I wake up this morning to play my pipes and find that my chanter will barely sound. It was working great yesterday. It looks like the lips of the reed have just closed down a lot, and even when I push the bridle as high as possible it is still very weak. The most noticeable things are the gurgling bottom D and the E that won’t come down to the first octave. Whenever I play I always make sure all of the conditions are the same so this type of thing is avoided. Same temperature, same humidity, same altitude…has this ever happened to anyone else?
Hello to you first, welcome here,
the symptoms you describe relate as far as can be assumed from remote to a reed too narrow or too soft. As it played yesterday it’s quite sure that the reed lips went together - may be by mechanic reasons, vibrations or so, not humitdity. Please shift the bridle for about 1/2 or 1 m to the lips/reed end (irreversible change), view the opening of the lips and listen what happens. Please also have a look to the bridle tension to the cane. It should not wiggle. That can be done by nearly everyone. No danger to destroy the reed apart from brute force. Take care …
Christian provided good advice. I have had my reeds close up to unplayable states before as well. For me it was largely because of a warm summer and reeds with thinner than usual lips. The reeds I had in this case couldn’t be rescued easily, but I think that was a more unusual situation. Lately I’ve only needed to open/close the reed slightly with the bridle as the weather changed. Keep in mind that there’s only so far up the bridle is really helpful. Like Christian mentioned, the bridle itself could be the issue and not opening the reed well. I’ve replaced bridles on a few reeds.