After honing a good reed design and creating a pretty successful reed for my chanter, I’ve decided that it is time to get into experimentation again incase I can create something amazing. I have therefore re-visited tone chambers as I only briefly tried it in the past.
To get to a point where I turn out good reeds, I’ve been using a sanding block of 45mm, which requres quite heavy closing with the bridle and this can’t be good for the longevity of the reed. Therefore, under the tone chamber arrangement, I have been using a 67mm sanding block and creating the tone chamber from the 45mm block. The chamber extends to about 20mm from the lips of the reed (10mm above the staple) and is generally about 0.9mm along the centre line.
I have made a few reeds like this and every single one has had produced a progressively flatter second octave. I know that this problem is usually associated with the wrong sized staple or a reed that is too narrow, but the staple has served me well for a few reeds and I’ve not had any luck widening the reed head.
Hello. I’ve not noticed any significant difference between a gouged tail or non-gouged with regard to tuning that isn’t easily rectifiable. If you think what happens, you are creating a chamber above the staple, but also lessening the way the insertion of the staple opens up the reed internally so it is possible to reduce the internal of the reed when you do this. More often than not, I’ve found that people gouge far too much into the tail. I recommend starting at nothing and doing a little bit and see how each reed turns out.
Remember to compensate for these things. One thing I do is to lessen the rate of taper on the staple to keep the reedhead volume as constant as is ever possible and/or insert the staple in a little further to compensate.
(the 8ve will go up, the pitch will stay roughly the same, the back D will flatten, you can adjust for this by opening the eye of the staple a little, buit that can create other unwanted results. The reed usually becomes a little stiifer and will need a little sand or scrape to ease it.
Oh yes, I have tried 70mm diam cylinder for forming and then gouging the tail and it’s a no-no as far as I’m concerned, I stop at 76mm, I think you may be exascerbating flattened 8ve tuning with too thin a slip that is then tail gouged and then the head volume is further reduced by having to close it significantly with the bridle to get it to play.
Have a crack at 76mm former and don’t take more than .5mm when you gouge the tail.
Hope this might help
edited later in the day to add.
whoops, forgot to say that you might find that using a gouge to make the chamber will bring about a better result as the cylinder may just make the reed corners too thin?? They don’t really need sanding if your gouge is true.
Hi Goldy, I make reeds with tone chamber, but I use a 55 mm diameter sanding cylinder, that makes the reedhead internal volume rises, so the tuning.
would you try and tell me?
Alan - I don’t yet have a gouge (even after 4 years of reed making) so maybe it’s time to start trying to use one. I guess I’ve fallen into a bit of a ‘stick with what you know’ mentality with my reed making!. I used the 67mm former as this was the largest diameter cylinder that I had lying around so I’ll make a trip to the hardware store and try smaller tone chambers as you suggested.
Alan are you imparting the 76mm diameter to the slip at the lips or are you gouging deeper and merely finnishing the edges with a 76mmm block, I struggled for 10 years with the 82mm block and 2nd gouging, could never get the edges to close up.
I use the 76mm former after using a #4 gouge. The curvature of the #4 is slightly less than the former, therefore the 76mm former imparts the final curvature of the whole slip. The chamber is gouged with a #5 gouge. I still use an 82mm former on occassion if the cane diam., warrants it. The reed is airtight 9 of 10 before even scraping or putting on a bridle. The staple has as much to do with how the head goes together as the cane curvature does.