Chiff and Fipple Forums

Does anyone know exactly the type of foam that Benedict Koehler uses on the rushes to tune regulators? If so, where does one acquire it? Thanks!

I didn't know Benedict used foam in his regulators. Does the foam lay flat, or is it curved, around the tuning pin?

I have only heard about it. Apparently, it lies along the tuning pin under the holes that need to be flattened. The big plus is that, apparently, it does not cast a huge “shadow” downs towards lower notes, i.e., flattening them a lot as well, plus it does not decrease the overall volume of sound. Would love to know more about this!

Benedict made my regs, and put that foam on the rushes in each. They're thin strips, glued lengthwise to the rushes, just a couple of millimetres tall/wide. I think the idea was that he glued a strip the entire length of the rush, then pulled off the pieces he didn't want. Pretty expeditious! He mentioned at the time that he felt that it worked like Blu-tac, effectively modulating the bore to tune individual notes, but provided a gentler perburbation. To me, there's one drawback - once you pull off a little bit, say to adjust it, you can't put it back on easily (basically have to replace the entire strip). If this was something you needed to do seasonally, then the Blu-tac blob is easier. And that's where I'm at now - some foam, some Blob, probably heading inexorably towards all-Blob some day.

As for the nature of the foam, the pieces are very small, but it doesn't appear anything special. Just looks like what you might find as stuffing inside upholstery of some kind.

For quite a few years now I have been using UHU Patafix , at the suggestion of Derrick Gleeson, for fine tuning of the regulators. It is in principle the same as Blu Tack but not so sticky and tends not to adhere to the bores. Rubbing a little dust onto the finished blob ( perhaps chalk or powdered graphite, but pipemakers have plenty of wood dust ) will further deteriorate any sticking abilities.

Thanks, guys, for your responses!