Hi there, I haven’t been here in ages.
Here’s a question for regulator users (I couldn’t find a directly relevant thread):
I have a very very good full set (it’s a Rogge full set in C), and I am rather sure that its regulator reeds are fine. Nevertheless I keep encountering a problem. If I want to get my regs stable, that is, with minimal pitch fluctuation upon pressure change and no octave jumps, I have to open the reed lips more, which makes the regs (a) less responsive, (b) demanding more air, and (c) too loud.
I want my reeds to be stable, yet easy to play and relatively more quiet - it’s a flat set and it sounds best when its not as loud as a wide-bore concert pitch set. I know that stability and responsiveness are by-and-large conflicting, but assuming I got the balance between the two, how would I achieve this balance with less air pressure and with a softer (more quiet) sound? Is there anything I can do to the reg reeds (e.g. type and position of the bridle) that would achieve this?
I too would like info on this topic. I have a great set by seth gallagher but the regs are slow in responding when the keys are depressed. I have the bronze reeds installed in the regulators and i dont know how to adjust them without breaking them. They dont have a bridle
Best would be to ask the maker to set them up for you as you would like.
My Gallagher set was a bit slow in responsiveness regarding the regs at first but I set the chanter reed to play at a higher preassure which made the whole set be more stable. Might be because of the weather change between USA and Sweden!!
Rob
some people believe the reeds must be open and very scraped. I’ve seen other approaches which leave the reed thin at the 1st 1/2, and thick at the bottom w/a minimal aperture.
every reed is different (obviously). perhaps you are not playing the optimum reeds for your regs? try a friend’s reed that plays nicely and put it in your reg., forget tuning…just check response. take note of the differences (that you can see) and start trying to make your own.
Getting regulator reeds to go is most frustrating to say the least. Here are a few tips.
Ease of playing. This is strictly controlled by how thin the reed is shaved and how open are the reed lips. If the reed is shaved too thin the reed will squeak and jump the octave; too thick and it will be hard to play.
Volume and tone are related. Once you have gotten the ease of playing out of the way you can then start to work on the volume and tone. The most common method to quieten a regulator is to use a reed that is very sharp, then flatten it by inserting rushes and/or blue tack into the bore. The more stuff in the bore the quieter. Needless to say, a regulator full of stuff has a softer tone.
Cane is also very important. The answer is to use bad cane for the regulators. When ever I am making chanter reeds I eventually come across some cane that plays sort of OK but has a soft tone and low volume, not suitable for chanters. I set this “crappy cane” aside and use it to make nice soft regulator reeds.
Make the reeds out of metal. Very nice reeds can be made out of sheet bronze or metal cans. Quinn and Koehler have had good success using this method. One good thing about the metal reeds is that they will not jump the octave. Still, I prefer the cane reeds, I’m just traditional.
whenever the reg keys open up, they take air, bag pressure drops.
Cant change that fact no matter if you have the best reg reeds under the sun.
I tend to compensate on my SG bronze-reg-reeded set by nudging a wee bit more air towards the mainstock (via left elbow) whenever I get active on the regs. The drones + chanter oughta be able to handle that change.
Sorry if redundant, Pat’s much more the expert. (and he’s got a great book BTW)
Good regulators shouldn’t hop the octave or sink in pressure or motorboat on the bottom D and bass G notes. It’s a litmus test for that. Otherwise you’re dependent on playing hard reeds or finding some of Pat’s crappy cane.
Narrow bore sets are nice in that the reject chanter reeds usually work in the regulators too. Waste not.
Pretty impossible to diagnose another piper’s problems in text. Roy might have a leak in a reg that’s making it squeak, or he’s playing an extra hard chanter reed that’s making it hard to keep the regs stable due to all the excess bag pressure. Sometimes you need to watch the pressure to keep the chords stable, at the expense of staying in the second octave or making the chanter sound punchy.
