Hello everyone,
My cane tenor reed is taking up too much air and it’s really loud. When I try to move the bridle away from the seat it just makes a pitiful high pitched whistle that still takes a lot of air to sound. It’s like the tongue isn’t vibrating as it should.
Can the cane be stiff? Does anyone have any ideas on how to fix it?
Drone or Regulator ?
More info needed if help is to be found here.
Oh, your first post here… why not introduce yourself… ?
I think he means the tenor drone, since he refers to the tongue.
Make sure that no lint/dust/cane fibres have gotten trapped between the tongue and the rest of the reed. If there’s nothing, one thing which might work is to get a fingernail under the tongue, lift it maybe half an inch and then release it quickly. Try this a few times, then plug the drone back in and see how it sounds.
If the drones have not been played in a while, the reeds may have just died, in which case all you can really do is buy/make new reeds.
Drone reeds don’t die just sitting there doing nothing. I have tried reeds in sets that haven’t been played in over a hundred years that worked fine. Reeds can go wonky and no longer want to work for a variety of reasons. I will make a new one for you for free, if you cover the postage. I would need the diameter of the reed to a tenth of a mm and the overall length to the nearest mm. Send me a PM.
Come on Ted! its bad enough when two experts dont agree, but when one expert doesn’t agree with himself,what are we to do ?
RORY
It’s a drone reed. I checked for lint, everything was clear. I read that running a piece of paper under the tongue can help, I tried that and it’s playing now. It’s still really unsteady, and I had to move the bridle all the way down to the seat. I play everyday, one day it just freaked out on me.
Just pointing out that drone reeds go wonky for a variety of reasons, but sitting and doing nothing is not one of them. They age rather well.
Ted is right. Cane drone reeds (that are made right and have been used for a while) just don’t go bad sitting there unless they’ve been pulled out and left in the sun, or moisture has accidently been applied. What he’s saying is that these reeds usually go bad for other reasons–like mishandling.
With certain species (not cane necessarily) I find that even holding them, while working on rethreading or tapering the base…the heat, moisture, or pressure from the hands can cause the frame to give a little which can affect the way the tongue closes. If the wood is not fully dried or cured before construction, the tongue can warp and shrink out of shape overnight…sometimes taking even longer.
I find that most problematic drone reeds can be fixed, ie, manipulated back into shape. But, knowing what to do, and how to go about it, is the problem. A picture of your reed would help…and who made your drones. Sometimes the reed is not made for a specific drone design, ie, someone may be trying to put an all natural cane reed in a drone that was made for cylindrical seated composites. Sometimes the ID of the drone isn’t a good match for the size of the natural reed.
Trouble shooting suggestions: you might try rolling the reed between the hands. Sometimes this re-seats (or re-aligns) the tongue with the frame. Also, make sure the reed sits in the seat perfect and doesn’t leak air. Having revived many old cane drone reeds that were given to me, I find that usually the tongue is not shaped right to the frame. That is, it lies too flat, tip is raised too high, tongue is not straight with the world, grain of wood is not straight, tongue is not scraped right, tongue thickness is uneven, tip has been overly chamfered, or it’s simply too stiff–it hasn’t been given an even tapering scrape from root to tip and is simply too thick to flex right. You might try taking the bridle off and rubbing the back (top) of the tongue with your thumb until the friction warps it back down so it isn’t taking so much air (I wouldn’t hold it to a candle flame like some recommend). Then put the bridle back on after it has regained the right buzz. The tip has to be raised (arched, lifted) just right to cause a vibrating action from passing air, otherwise it tends to clap shut under pressure. Often, I have to lift the tongue of an old worthless cane reed and press the thumb in the middle to give it more spring…and holding it there for a minute until it remembers its new position. Even this doesn’t always help and you have to throw it away. Sometimes over scraping the base of the tongue (where it hinges) weakens the action causing it to be unstable. Scraping the base (or root) is what gives the tongue a good buzz. A tongue that has no scrape at the base has the potential to sound even better–sometimes MUCH better. Putting too much weight on the tip (to tune it, or to help steady the action–of certain species anyway–not cane necessarily), can cause the reed to develop certain stability problems. Sometimes a splinter has flaked off the edge of the tongue and is interfering with the action of the tongue. Sometimes there’s a foreign particle in the tube. Sometimes a crack in the frame or tongue has developed–usually from mishandling. Sometimes there’s a climate change. Sometimes the pitch of the reed (outside the drone) isn’t a good match for the pitch of the drone it’s intended for. You’d be surprised too, how often a drone reed problem can be cured simply by twisting the drone in the stock–the reed not being set in the seat straight. The tip of a reed can be touching the wall. Hollow stocks rule!
Not all drone reeds are alike so there’s no across the board rules. But, most cane reeds behave and respond in a similar manner.
Ted…what a generous offer! He won’t be able to use the PM feature until he’s posted 3x, so here’s the website with Ted’s contact info: http://www.piperssupply.com/
…may have missed someone else asking this, but - did this reed ever work correctly in the first place?
If yes, then re-adjustment seems warranted (assuming the thing was not irreversably damaged some how).
If no, then (to paraphrase others on this forum) why continue the struggle, if making another is an option?
The reed did work; but then it started to be unstable, then it stopped. It had gotten more humid, but I didn’t think just air humidity would have such an effect. Lorenzo, Nick Whitmer made the pipes and the reeds. I’m going to try some more trouble shooting on it, but I am going to take Ted up on his offer. It’ll be good to practice on this one anyway.
Adusting and working with cane drone reeds is an art. There are a few techniques to master that will usually revive them or keep them going. I have an article on cane drone reeds that I posted on my website (piperssupply.com) that I refer pipers to that has some instructions in it that cover the basics.
I had around 25-30 old (non-working) cane reeds that I’ve saved over the years. This last year, after understanding drone reeds better, I tried rehabilitating them. I think all but one came back to life and worked great (both in and out of the drone).
What kind of bridle do you have on it? I ask because both my main and “backup” bass drone reeds crashed last week (ebony bodies with cane tongues). After tinkering around with various things I finally replaced their bridles, which were elastic bands that were kind of disintegrating. I made some new bridles out of synthetic thread as described in Dave Hegarty’s manual, et voilà. Both reeds are back. I feel stupid that it took me so long to figure it out, but there we are 