Reed Cleaning?

jqpublick · Post by **jqpublick** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 4:31 pm

Over the last couple of months, my reed has been going further and further south. It's been down to -53C (with wind chill) a couple of times so the reed's touchiness was no surprise. Today the back d was a horrible, wretched ghost of itself. I was going to tighten the bridle when I noticed something at the lips of the reed, off to one side. I pulled the reed out and was trying to figure out if I'd cracked it somehow when I blew into it. (I know, I know, I shouldn't do that.) A little bit of gunk popped out into my outstretched, non-reed-holding hand. I put the reed back in and I can't believe the difference. The bag pressure requirements is down about 79% (okay, so that's hyperbole) and it's suddenly bright and clean and crisp, and some of the swells (particularly the 2nd 8ve 'e') are suddenly much fuller and and and.... sigh. Sometimes life is good.

Ahem.

I've cleaned my drone reeds and the cork for the drone intake before, but for some reason I never thought about checking the chanter reed. Are reedmakers the forum over wincing at this? Are eyes being rolled at my blatant naivete/folly/nincompoopery? Or are lids snapping open and jaws dropping at the base perfidity of blowing the wrong way into a reed? Will tongues waggle? Will... okay forget it.

Are their officially approved ways to clean a reed's interior without taking it apart? Perhaps some kind of laparoscopy? I'm not going to take this reed apart as I've only got one other and it's not as nice as this one is. Besides, the cleaned reed is working fine now.

Apologies for the silliness and I hope I haven't offended anyone.

Mark

Uilliam · Post by **Uilliam** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 12:26 am

Mark ye are not offending anyone coz ifn ye are they should be playing another instrument preferably far far awa.
Reeds are more robust than ye think.By blowing into it the worst ye will do is pass on whatever transmittable diseases ye may have to the poor wee thing.Now ifn ye put it in the washing machine that may be a different story.
Now then if ye want to clean the read get yersel a smallish bird feather next time ye are oot walking.Cut back the feather to about 3 or 4 inches frae the top then strip awa the feathers so that ye have a small tip at the top of feathers it will look like a small fan at the top.This can be used to push through the reed frae the staple end.When the tip of the feather shews a bit at the top pull the feather back the way ye put it in.Bit like a chimney sweeps brush.
Uilliam

Hans-Joerg · Post by **Hans-Joerg** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 6:11 am

Uilliam wrote: Now then if ye want to clean the read get yersel a smallish bird feather next time ye are oot walking.Cut back the feather to about 3 or 4 inches frae the top then strip awa the feathers so that ye have a small tip at the top of feathers it will look like a small fan at the top.This can be used to push through the reed frae the staple end.When the tip of the feather shews a bit at the top pull the feather back the way ye put it in.Bit like a chimney sweeps brush.

I remember Matt Kiernan once showing me this. I also had quite good results with a (~10mm wide) strip of paper in the "reed´s mouth". You can shove it sidewards between the blades. Then carefully close the blades with the fingers and pull out the strip.
Hans

ausdag · Post by **ausdag** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 8:32 am

and if that doesn't work, I've had startling results using the very finest of fine emery paper, slipped down between the lips and the withdrawn just once only on each blade as light pressure is applied to the lips between thumb and forefinger, just like Hans describes. Of course, you'd only do it a limited number of times as it can eventually wear down the lips as well. But it's taken reeds that I'd thought had given up the ghost and brought them back to life, good as new.

djm · Post by **djm** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 8:40 am

Using the rough paper from a brown paper bag seems to work best, and doesn't wear the cane the way emery would. Also useful for getting cigarette tar off the inside of the reed if you tend to play in smokey rooms.

djm

Ceann Cromtha · Post by **Ceann Cromtha** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 8:42 am

ausdag wrote:and if that doesn't work, I've had startling results using the very finest of fine emery paper, slipped down between the lips and the withdrawn just once only on each blade as light pressure is applied to the lips between thumb and forefinger, just like Hans describes. Of course, you'd only do it a limited number of times as it can eventually wear down the lips as well. But it's taken reeds that I'd thought had given up the ghost and brought them back to life, good as new.

Mark Hillmann taught me to do this using the corner of a Post It note. It works pretty good and leaves no sticky residue inside the reed (it is pretty low tack in its stickiness). You insert it, then apply the light pressure, then release the pressure, and finally pull it out. The gunk inside the reed will attach itself to the adhesive part of the paper.

wgority · Post by **wgority** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 9:08 am

As an oboe player of old, I learned both of these tricks as part of my training. Although I've always used a dollar bill between the reed blades.

MichaelLoos · Post by **MichaelLoos** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 9:22 am

Until recently, smoking was allowed in german pubs, and as many of my gigs are in pubs I found it necessary to clean my reeds every maybe four months. I found trichlorethylene very useful for this job (highly flammable and no good idea to breathe it in!). You can use the feather or paper with it, no need to flush the reed. Every time I was amazed by the amount of tar that builds up in the reeds, so I'm quiet happy smoking is forbidden now.
Unfortunately, I haven't succeeded in giving it up myself....

jqpublick · Post by **jqpublick** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 11:16 am

Sooooo...... I'm not the only one then, eh? I don't have enough dirty reeds to test each one of these methods empirically. Here's an idea. Send me all your best reeds and I'll test these methods. Of course to ensure that there are improvements you'll have to send your pipes along too. I assure you they will be well taken care of. Unless Uilliam understands correctly and I have just given my reed a good dose of Scrofula. In which case, all of the reeds you send to me will come back with a little something extra. Won't that be nice?

Seriously, thanks for the responses. I'll take better care of my pipes from now on.

I'm with you, MichaelLoos, glad for the clean air, sad I'm still smoking.

Thanks again;

Mark