Gurgling back-D

uilleannfinlander · Post by **uilleannfinlander** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 4:01 am

This chanter reed is really good ,but very sensitive to pressure ,
especially when movin secong oct. notes to backD it start gurgling easily.

Blades are quite thin, I think that I'll try to solve problem by cutting
reedhead tiny bit shorter.
But how much is enough? 0.2mm-0.5mm? How much it will sharpen overall scale,
do I need to take staple out, how much?1mm-??
Cheers,
Mikko

billh · Post by **billh** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 6:23 am

Start with the smallest possible amount, say 0.1mm if you can manage it. An old-fashioned straight razor is ideal. If you take only this much off, the tuning may not be greatly effected except that the back D may get a bit sharper as it strengthens.

Has the weather changed a great deal?

uilleannfinlander · Post by **uilleannfinlander** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 6:40 am

There's been quite variation with weather here during 6 months, but this reed is allways been very sensitive to pressure with back D.
Perhaps becouse the drones and chanter are from different maker the
"pressurebalance" behaves this way.

uilleannfinlander · Post by **uilleannfinlander** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 9:08 am

I cut very sligthly....voila´... no more gurgling and quite good in tune.
And next St.Paddy's day gig waiting

billh · Post by **billh** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 10:17 am

You did this just before a gig?

Joseph E. Smith · Post by **Joseph E. Smith** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 10:55 am

billh wrote:You did this just before a gig?

A brave and gutsy man is our Mikko.

fel bautista · Post by **fel bautista** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 1:22 pm

Rod Margeson from Seattle told the story of Joe McKenna retying his chanter reed before a show

uilleannfinlander · Post by **uilleannfinlander** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 2:53 pm

Gutsy and brave M says that some spare ones in the box(thanks JS& MD)
too.

btw Gig went fine, 2.5 hours continously playing a little different irish music ,we ended our gig with " I built house with chimney top of it+Rockfield reel"
...2 minutes after that , other side of the pub start to sing "whisky in the jar... .."

Thies · Post by **Thies** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 3:47 pm

Joseph E. Smith wrote:
billh wrote:You did this just before a gig?
A brave and gutsy man is our Mikko.

That's what the Finns call "sisu"! Without that they would have never survived in Europe's biggest pile of snow (during winter) and Europe's greatest mosquito farm (during summer) for such a long time.

goldy · Post by **goldy** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 5:14 pm

I was once asked to perform a couple of tunes at a music cafe and declined as I didn't have a very good reed in the chanter at that time. However, the response from the woman asking was "well just make one". I tried to explain the delicate process of allowing the reed to settle at various stages of the process, but she insisted. So just to keep her happy, I made a reed in one sitting from the nastiest looking piece of cane I could find (so as not to waste a good piece). This reed worked beautifully on the night, except it opened up on the first tune, resulting in a really sharp back D (my reeds are heavily closed and want to open themselves for the first few days).

The moral: sometimes it pays to take a gamble right before a perfomance.

All the best.