An old trick we use on GHB drones that stubbornly shut down under pressure is to slide a hair under the tongue.
Though my own thin hair was a bit thick for my new baritone synthetic reed, our cat’s hair turned out to be just the ticket!
Glad the cat’s good for something…
DJones
I’ve used an eye-lash and know someone who uses a hair from his beard!!
I used my Border Collie’s hair for opening up my bass drone - 
Works great!
English Setter hair in an NSP drone reed. Sadly gone (the dog; the reed is working fine)
Simon you are bad - 
I do like your sense of humor…
Note that some folks consider that this is the wrong thing to do to a reed, as it causes the reed to leak, thus becoming more unstable and potentially even more likely to shut off. I tend to agree, having once used hair in balky reed tongues years ago; I’ve since abandoned the practice.
YMMV,
Bill
i 2nd bill; that hair stuff is not the way to go
…unless you’re going to play “The Hairy Reel”.
Note that some folks consider that this is the wrong thing to do to a reed,
In my experience it’s a temporary fix – like training wheels for the reed. On GHB reeds when I have had to do this, I often find I can remve the hair after a time as the reed has come to understand the functioning expected of it. I am supposing the same to be true of UPs.
One must go with one’s experience. If one cannot get a fix to work, one oughtn’t try it.
DJones
That was my experience also. Firstly it needed to be a really fine hair. It helped to gently open the reed but was removed pretty soon after.