Brass Tubing Reed Seat Info

[Johnniez]

hi all

I have seen a few chanters that have a brass tube in the reed seat then the reed is inserted into that.. It sort of slides up and down making for fine tuning quite simple. I have been thinking of doing that to my Childress D Chanter.

I was wondering if there is a certain size of tubing used?

Is the tubing glued in, or hemp on the tube then put into the reed seat?

Would this alter the tone etc of the chanter?

How far into the reed seat would I insert this piece of tubing?

Is there any bad side affects by doing this?

Any other pertinent information on the subject?

Or do I need bother?

Looks like a good idea tho. And same with the drones and regs?

Johnniez

[PJ]

... a certain size of tubing used? Yes - You're probably using 5/32" for your reed. You'll need to get the next largest size, 3/16".

Is the tubing glued in, or hemp on the tube then put into the reed seat? I've used waxed hemp. It's solid enough to make sure it won't fall out but you can also remove it if you want to.

Would this alter the tone etc of the chanter? I didn't notice a change in my chanter, although it's not my main chanter and I don't play it very often.

How far into the reed seat would I insert this piece of tubing? As far as it will go without forcing it too much. Mine goes in about 1/2" or 2/3".

Is there any bad side affects by doing this? None that I've noticed.

Any other pertinent information on the subject? Make sure that the end of the brass tube that you insert into the seat has had all sharp edges removed.

Or do I need bother? If you have a good reed that, once it's warmed up, doesn't change tuning, you probably don't need to bother. My main motivation for doing it to one of my chanters was that I was trying out several different reeds and I found it was easier to use the extra piece of tubing than tying and retying the hemp on the bottom of the reed all the time.

Looks like a good idea tho. And same with the drones and regs? My drones and regs already have cylendrical reed seats (as does my main chanter).

[Brian Howard]

I have been usig tunig slides for the chanter reed for yeard now also for drones and regulators. You can find a pretty standard design here http://www.howardmusic.co.uk/eDrawings/ ... 0Slide.htm
You may have to down load the free program eDrawing from http://www.edrawingsviewer.com/pages/pr ... index.html but then the drawing will be interactive. (I have noticed it only seems to work with Internet explorer)

There ia an alternate design shown that I have used with chanters not made by myself. This has the advantage of being reversable if you just use a press fit or lightly glue the insert in position.

Once you have tried a tuning slide i dont think you will go back to winding hemp. On my solid tapered staples I use some shrink fit plastic and a few turns of PTFE tape to create a good fit. the shrink fit seems to create a springiness that just PTFE lacks.


Brian

[Johnniez]

Thanks PJ .. Will give it a go.

Johnniez

[PJ]

One thing I forgot to mention. 5/32 fits easily into 3/16 but you'll need a snug fit if you want to be able to alter the height of the reed. To do this you can give the end of the staple one wrap of PTF tape but this will wear off quickly if you adjust the reed a few times. What I did was to squeeze the end of the staple slightly with pliers so that it is not perfectly round. This will give a little friction against the inside of the 3/16 tube and hold the reed in place.

Also, to prevent air escaping down the side of the staple, I gave it 2 or 3 wraps of waxed hemp. This serves as a gasget and is easily moved up and down as you position the reed.

These are techniques I learned from Nick Whitmer - Nick's pipes have cylindrical reed seats in the chanter and regulators. This facilitates tuning the chanter and regulators.

[Brian Howard]

This is a pretty standard design used by many makers.

See here http://www.howardmusic.co.uk/eDrawings/ ... 0Slide.htm The modified design is useful if you dont want to counterbore an existing chanter. There are some tuning issues when modifiing the top end of bores, so be careful.

You will have to have eDraings program installed on your computer. Free from solidwoks.com click on products - freecad tools. (my version seems only to work on Internet Explorer)

Hope this helps
Brian

[Brazenkane]

Brian,

I'm interested to know how you use the tubing slide on the drones. Is that included in the drawings?

[hpinson]

Before you try this, consider this discussion:

http://uilleannforum.com/forums/viewtop ... 46c0aa17d1

Someone had done this (in a non-reversable way) to my first chanter and ruined it. The tapered reed seat area and throat were not designed for such, and the chanter had problems with hard d and other issues. I bought the chanter ignorant of this fact, but was soon set straight by the chanter's maker.

Best to ask your pipemaker. Some designs are more friendly to this sort of thing than others.

Also, please read this if you are going to attempt a non-reversable mod... and take to heart:

http://www.bcpipes.com/NoHacks.html

[Brian Howard]

Brian,

I'm interested to know how you use the tubing slide on the drones. Is that included in the drawings?

No it is not in the drawings. I fit Ezeedrone (TM) reeds counterbore the drone end and fit a hobby 1/64 inch wall tube of a suitable size. They are also suitable forn cane reeds and secure the reed much better than the taper type fitting.

Let me knpw if you can't get the eDrawing to work and I will put up a jpeg.

Brian
www.howardmusic.co.uk

[Brazenkane]

I can't get the edrawing to wrk!

[hpinson]

I was in Micorosft IE8 and it asked me if I wanted to install the ActiveX program that allows viewing of this. I had to answer yes to that, and go through the plugin install. Are you maybe using some non-Microsoft browser? Probably only Microsoft IE will work.

[Brazenkane]

Mac, baby!

[hpinson]

Yep, I don't think that's gonna work. Here's a screen capture (hope this is OK Brian, if not, let me know and I will remove it).

[img]http://celtinstmakers.net/files/howard_ ... t_plug.jpg[/img]

Edit: I'm not sure why the img tag here does not seem to be working... just cut and paste the link into your browser.

[Brazenkane]

that doesn't work either

[hpinson]

Did you possibly cut and paste the [img] tags? Try this:

http://celtinstmakers.net/files/howard_ ... t_plug.jpg