Am having a spot of bother tuning my tenor drone reed at the mo-
When tuning against the pitch set for the baritone, it is tuning so far down the slide that the bottom of the drone is in danger of falling off. How do I adjust the reed to sound sharper? My original pipe maker did show me lots of tricks for adjusting/stabilising drone reeds, but I’ve not played seriously for a few years and can’t remember…
-yes, I know I should already know how to do this but I don’t!!
thanks
Simon
I’m sure some experts will jump in here, but till then…if your drone reed has a bridle (wire, etc.) wrapped around the base of the tongue, slide it up. If the reed closes down because of this, snap it open and roll the reed between the hands, Also, you can thin the tip of the tongue to sharpen the pitch (or add weight to lower pitch). And, you can rub your thumb on the back of the tongue to close the tongue if it opens too much (heat/friction=warp), or thin the base of the tongue to lower pitch. Watch out on this one though, scraping the base of the tongue lowers pitch real fast. Thinning the tip to raise pitch is safer (20:3 ratio), but not to thin…it will flap too loosely and require too much air.
Lots of tricks. Does the tenor drone reed have a bridle? If not , add one by wrapping thread around several times. Slide this up and down to find a spot where the tone rises. Once you get this far, you will find you have created other problems, and may have to scrape the tongue, flick the end of the tongue to get a bit more of a bend in it, add some weight to the end of the tongue, etc. - all the little adjustments required to make them go.
Do you have any of the reed making books, like Dave Hegarty’s? All the tricks and the how’s and why’s are there - easier than trying to explain the whole process in an email.
djm