i have a reed that has a dull sound to it. meaning its not got that nice snappy bright sound i like in a reed. …the reed was working fine until i decided to make it better :roll: … is there anything i can do to get this reed playing a little more crisp?..(ex…i cant get a hard D out of it at all)
Do you recall what you did to make it ‘better’?
i wanted to make the reed harder to play so i trimmed the lips just a tad.
i got the stiffness out of it i wanted and it plays in tune but just dull.
OK, how much is a tad?
If you cut too much (more than about 0.2mm ?)
the lips may be too thick. Did the intonation or
overall tuning change much after you trimmed
the reed?
I should be asking more questions…
Who’s chanter and who’s reed??
Do you have any working spares?
I usually recommend having a look at the troubleshooting
chart on Seth Gallaghers page:
http://www.uilleann.com/reeds.html
…it is a lynch chanter and reed. it plays very well in tune, just kind of dull now…i dont think i cut too much off it, but who knows…i will check out that link you posted..thanks
trent
the web page had some good info…i thinned out the blades a bit with some sand paper. got a phone call from a memeber on this forum that knew me. thanks larry for the help. the reed sounds pretty good. im going keep playing on it for a while and see what happens
Glad to hear it’s working out.
When scraping or sanding reeds it’s best to do LESS than you think it needs. Come back in a day or two to see how the reed has re-adjusted the stress changes.