I’m getting pretty experienced with reeds at last and generally if i make one for my chanter it comes out fairly reliably in tune and with a reasonably consistent tone. So i’d say I’m making a fairly consistent reed which is the right dimensions for my chanter. But now and then i’ll make one and the C nat disappears!!!
Where does it go?
I can always get it back by
adopting the ‘3-finger’ method - which i don’t like
opening the reed - which spoils everything else
peeling my top finger off the hole each time i play the C nat - not convenient at all.
Anyone know what makes this happen, and what do i do to fix it? ie Where in the scrape does the C nat ‘live’?
this will happen if the reed is inserted to deep into the chanter.
pulling it out a litle flattens overall pitch so filing the end of the staple will bring the pitch back
up.
I don’t think that’s the problem as i’ve compared the 3 reeds i just made - they’re all the same length and the staples are the same length. And they stick out the chanter by the same amount!! But one of them has the problematic C nat. To test your suggestion i pulled it too far out of the chanter - still no C nat and the scale went out of tune.
pulling the reed out of the chanter does improve the c natural but if you need to be at a 440 to play with fixed pitch instruments this may be a problem.where you put your bridle and the type of scrape you use are of paramount importance to the note.the bridle should be at the very base of the reed,tight to the binding and not too thick(you may have to vary the internal length of the tone chamber so as not to get a weak spot above the eye of the staple which will cause a multitude of problems).then widen the scrape to the edge of the bridle just at the base,leave the rest of the reed alone.also try a longer staple.good luck.allan moller.
a few other thoughts(sorry just had a pint or two),do not tie up past the eye of the staple as this acts as a bridle,shortening the speaking length of the head and making it sharper thereby weakening the c natural.also opening the eye of the staple and opening the bridle apeture very slightly helps.you may have to sand a bit more if you do this.use a 100mm block for your internal profile and an ashley iles no6 gouge for your tone chamber and tails,tone chamber should start 23mm from the tips of the tails and be quite steep.allan.
I think that’s a leakage problem, maybe related to another similar situation where the back d gets too sharp unless it doesn’t have enough pressure on it. Some reeds need just enough pressure to prevent the edges from leaking. I don’t know for sure, but I have also noticed it when the reed wasn’t open enough. If you open the reed more, it causes you to put enough extra pressure on it to seal the edges. Or maybe the leak is under the bridle when it is more open, but the leak appears when you close the reed down.
dear uillman.if you make a reed that leaks at the blank stage it should be consigned to your rubbish bin.leaking reeds will never perform properly and will engender a whole host of freaky problems ranging from tuning,tone,ease of playing etc.any air coming through a head is death to a good chanter reed,it sounds like all of your faults as listed are down to a leaky head.we were discussing c natural problems relating to a basically airtight reed,if you do not have a staunch blank,bin it,use the staple again and make one that does not leak.press on,allan.
Thanks for the tips, allan. I thought he was asking about what might cause a bad reed to misbehave, but since his reed doesn’t leak, it can’t be due to leaking. It’s good to know that leaking reeds are problematic and should be thrown away.
Strange but i finished scraping all the reeds down last night and the problem mysteriously fixed itself.
It seems to me that effective volume in the lower half of the scrape is the factor - opening the reeds helped the C nat so i took Allan’s suggestion and scraped more in the lower half - more to a U than a V - which seems to give a similar result to opening the reed in terms of tuning but allows it to be more closed for easier respone/better tone.
I wonder if the same fix would help the 2 guys having C nat trouble with their Froment chanters on here lately?
hi andy,nice one.i like your description of the bottom of the scrape,it is a u shape and not a v.look at some old pictures of leo rowsomes reeds(if you can find them)and you will see that he used the wide u shaped lower bottom scrape as well.sounds like you are going to make a good reedmaker.keep on scraping,allan.