With the onset of warm weather of summer, my tenor drone (concert D
set) went flat, even with the barrel all the way in. I have tried to adjust the
thread wrapping (? bridle) up the reed which helps but the pitch is very
unstable (goes up a whole step with minimal increase in pressure).
Any suggestions?
It is possible that you have over adjusted the reed. The first thing to do is to reset everything as it was before - the set of the reed, the bridle and the drone slide. Then make sure that you are still getting a good “double tone”. Without this adjustments won’t go as anticipated.
From there make very subtle changes to the bridle and drone tuning slide. A little goes a very long way indeed! But always make sure that you still have that double tone throughout the changes.
Something you may also want to consider, is to go down to your local hardware shop (bring your reed) and purchase a few ‘O’ rings to function as bridles. They are easy to slide up and down.
An O ring can be just the ticket for the right diameter cane. They stay in place very well when making fine adjustments. The only downside I’ve found is if they don’t fit the cane diameter exactly. Too much pressure by a bridle can make a drone reed harder to adjust IMHO.
I also use dental elastics - fine guage. These also stay in place well and are good for fine adjustments. I prefer them over O rings due the fact that they will work well on virtually any diameter of cane and apply minimal pressure around the reed.
However, a wind of hemp and a bit of wax still does the job though!
This works for me:
Buy a package of balloons, the small long balloons are great. Cut off the tip where you inflate the balloon, use this as an O-ring…works great for me.
Rob
General rule for stabilizing drones:
If pitch increases with an increase in bag pressure, sharpen reed. (insert further into reed seat, move bridle to make tongue shorter, thin tongue end).
If pitch decreases with an increase in bag pressure, flatten reed (move further out of reed seat, move bridle to make tongue longer, add weight to tongue end, thin tongue near bridle position).
Oh, my God! That is SO cruel. The poor little balloons.
Save the ballons! Stop ballon cruelty now! Fight inflation!
(Gee, I’m feeling greener already!) 
djm
Hmmm…shouldn’t that be “Support inflation”??? 