I saw David Power over the summer, and he showed me that he had regulator reeds (this was in the D set) with blades made from hard maple (they looked like the back of a fiddle). I think he said that they were made by Kohler, and that he thought they were constructed in the same basic manner as normal reeds. David’s regulators seem to work perfectly, and sound great, and though I like my cane regulator reeds, I am curious to see how these wooden ones would work. Anyone have any information on these things? I would be reeding a B set with them, if that makes any difference.
They are turned on the lathe but work identically as a drone reed.
The ones I have seen were made of spruce, and not just any spruce, but the tight-grained, old-growth sitka spruce like used in the sound boards of old pianos. I am told that this method came from Mr. Koehler, as well.
I had to locate a piano restorer who just happened to be breaking apart an old piano at the time. This took a bit of time and running around. The piano has to be totally broken down, which can be dangerous and requires specialist tools due to the tension on the strings.
At this point I turned the spruce over to Joe Kennedy (ah ain’t no fool). The slats are broken out of the old piano sound board, and each slat examined individually. Only those slats whose grain runs perpendicular to the slat can be used in order to mimic the grain of arundo donax cane. Both the inner and outer surfaces must be hand carved into the same curvature of cane slip. Apply the same sizes you would use for a cane reg reed for your set.
The result is a very stiff, strong sounding reed. Very loud. My understanding of the benefits is that they are supposed to last much longer and be less affected by climate changes. The downside is the amount of time spent sourcing the material and hand carving. Its up to you if you’re interested in following up and trying it for yourself.
No, I am not using spruce reeds. Loud strong regs are the opposite of what I want in my set. Your tastes may vary.
djm
BK used to restore pianos.
I wrote an article for The Pipers’ Review ages ago about making double-reeds from spruce. I made a number of them and found them to make a rather mellower sounding reed. I didn’t think they were really suitable for chanters, but work pretty well in regulators. They aren’t any stiffer or louder than my other reeds but I guess this could vary according to the reed dimentions.
The current reed in my baritone reg is spruce and it blends in very nicely with the phosphor bronze reeds in the other regs.
Greg
Can you clarify? Aen’t they double reeds carved the same as cane double reeds? Why the lathe? Do you mean to turn down the blank to look like a tube of cane approximately and then it is split like cane?
Cheers,
DavidG
The same spruce can be used for the tongue of a drone reed.
BK’s method is to use the wood from old piano keys (can’t remember if it was spruce, though). I grabbed all the keys off the same piano I got the sound board from - a lifetime supply. I am using this in my D bari drone (on a brass barrel), and it is so stable it is the only drone reed I have that doesn’t need a bridle or wax blob on the tongue.
djm