Keep in mind I have only been at this for about 6 months…
I was practicing some new tunes that involved 2nd octave f# and e. And I got this awful, loud, terrible screech. It was like the sound that a goose or duck makes when panicked ( lots of room for jokes here). Those notes were never like that before and now its very repeatable. If I really crank down hard on the bag I can almost make it go away but it seems like I should not have to do that as it never happened before. I put another reed in, from another maker and it did the same thing. I thought that this is weird.
The only thing that I can think of is that it has gotten colder here in Portland. And while its wet outside (80-100% humidity), because I have my home heating my indoor humidity had dropped form a normal of 50-60% to 40%. Would that be it?
I did some more searching on this site about screeching. Humidity was mentioned several times. So I put a humidifier in the room and brought the humidity from 40 to 50%. Let the reeds sit out near the humidifier for a an hour or so.
Screech is gone, even my temperamental back D screech is much less now.
So… is this humidity thing a problem for all reeds or is there something about my reed that I could do to make it less sensitive to humidity?
Dry-blown natural reeds are always subject to ambient conditions. I know that some pipers have kept reeds purpose-made for certain seasonal or regional changes. Anyway, of course you’d have to make a new reed in the new conditions so as to best deal with them in any case, if that’s an option, but I dunno how reliable a system keeping them for later is.
Other than that: Yeah, humidify. I would agree that 50% is a good minimum. It’s usually that way for wood flutes, too. I know one fellow whose method has been to fix a damp sponge to his bellows intake, but I hesitate to recommend that…mainly for no other reason than it’s all damp and squooshy, I guess.
Hi Bob, I don’t have the screeching but i have noticed my reeds are more erratic in their tuning just recently. I also thought it was a humidity issue and bought a humidity gauge for my kit and found it was down to around 32 in the room i keep my pipes. Humidifier has helped, but its hard with the heating system to stop the humidity fluctuating by 10 degrees/points or whatever the correct term is.
Hi Bob. I have encountered this problem with three reeds I’ve had over the years. Twice it came with reeds by a pipemaker who shipped them from humid Ireland to a dryer climate here, and once it had developed in one of my own reeds that I had made for a friends’ chanter. The screech only happened with the 2nd octave e and sometimes with the back d although not as easily. I don’t remember about 2nd octave f#. In all cases the cane used was pretty hard, the reeds were on the loud side and the tails were left pretty strong. In one of the cases I could fix the screech by sealing the reed from the sides where it had developed leaks during shipping. In the other cases the screech went on and off depending on air humidity. Check if your reeds have developed leaks by sucking air through the staple while covering the mouth of the reed with your finger/flesh of your arm so no air comes through from there, and seal any leaks you find. If the leaks are at the sides of the blades, wiping them with a glue stick a couple of times usually does the trick. If there are no leaks, then I guess it’s best to stick with watching the humidity. Good luck!!
If the humidifier is helping, then it’s probably best to stick with that for the time being. (This is with the chanter you had when last I saw you, and not anything that’s recently been delivered from Santa’s workshop, I take it…) If it’s snowing outside and you’ve got the heater running, chances are that the pipes will not be especially happy no matter what you do, and they may just need to take a short vacation in the closet for a few days. At least we in Portland have that luxury… I don’t really know what I’d do if I lived in a place where the humidity plummeted for extended spells. (Maybe I’d finally learn to make my own reeds, I suppose…)
The one time I had serious humidity-related difficulties, I finally wound up putting a Dampit in my bellows. (You can get them from David Kerr’s Violin Shop.) I’d recommend that only as a last resort, however.
I’ll be out of the country for a few weeks, but when I get back, I’d be happy to take a look at them if you’re still having any trouble.