I’m using brass bodies and brass tongues in the bass and baritone, set those right up some years ago and haven’t bothered much with them since. The first gig was outside in 105 degree F humid weather outside in the sun, and they all shut down but the bass, so since they all had styrene tongues at the time, I left what was bullet-proof alone, the bass, changed the baritone to brass, and tried to change the tenor/treble, depending on who you’re talking to, to brass as well. The baritone, like I say, locked right up before and after the new tongue, and the bass always worked.
The treble though, never really would play with the others. If you got the tuning just right it would waver only a bit in the upper octave, but the slightest movement will make it wow and throb with every little blowing change. This is with either brass or styrene tongue. The odd thing is, it seems like it is pretty steady when the others are stopped and played alone with the chanter. The minute you open them all up, particularly when the baritone is opened with it, it goes nuts, popping high and low in a most disagreeable fashion. I’m wont to beat it silly with a 5 pound lump hammer. I’m wondering if this is some weird bore harmonic in the long, separate-bored mainstock. I’m wondering if blocking some of the extended length would help.
The other option is, I’ve opted for a brass body slightly smaller than the bore diameter of the drone. I have another one I haven’t tried yet, pretty much the same diameter. It was louder initial tests, and I hate that buzzy little peeper whining in my ear anyway, so I went with the smaller body, and quieter sound, but frankly, since it never worked out and I hate the sound of the drone anyway, I haven’t bothered much with it in the two years I’ve had the pipes. I would like to get it going though, just to prove I can do it.
Anyone able to get treble-drone-sized cane at all–good stuff?
Your description of the behaviour of your tenor drone responding to the other drones really does sound like a clash of harmonics. You would have to play around with both the thickness and length of the brass tongue to solve this.
All my drone tongues are made of strips of suger pine from the backs of reclaimed piano keys. One tenor drone uses a brass tube body, and the other a drilled maple dowel body. Both work fine, but the brass tubed one is a bit flakier to get and keep in tune.
Hi Royce, a Red Dwarf fan then.
Common Reed Phragmites australis that grows local to me in the UK works as treble Uillean Drone reeds (and the others too).
There is a native American variety and the European type is a common pest species in America. http://www.stolaf.edu/depts/biology/mnps/papers/egge.html
Looks like Minnesota is the place to be.
I’ve tried local reeds, though I perhaps didn’t hunt long enough or run into the right species, only found them to be very thin-walled and soft. It’s also hard to find it in diameters tiny enough for UP drones.
Royce
(By the way, what gave you the idea I was a Red Dwarf fan?)
You have to harvest the reeds in the late autumn of the year they grow. The sections nearest the bass are the thickest walled.
If you don’t have any luck let me know and I’ll send you some from the UK to have a play with.
I’ll see what I can find again this year, but generally the local stuff isn’t much better than really firm grass even late in the fall, and remains green until it freezes, apparently desperately trying to keep maturing before winter. (October.)
Send me some stuff good for drone reeds, I’d love to play with it. I’ve had the same problem with some Highland drones, they just don’t seem to take to composite/synthetic reeds. I’ll PM you my address and compensate you for postage.
Brass/brass, brass/styrene, eeeewwwwww, how can you stand that sound?
I suggest brass body with either Arundo Donax tongues or spruce tounges. Much lovlier sound and easier to stabilize, IMHO.
I use the diameters and lengths mentioned in Tim Britton’s “My Method” and the guidelines in DMQ’s “Piper’s Despair” for both my C and D sets. I do use the next smallest diameter as an insert for the C pipes so I can make the reed length slightly longer and quieten them down somewhat.
I actually love the sound of the bass, so I haven’t bothered with the styrene, though if it’s anything like the first Shepherd GHB tongues one day it will simply fly off into space. It’s been very steady and plays under all conditions for a couple of years now. The baritone with the brass tongue is a bit metallic, but again, stable and dependable, and sounds good with the bass.
