Hey all,
Still making reeds for my C chanter. I have made a few reeds that seem to work pretty well, but they are pretty consistently sharp on the bottom D and and E above that. I am noticing that there is quite a bit of staple pushed in to the reed seat on the chanter, and I am wondering if the extra staple length could be sharpening the bottom D. Any thoughts?
Hi
I wouldn’t have thought so really, but if you’ve a few reeds, then chop one off and see if it helps?
My guess - and it is only a guess - something is too small/closed, you need some more internal volume somewhere. Try opening the reed and see if it helps those notes, although granted it will probably make some other problems. But then you’d know if a bigger eye/head/scrape/tone chanmber might help?
Cheers
A
Hello Piper,
if the bottom D is sharp and if it ever was OK before with another reed that results most of the cases from a bit too soft reed. As long as the reed is good for other notes then it’s easily solved by putting a piece of plastic in V-shape upside down into the bottom end of the chanter. The width of the piece of plastic causes directly the grade of lowering bottom d and e.
Try and please reply.
Christian is right. Although, it makes no difference which way you put the piece of plastic in the bell of the chanter. Also, don’t count on being able to tune E1 with the plastic. It may affect E1 (?), but E1 is generally sharp. In otherwords, it is where it is. Also, what are you comparing it with..a tuner, a drone, another C chanter? If the maker stretched out a D design to C, then my only guess is the E1 might be higher than “normal” (on the scale they imposed).
How’s that for vague?
See, unless you include a sound file, it’s hard to say. If you do, include it with a drone tuned to your A1. that could give us a better idea. Even If your question was even a “simple” one like, “why is my back d breaking?” There are a few obvious things to go to, but really there are many variables at play, and to make a diagnosis based on text alone can be dodgy at best.
Thanks all who replied. I have been using a rush in the bell of the chanter with some lowering of the bottom D, but I was hoping to resolve the issue with a simple solution. My bad. Brazenkane is correct, in the rush is lowering the D, but not the E so much. I removed the staple and scraped the bottom of the reed some more, with some benefit (I also lowered the bridle, then squeezed the side a bit to compensate for closing the reed by lowering it, as I have some suspicion (sp??) that the position of the bridle can affect some of these notes). Anyway, I was playing relative to the drones tunes to the A as mentioned. The scraping/moving the bridle seemed to have fixed the problem, although now the F is very sensitive and mostly wants to play in the upper octave. Did I ever mention that I love the uilleann pipes? Thanks again.
Scott, i’m not sure this applies to your current problem, but one non-destructive trick I learned was to take some material off the staple bottom with a file or course sand-paper, on a flat surface, rather than clipping material from the reed head itself.
Filing the staple will also change the relationship between the 1st and 2nd oct.
But clipping/ shortening the read lips would not? Not sure I understand the mechanism-- could you elaborate?
Hi there,
be carefully with such changes, which are not reversible! But if you are a reed maker: shortening of 1/2 or 1 mm will rise the frequency. You have to compensate that but pulling out the reed a bit from the chanter. That increases the diameter in the area of the staple and just below the staple-pipe. Therefore the upper octave sharpens, if you tune again to the correct “a” in the lower octave. But the advantage could be a more stable reed.
You could get into a vortex of sorts doing that.
Shorten staple=raise overall pitch, raise 1st octave in relation to 2nd (or lower 2nd oct, however you wanna see it…same thing either way.
Pull reed out slightly= lower overall pitch, affecting back d more than other holes (she’s the closest hole to end of reed). However, if we’re not talking about tubing staple/tuning slide situation, then you are introducing volume that before, wasn’t there by pulling reed out. That raises the 2nd octave. In addition, moving the reed out of the seat introduces the possibility of a host of other events, but I couldn’t know w/o having the puzzle physically here.
Yes, clipping reed will: sharpen back d, raise 2nd oct. raise overall pitch (somewhat), stiffen reed (it’ll need to be scraped again…lightly, possibly and/or require more specific detailed scraping in order to bring things back into focus), and perhaps introduce more issues but again…I couldn’t know w/o having the puzzle physically here.
These are IMHO advanced concepts and they’re all easily read, though somewhat more difficult to digest when you are actively cutting (or making other moves). The best thing to do is to not be afraid of adjusting things. If you mess up, you build another. It’s simple. Don’t hold a reed too dear, especially if you have tools, will, patience, a punching bag, and tubes of cane! There is for better or for worse, no substitute for spending hundreds of hours on this craft, and making hundreds of reeds.