To you reed makers…help!..my tenor drone reed (which is quite new), won’t sustain itself if I ahve too little pressue on the bag. It is very stable and plays in tune but when dropping to the low D for examole, it will gurgle momentarily. I was wondering what I should do to remedy the problem. Are the lips a little too open? How will I get it right? It’s almost perfect but couldn’t be played with confidence in public
Your reed is too strong. Take a reed knife and scrape along the tongue
so the it is weaker. Go slow Scrape a little, play it, then scrape some more.
Pat Sky
I think DJM had a good tip, too; I remember he put the tongue downside, so that it could stay (slightly) open with its own weight.