key reluctant to hold (try trimming the reed, extracting the staple, and re sanding while trying to avoid thinning the centre area of the lips)