You can cut the reed slips into either 4 or 4-1/2 inch sections, depending on how experienced you are, the smaller slips will need far less trimming and adjusting.
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Tuning Tips |
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The following tips given, are for both working reeds and the tuning/making of a new reed, and when altered, which particular notes upon your chanter can be altered.
PLEASE NOTE. That whenever trimming material from the leading edges of a reed, remove the tiniest amount possible, some say just the spiders legs, you can use and use a very sharp wood chisel, always use a chisel that is wider than the head, so you can do this operation in one complete cutting motion, or you will have an uneven surface, when this procedure is done, the reed will lift in pitch and become slightly stronger/stiffer to play.
Also when fitting the reed into the chanter, the best tone is obtained when the reed is sitting about 3/4" inside the socket, so that the bottom of the staple is sitting almost up against the throat, this eliminates any gap between the staple and the throat.
The area's upon the outer edges of the scrape or lateral zones B, is where the shiny outer layer or sometimes called clack's of the cane is left on, when scraping/sanding, try to keep the V shape within the edges all the way to the top of the head, IE, try not scrape/sand through at the top outer corners of the head, some cut the corners off to hide the fact that this has happened but try to make the head level with sharp square edges at all times, they look and work much better.
The tuning tips below should give you more than enough information in order to get you started, over time you will work out which area's of the reed works best for yourself. When first starting to make reeds, do so from start to finish, because if you make a batch of say a dozen, you could be building a fault you never realised you had into them all, good luck. A. = The upper octave tuning zone, If this area is scraped too much, the notes in the upper octave will become harder to sustain, and will drop off/out too easy. B. = The lateral zones, show here with the striped areas on either side of the reed, these area's need to be balanced as equally as possible, if you scrape into these area's, the overall pitch of the reed will flatten, this area also helps to tune the note E on the chanter. C. = The lower octave zone, the more this area is scraped the easier it will be to obtain the lower octave, scrape too much and you will obtain a warbling bottom D and a weaker back D. D. = The leading edges, Trim the smallest amount off here to strengthen the back D, it also makes the reed slightly harder to play overall. E. = Eye of the staple, for concert D reed, make sure the eye is set at between 1.8 and 2.00mm internal diameter. If the eye is wider than 2mm, most of the notes in the bottom octave will become sharp, the back D will be poorer., but F will flatten. If the eye is narrower than 2mm, most of the notes in the lower octave will become flat, but E will sharpen in the upper octave. F. = The bridle, lift the bridle to strengthen the reed and lower it to soften it, lifting the bridle will flatten D and sharpen A, but move the bridle too far up the head and you will obtain a duller sounding reed, so try to keep the bridle as low as possible.
If the aperture of the reed is narrow, you can also open the aperture by squeezing the bridle from the sides with a set of pliers and closing it by the same method across it, without having to lift/move it either direction, but be very careful doing this or you could break the reed. G. = Is where the level of the binding or whipping should be, about 1/8" above the staple shown here on the inside of the reed. The overall length of the scrape or V shaped area = 22.00mm, that's from the very lips of the reed down to where the V ends, the overall length of the head = 25.00mm, that's from the very top of the reed down to the top of the binding and the overall length of the completed finished/scraped reed = 85.00mm +/- 2.00mm. Concert D reed |
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You can cut the reed slips into either 4 or 4-1/2 inch sections, depending on how experienced you are, the smaller slips will need far less trimming and adjusting. |
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