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Mouth blown small pipes

Posted: Wed Sep 13, 2017 9:50 pm
by rebelpiper
Anybody playing a set of mouth blown smallpipes with cane reeds? Got a couple questions

Re: Mouth blown small pipes

Posted: Sun Nov 05, 2017 12:08 pm
by pancelticpiper
Yes I play mouthblown SSPs but now I use all plastic reeds.

I've always played a plastic reed in the chanter, but I played cane in the drones until I found some plastic reeds that worked in them

It was an unusual situation: vintage "miniature Highland pipes or chamber pipes" (as they were called in the 19th century price-lists) that didn't come with any drone reeds. I tried a load of different reeds and ended up with uilleann reeds in the drones, which gave a great A=440 but of course had the instability that comes with cane reeds in mouthblown pipes.

Then I switched to EzeeDrone reeds, made for Concert Pitch (D) uilleann pipes, which like the cane reeds gave a perfect A=440 in the drones. (Reeds designed for "A" smallpipes gave a C or C#!)