I have a practice set of CJ Dixon Blackwood pipes and would like to know if anyone else has had any luck with a different reed. The reed comes with it is very crappy and out of tune and never has a good tone. Any suggestions would help.
I had one of CJ’s Rosewood D chanters a few years back. I managed to make a few reeds for it without much difficulty. I got the reed measurements from CJ and they worked fine. I don’t think I have them anymore though.
I have had good luck with a B. Howard “universal” reed and have made a few decent ones myself. Pretty easy. Did this reed come straight from CJ? He’s pretty good with the customer support.
Did you purchase this set directly from Chris? Where are you located, in respect to where this set (and its reed) was made? Before saying things like ‘crappy’ et al, qualify and authenticate your experience… please.
There is a bunch of geography between Whitewater Wis. and Canada, if possible, have an experienced piper check the set out before declaring nasty things like ‘crappy’.
I ask this in the sense of fair play, and to protect caftsfolk from the inexperience and harsh comments of newcomers to piping.
No offense intended.
I apologize for that word… I was just very frustrated at the time of posting that. I think I have it figured out though. Thank you.
Most uilleann pipe reeds are crappy. There. I said it too. My apologies, also.
I wasn’t gonna go that far… but… there ypu have it.
I just got the first part of my new CJ Dixon set.
The craftsmanship is absolutely superb. I can find zero flaws on any piece of this set. The reed is working very well. If I had to find a flaw, the top octave is a tiny bit sharper than the bottom, but it’s real close.
How much sharper (cents wise) and which notes and by using which fingerings?
I could be wrong, but it seems that different pipers like their octaves tuned different ways, due to the fingerings and pressure they’re used to.
In many cases when I try someone else’s chanter the upper octave seems sharpish to my way of playing. But when they play it, it’s in tune.
E is usually the flattest note in the 2nd octave, and obviously making the entire 2nd octave sharpish helps out the E.
The chanter/reed I’m used to, which I’ve been playing for over 20 years, is like this in the 2nd octave:
E: a tad flat and I give it a bit more pressure
F#: spot on in both octaves with normal pressure and the same x xxx xoxx fingering in both octaves.
G: the tiniest bit flat and I give it the slightest extra push using the same x xxx ooxx fingering in both octaves.
A: flat if x xxo xxxx is used but in tune with either x xxo xoxx or x xxo oxxxx.
B: somewhat sharp, but not nearly as sharp as most high Bs I hear from uilleann chanters, using x xoo xxxx. The fingering x xox xxxx is spot on.
But many other people’s chanters I play have the entire 2nd octave a bit sharper, so that G and A are spot on with normal fingering but x xxx xoxo has to be used for F# to bring its pitch down. The high Bs on these chanters is very sharp.
By my way of thinking (which may be slightly fucxed), the second 8ve is normally a hair sharper than the lower octave. Train yourself to get used to these… ummm… discretions. Anyone have thoughts re: this?
Once I really truly broke in the reed, the pipes have been perfectly fine. Also i did notice the sharpness as well, but when playing along with others it seems to be just fine. I think the overtones that the reed creates makes it hard to tune through such things as tuners, etc.
Korg tuners should track all the notes perfectly.
I know in the early days of electronic tuners, some makes weren’t able to track certain timbres, the bagpipes being one of them.
But my Korgs (I have three of them in various pipe cases) all track all sorts of bagpipes perfectly.
The top octave is no more than a 2-4 cents higher than the bottom, in general. I’ve got enough problems with my playing to worry about the pitch anyhow! My fingers have just about figured out how to keep the holes sealed while do scales, thirds, easy tunes, so that’s small victory #1…harder than I thought it would be!
Glad you finally got your partial set. That means I should be receiving mine shortly from him! 
Matt
Sound to me like you’re doing everything right, in your learning approach. So many newbies try to knock out the Bucks Of Oranmore before they really know the scale!
I want beginners to be comfortable getting around on the instrument before we start working on tunes.
I use a number of classic wind instrument drills, such as
4/4 | DEDE | DEDE | DEF#E | D… |
| EF#EF# | EF#EF# | EF#GF# | E… |
and on up the scale till you’re hitting high B, or high C natural if you have that key.
This drill encourages smoothness and control. The Bottom D one is very hard for beginners, as they often forget when to put the chanter on the knee and when to take it off. Also if you’re doing all the D’s as Hard Bottom D’s with an introductory A gracenote, it’s a tough coordination thing for a newbie.
Newbies also have a hard time with the stuff around the “break” (as clarinet players call it)
| BCBC | BCBC | BCdC | B…|
| CdCd | CdCd | Cded | C…|
| dede | dede | def#e | d…|
(Do both with C natural and C sharp.)
Also great are apeggios
D F# A d f# a f# d A F# D
which is D major, also do E minor, G major, A minor and A major, B minor up to the high B.
(I suppose about now some traditionalist is about to burst a blood vessel for me suggesting this stuff. But it’s the way Leo Rowsome taught, it’s the reason players like Paddy Moloney and Liam O Flynn have such great command.)