RE: New type of bridle for reeds

[patsky]

Hello pipes nuts,

Over the years one of the things I noticed was the instability of reeds with regard to temperature. How many times have you opened your pipes case to find that the reed was so open that the D pipes were almost down to the key of C#, or the other problem of being too closed and high in pitch.


I believe that I have the problem to the use of copper or brass for the bridle. One should remember that many household thermostats use a strip of brass as a regulator because of its sensitivity to temperature; expanding with heat and contracting with cold. Brass is simply a mixture of tin and copper so using a brass or copper strip is the equivalent of putting a thermostat on your reed.

The solution I have found is to use steel. Go to a local heating/air conditioning shop and ask for a handful of scrap sheet galvanized metal used for duct work. I use the 24-26 gauge but it comes in different thicknesses. Don't get the really thin stuff it will not work. Most shop will say help yourself and charge nothing.

Make the bridle just like you have always done. Once you have installed a steel bridle you'll never go back to copper or brass. Steel is less "springy" and holds its shape and the reed is more stable. It is also stronger and makes for more accurate tuning.

All the best to all,

Pat Sky

[AaronMalcomb]

How about making staples out of steel?

[tradbanjoman]

thanks for that pat i will definitly give it a try.

[patsky]

In the second paragraph the first line should read:

"I believe that I have traced the problem to the use of copper or
brass for the bridle. "

I haven't tried it but a steel staple might be possible.

Pat

[papuga]

I haven't tried it but a steel staple might be possible.
Pat

All of my Turkish Zurna staples are made out of steel. Tin can metal with soldered seams. Thicker galvanized sheet like Pat suggests would be closer to the thickness of the brass and copper UP reedmakers are used to working with, giving more normal elevation for fastening over the eye without creating too great internal volume. But it might be possible also to use thinner sheet (like tin cans) to create a normal outer diameter, then reduce the inner volume with glued-in guitar strings.

[Charlie Skelton]

Nice idea but the reason that thermostats etc use brass/copper is that it is in the form of a bi metallic strip, two strips of metals with differential coefficients of expansion, which then bend as temperature changes; having said that brass does have a higher CoE than steel so it's an idea. From the table below, cast iron looks the best, but it would be a trifle tricky to bend around the reed.
I have not done any measurements, but I suspect that the movement of thinly pared and stressed ( and hygroscopic) cane far outweighs the dimensional change of the bridle and is the main reason for variability, particularly with new reeds where internal stresses are higher.

Type of metal Coefficient of Expansion
Aluminum 248
Brass, navy 212
Copper 176
Gold 140
Iron, cast 108
Lead 295
Silver 191
Steel, high carbon 121
Steel, stainless 171
Tin 398

[Joseph E. Smith]

Interesting, I'll have to give steel a try... if ever I am able to get set up and back into reedmaking, that is.

[Kevin L. Rietmann]

I gave up on making bridles out of the .025 thick K&S copper; got sick of the chore of bending it. A wider bridle made out of the staple material (.020) does the job fine far as I can tell. You can always heat treat the metal if you want it harder. But I don't take the pipes out much so a stiffer thicker bridle might be of interest to road warriors.

Steel staples? Pah! My first teacher made GHB staples out of platinum-iridium. Harder than Vulcan's snot. You might get some from a meth head who's jacking catalytic convertors...

[mayo_piper]

I should be getting my new Pat Sky chanter next week - he said it will have the steel bridle. Can't wait to give a report on it !

stay tuned...

[mayo_piper]

By the way - Pun intended