New plastic chanter reed

[P Elliott]

I order a 15/16 strength reed. According to the guy, they use their own measuring scale based on a manometer/guage.

I wanted a medium/easy. The guy in the video played a 17.... I left it up to them to send a 15 or 16...

We'll see!

Peter

[Jeff Cullen]

You want expensive reeds...take up Uilleann pipes. I just paid $290 for a cedar reed to be made for my Uilleann pipe chanter. It will last many years (maybe 5 to 10), but it's still a shock to the system.

[Shawn Husk]

Wow, $290?????? Is Mr. Cedar the best Uilleann reedmaker in the world or what? What does a run of the mill (haha) off the shelf Uilleann reed cost? (yes, I know there's no such thing.....but on average?)

Shawn

[TwitchyFingers]

Very impressive! The only thing "off" to my ear was the high G gracenote, which had the very slightest thump sound on C doublings . That could be caused by too much tape on the high G hole, though. It sounded better after he dipped it in the water. A great stride for tinkerers!

[blackeagle]

Can't wait to see reviews from those who have ordered already. I'll be getting myself one as well here in a few months, just gotta get back home first. Keep us posted!

[For Our Fallen]

Ordered mine this morning and will post results accordingly.

[Polybius]

Hmm, I don't know about this. The reed sounds 'thin' to me, particularly on the high notes. I guess I just can't see how it would be worth it really. I don't have that much trouble with my chanter reed (the cane drones are another story, but even those are worth the extra effort) that I would be willing to sacrifice tone. Maybe I'm just old fashioned, but with nearly every component these days being possible to make from synthetics I like to go the other direction. That being said, I'm certainly not against innovation and this may have a very useful application in some circumstances.

[Kevin F. Gilstrap]

WOW! Sounds good! Imagine what these things will be like in five years.

[kingric]

I ordered one to see whether it will provide any advantages in playing outdoors. I've had a heck of a time playing outdoors in adverse weather conditions.

For example, last winter I had a gig which required me to play outdoors for about 30 minutes in the early evening. The temperature was dropping toward freezing (and below), while the humidity rose rapidly. The synthetic drone reeds behaved well, but the chanter was very unstable even though I was using full moisture control. The sun was already down, so there was no way to play around with that (such as playing in the sun to keep up the temperature on the bag and chanter reed). I had to adjust the tape several times to maintain decent tuning, and the tone was thin.

If the plastic reed removes humidity from the equation, maybe this will make it a little easier to play in such conditions (though rapidly changing temperature would still be a challenge). Anyway, I'm looking forward to experimenting.

[Shawn Husk]

It seems to me that if you wanted to make any reed that was impervious to moisture and temperature changes you'd have to use something like carbon fiber or some other completely stable material that does not move or change with temperature or humidity differences. We're probably a ways away from this event as of yet.

Shawn