Hello all,
the reed is playing everything else in tune, but the C# is playing flat. Right around 530hz. I’ve tried moving reed in and out and currently don’t have anything rushed except for a small rush in the staple. Any ideas?
The one on the far left should do it!
Actually, this is a joke. Don’t do that (unless the maker told you to!)
A couple of quick questions to help develop some answers (maybe). How are you tuning your set? Do you tune to A=440 hz or do you tune D=293.667 hz (the equal tempered D on your tuner)? Naturally you are tuning against your drones 
C# is at 550.6 hz when you tune to the D. A little flatter than if you tune to A= 440 hz. C# at 530 hz is still flatter. . . 
Is this a new chanter? A new reed? What is the source of the reed?
One of the great throwaway lines in the Armagh Piper’s Club Tutor is to the effect that you may spend years getting a satisfactory C#,C nat. sound. Depending upon your answers, people may be able to suggest a course of action.
Bob
Hi Patrick,
I realized the same problem when I was looking for a new reed last year. This seems to be a common problem with many chanters but most pipers ignore or haven’t realized it. I did a bit research about the reasons of the C#-problem but I didn’t come to a useful result. I have talked with Andreas Rogge about the too-flat-C#-effect. He told me, he avoids the problem by the construction of his chanters. He also told me, the only way to solve that problem on an existing chanter might be to open up the upper part of the C# hole, BUT this is a very dangerous operation. You will run into danger to ruin your C, which might also become sharper (permanently). Another solution, which is not really satisfying either, would be to play the #C with less pressure.
I have tried dozens of different reeds to get rid of that problem and I succeeded more or less.
I do have the suspicion that there might be a correlation to the same reasons of a too sharp high B and high A, because these effects often come in combination with a too flat C# but not necessarily.
Finally I got one (out of a couple) reeds from Charles Roberts which does have a proper #C on my chanter but I didn’t realize any real differences in comparison to the reeds which had the effect. I got one Reed from Hans-Jörg with Matt Kiernan–measures and a conical staple. That one works fine too.
I wonder if anybody else has a proper explanation for this C#-effect. To me this problem seems a bit like ‘uncharted territory’ of reedmaking.
Cheers!
This is a neat thread. So if you have A=440 do you have the range for each note? Is that written somewhere? Like to read that.
I tune my drones first, then use my ears to tune the chanter and regs, so My reference is either D or C.
The Irish Piper’s Club has a nice article on the tuning of the pipes in the 2006 Winter issue that might answer some questions.
Thanks all for the tips. I tune to the drones. My A is generally at 440. The C# is flat perceptually, not just according to the tuner which is why I want to fix it. If tunes in D sounded good with it I’d be fine, but they don’t, so that;s my main issue. The chanter is fine. Other reeds I have play the C# fine, it’s just this particular reed which I want to keep playing for a few other reasons (like it is playing better than my other reeds at the moment). The C# was always a bit flat as recall but lately seems to have gotten worse. It’s a couple years old. I have been opening the bridle up a bit and dropped the reed a little lower in the throat but it’s still flat. I have the rush back in there but it doesn’t reach up to the C hole and I’m using mostly for the bottom hand and hard D (it’s a wire rush bent in two).
The reed is also rushed in the staple to bring the upper octave down a bit.
You definitely do NOT want to enlarge the C# tonehole. Besides voiding your warranty 
, it can wreck your C naturals as has already been noted.
I was going to point out the stopgap measures of rushing up to the C, rushing the staple to compensate for the consequent flattening of the first octave, etc. but I see you’ve already done that. Frankly I think you may have done about all you can without going beyond the current reed, and you’ll have to choose between the reed and the C#..
The Cnatural/Csharp relationship seems to depend strongly on the reed. One thing to try is a reed construction with a narrower head - in my experience a wide-headed reed tends to result in a flat C# on many chanter types. Of course in order to get the narrow-head reed to work in your chanter, you will probably have to alter numerous other aspects of the reed geometry in order to preserve tuning.
Bill
I pretty much agree with Bill. However, I’ll venture a couple of guesses and some mumbling about why I might try a few things. I think Bill is right when he says you have pretty much run out the string as far as this reed is concerned, in it’s current incarnation.
Mumble, mumble. . .the reason you might stick with a reed with this much “doctoring”, rushing the staple, rushing the bore etc. tells me this is a reed that otherwise is docile and well behaved. . .balanced with your other reeds mumble, mumble.
I wouldn’t continue to play this reed as it is now because I feel it really isn’t good for your ear.
But I wouldn’t chuck this reed into the back of my reed tin just yet. Steeling myself to otherwise condemning this reed, I would try a re-tie and a staple transplant. The cane in this reed is about as relaxed as it can get. It’s a couple of years old, and has only really changed in a very narrow set of limits.
You’re going to know more about this particular reed than anyone. Professionally made? Carved tone chambers or formed to the staple? My guess is that you need to put a more appropriately tapered staple in this reed. . .but you want to keep the eye opening as close as possible to the one your using now. If this reed has a carved ‘tone chamber’ I would try two things (reversible). On the retie I would slide the head out from the eye a ‘smidge’, say two tenths of a mm. This may help flatten your bottom hand. I would also try filling the ‘cheeks’ around the eye of the staple with some soft wax. While you are at it you would have an opportunity to ‘burnish’ the inner surface of the two halves. and clean up any lint or raised grain. Some people use nothing to burnish, I use crocus cloth.
As they say YMMV. It might help. You might blow up your reed. Or you may get little change.
Good luck 
Bob
A quick observation from a newb (less than one year) to other newbs with this problem:
If my fingers aren’t absolutely and completely covering the holes, my C# sinks toward Cnat. Especially noticeable once the reed warms up.
Annoying, but it keeps me honest.