I was thinking first of all going to cane for the treble and that may be what I do, meaning cane on brass body. I was thinking of usuing a thin piece with bark like a regular cane reed and scraping from there.
I use the Spanish arundo donax, bark side, tenor sanded to 0.020", baritone 0.025", bass 0.030" thick. Seems to work well with very little fiddling around. I use some o-rings I got at the hardware store for bridles, and soak the sanded tongues (finished with 1000 grit wet/dry sandpaper) in neetsfoot oil for 2 weeks before tying on.
The drone reeds ended up being much more stable than my current crappy chanter reeds (untreated as I was in a rush since my 7 year reed died at a gig) that I am playing now. They need much fiddling when out of the living room.
Hey all,
I’ll pass on of few things I have found in my limited experience. It is probably more interesting to the newbies as it is probably old info to those skilled in the art of drone reeds.
I got cane drone reeds with my Roberts 1/2 +2 set, but they were all trying to change to “U” shape making it impossible to put in the stock without knocking them out. I sure they were just searching for some moisture . Since I didn’t have small cane available to me or the motor skills to make that little cut if I did have cane, I opted for making synthetic reeds. I’ll list the evolution to the present set.
Dowel body- Never got to the tongue stage, complete failure.
Brass tubing body, thin styrene tongue- Used same size as cane- unsteady
Brass body, thick brass tongue- nice sound, very steady, herniated myself trying to squeeze bag hard enough.
Brass body, thin brass tongue- nice “organ” sound, quiet, fairly steady, very little buzz, bridles within 3/4" of end
Brass body(down 1 tubing size),thick styrene tongue- very steady,more buzz than brass tongue, stable on tuning from 50 F- 100F. Not as buzzy as cane or brass body-spruce tongues, louder than brass tongues.
I found that if the tongue bed was not absolutely flat or if the tongue was wider than the bed, the reed would not stay steady.
Fancypiper- Are you using the bark side up or down?
I am pretty happy with these reeds at my level of play and I am sure I will try cane tongues and spruce tongues in the future. Right now though, a synthetic reed that’s stable and pretty easy to knock out ( the 5 current reeds took about 3 hours to build) works for me. Your mileage may vary.
I have used the thick walled aluminum tubing (K&S brand), gives a nice mellow sound, seems more stable for the bass drone than the thin walled brass tubing, also a mellower sound.
They need to seal air tight, so the sanded side goes against the lay of the body. You should be able to pull and hold a vacuum with your tongue against the body of the reed.
If the skin side were down, you couldn’t get the air tight seal, therefore the sound wouldn’t be right and they would be “squeely” just as if the tongue were twisted or warped.
For spruce tongues, the grain lines should be perpendicular to the plane of the lay. I wonder if this will show up right?
Anima- What are you using for the tongue? I haven’t had trouble with the bass D or G drones being stable, in fact the bass G has been tolerant of many different configurations of materials and remained easy to tune and keep steady and the only problem I had with the bass D was cutting out with too much pressure (brass body,thin brass tongue). The brass body/thick styrene has been the only configuration that has been very stable for the treble and baritone drones. It also gave the “purest tone”. The tenor D and the baritone A/G drones always seemed a little on the “muddy” side with the other configurations. A little like a chanter reed that is too closed.
Fancypiper- So the “laminations” of the wood are side by side instead of on top of each other? I have only seen 1 example of a brass/spruce reed. the tongue was wedge shaped in the horizontal and vertical views. Is this a common shape for a spruce tongue?
Personal opinion question- Drones I have heard in person (small number) and on commercial recordings range from a mellow “organ” sound to a Hornets nest in a mylar bag (very buzzy). I am just wondering what people personally prefer?
John
Benedict Koehler referred to the shape of the tongue as “completing the cylinder” of the body, so it should have a round, tapered shape, thicker at the swinging end and thin where tied onto the brass.
. Since I didn’t have small cane available to me or the motor skills to make that little cut if I did have cane, I opted for making synthetic reeds. I’ll list the evolution to the present set.