Elder Reeds

Dionys · Post by **Dionys** » Wed Feb 20, 2002 12:11 pm

Does anyone have any experience making Elder chanter reeds and/or regulator/drone reeds from Elder? Are there any resources out there for methods, or is the method mostly the same as cane reed-making?

Dionys

Cayden · Post by **Cayden** » Wed Feb 20, 2002 2:06 pm

Yes, drone reeds. articles have been written, not sure if it was An Piobaire or SRS journal, can look it up
It is different form cane in that you should cutt the eldersticks while the sap is low and cut the tongues before drying, this seems to give the best results.

brendan ring · Post by **brendan ring** » Wed Feb 20, 2002 2:49 pm

I have been making my reeds, chanter, drone and regulator, from elder for several years. I have made a number of commercial recordings with them and will never go back to cane. There will be an article by me on this topic in the next Pipers Review.

brendan ring · Post by **brendan ring** » Wed Feb 20, 2002 3:01 pm

I'd just like to say I'll answer any questions on the board about elder as it is a passion of mine!

Dionys · Post by **Dionys** » Wed Feb 20, 2002 7:31 pm

Will your article be a how-to on making Elder reeds? If not, have you considered a web page and/or short booklet on the process?

Dionys

brendan ring · Post by **brendan ring** » Thu Feb 21, 2002 1:18 am

There will be a how to element in the article. The principles are similar to cane, if you can make a cane reed you should'nt have trouble with elder, but I wouldn't try it without trying cane first. One of the big things is the material itself, knowing where when and what to get

Roger O'Keeffe · Post by **Roger O'Keeffe** » Thu Feb 21, 2002 3:52 am

The article which Peter refers to appeared in An Piobaire a couple of years ago. It's by Ken McLeod, who can be offputting in the dogmatism with which he expresses some of his views. But he bases the article on a considerable amount of empirical research (i.e. trial and error!), his general approach is scientifically rigourous, and I am sure that his advice is entirely reliable. I'll check it out if Peter doesn't beat me to the draw.

Roger O'Keeffe · Post by **Roger O'Keeffe** » Mon Feb 25, 2002 11:08 am

The article in An Piobaire is in Vol. 4 no. 6 (July 2000). It deals only with drone guills.

The author invites comments and reactions to be sent to his e-mail address which is ken@coillidh.fsnet.co.uk

If you can't get your hands on the Piobaire article, I'm sure he'd e-mail it to you.

I suspect that Andreas Rogge may also have experimented with elder chanter reeds, as he has even tried Fichte, which I think translates as spruce or fir.

Thies · Post by **Thies** » Wed Oct 29, 2003 9:21 am

Roger O'Keeffe wrote:I suspect that Andreas Rogge may also have experimented with elder chanter reeds, as he has even tried Fichte, which I think translates as spruce or fir.

Even though this post is rather old: Fichte in German is the Norway spruce (Picea abies).

So long,
TiE

daveboling · Post by **daveboling** » Wed Oct 29, 2003 10:00 am

I tried emailing Ken at ken@coillidh.fsnet.co.uk, and got back a message that the email address could not be found. Is there are more current address for Ken?

Best Regards,

dave boling

Ted · Post by **Ted** » Wed Oct 29, 2003 11:48 am

I have made a few elder chanter reeds. I had some 3/4" dia. dried elder, which I gouged and sanded the slips over a 1 3/4" dia. cylinder. This yielded a slip that was 0.060" thick at the centerline, with the same elevation between the lips that I get with 1" cane when I tied them on the staple. I sanded and cut the scrape normally until I got a good crow. I then let them sit overnight. The next day the reeds had opened up and took too much effort to get the crow back so I deepened the scrape at the bottom (near the wrap) to close the lips. I let them set overnight again and the same thing occured the next day. I again widened and deepened the bottom of the scrape with my reed knife and let them set again. Eventually they all settled in and I did not see further opening of the lips. I ended up with the lay of the reeds being longer than with cane, and a a short taper from the back of the scrape to the lay. The reeds all had good tone and volume. Paddy Keenan said he used elder to make muted reeds when he was young. He tried my elder reeds and said he had not cut as much in the scrape when he was making quiet elder reeds for practice. I have noticed elder to be more sensitive to weather changes than cane, but I like the sound of elder reeds. Elder drone reeds have a very nice purr to them and work better than cane in some drones.

Ted

Scott McCallister · Post by **Scott McCallister** » Sat Nov 01, 2003 7:57 am

brendan ring wrote:...One of the big things is the material itself, knowing where when and what to get

Alright, so lets have it.

Where and when can you get find the stuff at it's peak? I would love give it a try. Currently I am playing on a Basswood chanter reed I made from hobby shop stock. It works pretty well, but I have been hoping to get my hands on some elder.

While hiking this summer I ran across what I thought was Rocky Mountain Blueberried Elder. It looked just like the pics I have seen in reference sources but as a mature plant, I found it to be smaller than I expected.

A chest high bush with multi-lobed scaloped edge leaves about an inch or so across. (oh, and lots of blueberrys) The branches were reasonably straight but not much bigger than my little finger at the base making them unsuitable for chanter reeds.

Any help you can throw this way is appreciated!

Scott McCallister

Fergmaun · Post by **Fergmaun** » Sat Nov 01, 2003 8:32 am

Got Ken McLeod Email address and this is it doc@quilly.demon.co.uk. It was listed on http://www.pipers-hut.com/UPIL/netPipers.html

Tony · Post by **Tony** » Sat Nov 01, 2003 8:45 am

An elder reed article by Brendan Ring:
http://www.irishpipersclub.org/Page003.html

Lorenzo · Post by **Lorenzo** » Sat Nov 01, 2003 11:57 am

The fence in this picture is about 6' high. The young stuff is kind of reddish colored on the bark, not so green as in the first picture. I sent Ted a picture of this stuff growing in my back yard. He said that was the right stuff. The trees do get a little larger than this.