Synthetic drone reeds

[caubeen]

A good many years ago I bought a full set of UPs, but up to now have only used them as a practice set. Now I am looking forward to using the drones as well. The set came with cane reeds, which will undoubtedly require lots of tweaking. However, I was wondering how everyone feels about using synthetic drone reeds like Ezeedrones. Are they compatible with the various makes of UPs, or are there combinations that won't work? Any advice would be appreciated.

[Uilliam]

http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php ... ds&start=0

Uilliam

[simonknight]

Bruce Childress makes nice synthetic drone reeds.

[misterpatrick]

and Bruce may be able to make you a set that fits better than the Ezeedrones if you have a small tenor drone for example. I have a set of Bruce's synthetics in my B set and they are quite nice.

[caubeen]

Thanks Uilliam and Simon. I think I am up to speed now. Bruce Childress didn't seem to have anything on his web site about offering synthetic drone reeds, so perhaps he just makes them for his pipes. However, I seem to be in luck with regard to Ezeedrones. My mainstock tenor hole seems to be 11mm, so based on all the comments on the previous thread, I should be OK without having to drill anything. Will get on the reeds as soon as I get a new bag. I didn't realize that leather deteriorates just with the passage of time. The seam of the original bag (riveted) leaks more than seasoning is likely to stop. So first the bag, then the reeds, and one of these days, I will be able to get beyond the beginner class.

[mayo_piper]

Actually Bruce offers them for sale...scroll all the way to the bottom of his price page. They are offered for $72.00***

[somebodyonline]

I wanted to thank everyone for posting infomation about synthetic drone reeds on this site. With that information, I measured my Gallagher full set, still wasn't sure they would fit, but ordered them anyway. Ezdrone customer support was great, and I got them in a few days. All of them fit without alternations, except I had to take the plastic off for the top tenor drone, as described elsewhere in this topic. With some movement of the rubber bridle as described in the Ezdrone instructions, I was able to get a good stable tone from all three drones quickly. Ends up that my bottom two Quinn cane reeds are just as stable and louder, and better balanced with the rest of the set, so I went back to using them. The tenor drone had been a problem for me, so the Ezdrone reed in that has solved my problem of pitch changes while I'm playing. I found the Ezdrone reeds to be a pleasant sound, and if louder, I'd play all of them. Next, onto asking Seth for a set of drone reeds, and compare them to the Quinn reeds I'm currently using. Thanks again, everyone for the info, no more playing through sound systems with unstable reeds! -Brian