You'll find that pipers aren't like that!michaelpthompson wrote:When I played clarinet, I removed the reed after every session...
"Let sleeping dogs lie" is the piper's approach.
Reeds are so much trouble to get just right, the last thing you would want to do is muck with them.
They asked an old piper why he never took a wife. "A wife?! I have enough trouble with my reeds!!"
The amazing thing are my bassoon friends who will make two reeds for each gig, one reed for the first half of the concert, one for the second half. They say they get maybe an hour out of a reed.
Pipers might play the same drone reeds their whole life. I've been playing the same reed in my uilleann chanter since 1982. Highland chanter reeds, you might get a year out of one. When I was playing in a higher-level band the Pipe Major (who is a great reedmaker) would make us all new chanter reeds and issue them out a couple weeks before our first contest of the season, then halfway through the season issue us each a new one. He reckoned a couple months was the optimum life of a chanter reed.