Synthetic drone reed experience

Uilleann Pipes
1

I made some drone reeds for my Brad Angus narrow bore 1/2 set as I was really fed up with keeping my cane reeds working as I needed them. Being in Arizona doesnt help much I imagine. Other than the typos in the directions from “Damm” (an appropriate name for someone that works with reeds) on the website it was realatively easy to make them. Email me if you want to see a picture of them as I cant get to my server right now and I dont think you can post them directly here. (brent.abbott@honeywell.com)

Lessons learned:

  1. I suggest soldering in the round tube to the reed body square tube to be more likely to be airtight but mostly so that its robust when twisting into a drone stock. Sand the tube od and file the square tube inside for good solder flow. handheld torch does the trick and a 3rd hand of some kind.
  2. rough up the round tube so that that hemp will hold on vs slipping.
  3. moving the plunger in doesnt always sharpen and moving it out doesnt always flat. That stick-tac worked well as a gasket and was easy to work with.
  4. weighting the tounges wasnt needed, although I did sand as directed
  5. Play with piston position (mine all ended relatively out), reed length (o-ring placement), reed placement wrt to the holes and reed “curl” to affect tuning, avoiding cut off (moot).
  6. I used .015 styrene in two widths. I bought thicker but havent experimented. I love the sound.
  7. Make sure the space between the styrene and the brass flat is very clean
  8. bending the styrene need to be even, things get nasty if the styrene twists from the o-ring to the end - one end corner is higher/lower than the other.
  9. I only had to work with the baritone reed for a little extra to keep it pressure insensitive, tenor and bass are pretty solid.
  10. They do live up to their low-air reputation.
  11. Be careful about drilling the top of the sqare brass tubing, its easy to deform the surface and it will take a lot of sanding to get it flat again (very important)
  12. didnt try/need to enlarge the two drilled holes
  13. Im guessing placing the styrene end to just cover the last hole works the best, but I havnet experimented too much to confirm.
  14. They all played first time and didnt take much tweaking to bring into tune.

There are lots of experiments to mess with with these like seeing what “Opening the Holes” might do or using different styrene thicknesses, but for right now Im just enjoying having them work well.

Good luck, Im a happy piper again :party:

2

I have made numerous sets of these, and they have all worked well. Currently, I am using synthetic drone reeds from David Boisvert which are made from round brass stock and plastic.

Living in Arizona, synthetic drone reeds are nearly an essential if you want to play anywhere outside your own home. I am happy to hear that you are having success with these reeds. :slight_smile:

3

I could never get a satisfactory tone with brass/styrene. I use a round tube and arundo donax scraps.

I file a lay that uses about 3/4 of the length of the tube, tapering from the tube to about 1/3 of the diameter of the tube, then seal by soldering a flat piece of brass at the far end of the lay. Polish the lay and tongue until all the flat part is as flat and shiny as you can get it with 1000 grit wet/dry sandpaper. That is important in getting a good seal between tongue and lay.

I soak the finished slip (I use thicknesses of 0.020" tenor, 0.025" baritone and 0.030" bass, polished with 1000 grit wet/dry sandpaper) in neetsfoot oil for at least 2 weeks before tying onto the body. This helps the stability of the drones for humidity and temperature changes.