Making Synthetic Regulator Reeds
by Bruce (BC) Childress
It has certainly been the bane of uilleann pipers, since the advent of the instrument, that a chanter reed made of cane or elder can be sensitive to temperature, humidity and dirt. It causes no end to frustration in terms of tuning and behavior of the reed. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a reed that isn’t made of a material that is porous in nature, yet, met the criteria of dynamic flexibility that Arundo Donax provides?
Before you think that I am going to go on about a magic bullet of a synthetic chanter reed, calm down. I certainly have tried, as I am sure, many others have. The path to synthetic regulator reeds that I trekked, indeed, started with the quest for a shrapnel-proof chanter reed. I have since abandoned hope of producing a synthetic chanter reed, although I don’t believe it to be impossible. I hold out hope that someone with an unusual bent for materials design/production may someday fill that particular desire all uilleann pipers tend to harbor.
As it may be implied by the above paragraphs, the quest for the possibility of a synthetic chanter reed is what led to the development of my method of making synthetic regulator reeds. The first consideration was, of course, determining what material would be most conducive to making a synthetic reed. It seems that ongoing and past work on synthetic chanter reeds has been to settle on a softer type of plastic in the polystyrene family. This would be most evident in the piping world in the reeds that are used in Highland pipes practice chanters. And, as it is fairly widely known, a variety of food containers are a ready source of this material (most notably yogurt containers). I found this type and shape of plastic afforded the nearest approximation to an uilleann pipes chanter reed that I was able to create out of trying many materials and container shapes. But that was only in a C pitched chanter. And it still wasn’t a satisfactory fit compared to a good cane reed.
The thought occurred to me (as probably with others attempting the same, I wouldn’t doubt): Why couldn’t this be used in a regulator? That was easily done, and the results were hopeful. However, because it was designed for a chanter, it tended to break into the second octave. That’s good for a chanter, but not for a regulator. Further gradual thinning of the reed caused it to go too limber and sink on the higher notes. It then seemed terribly difficult to tune. Also, there seemed to be no middle window between avoiding sinking with difficulty tuning to unwanted over-blowing. That meant I was going to go back to the materials search.
After trying several different makes and sizes of container, I came to the best candidate that works well for the purpose. It turned out to be the middle section of a 1 liter bottle of “Dasani” brand water. (Note: I don’t partake of bottled water for several well publicized environmental and consumer reasons. I scavenge the water bottles by grabbing one whenever I see it. Sometimes I entertain people by saying, “Oh boy!” and diving into a garbage bin just doing my part to recycle!) As I mentioned, the middle part of the bottle is most conducive to yielding slips of the proper size and curvature. It is an easy matter to cut out the middle section by removing the label and cutting around the bottle with a sharp knife at the points above and below the middle section. This will leave a tube of blueish-clear plastic in an open-ended cylinder about 3 1/4 inches long and 3 inches in diameter. This is a tube of Arundo Dasani. The remaining top and bottom parts of the bottle go into my recycle bins. (I hope they don’t sprout invasive Arundo Dasani shoots in a landfill somewhere.) The next step is to split the tube lengthwise into slips. This is done with a pair of scissors. A knife is destructive. Cut lengthwise along the tube from one end to the other. Make the next cut parallel to the first cut to produce a slip a little over ½ inch wide. Keep moving over with each cut until the tube no longer yields slips a little over ½ inch wide. The tube can be measured and marked with a straight edge or square for cutting the slips. I do it by eye with a free hand. It requires that the cut doesn’t run out too much to a diagonal. A tube of Arundo Dasani will yield about 18 slips with a slight curve across each slip.
Assuming that reeds are being made for a set of three regulators (tenor, baritone and bass), three slips will now be prepared. They first must be trimmed to the proper width. I have a metal ruler that is the proper width to use as a template for cutting the bass regulator slip. It is precisely .47” (11.9mm) in width. The tenor and baritone both are trimmed to width using a template I cut and milled out of a sheet of brass. The thickness of the sheet is not too important as long as it is rigid. The template is 4 ¼” (108mm) long and .448”(11.37mm) wide. I have my certain way of doing the next step and it is one of those things that there are probably variations. But I will describe it precisely as I do it, and will hope the reader will not look harshly on my hatred of furniture. I have a nice big wooden desk in my study, where I make reeds. There is a little sliding table on the right that is excellent for reed making operations. So it gets trashed, and here is one of the ways it gets trashed: I place the rough-cut slip of Arundo Dasani close to the edge of the table with the concave side up. The template is placed the length of the slip with the edges equidistant from the edges of the template. A mini-C-Clamp is used to press and hold firmly the slip between the template and the table. Now it is an easy matter to run a sharp blade down the edge of the template on each side. A single edge razor will do. I use a carving knife because it is easier to maneuver around and under the C-Clamp. Just make sure the cutting edge is always right against the template and that the template doesn’t move with respect to the Arundo Dasani slip. So, the yield should be one slip with the .47” template and 2 with the .448” template.
Fig. 1
Now, the slips will be shaped to become the heads of the reed. It doesn’t matter how long the slips are at this point. The bass and baritone slips are measured 1” (25.47mm) from each end and marked with a line across on the convex side. A black “Sharpie” does a good job (make sure it’s not one that your kids made into a “Dullie”). For the tenor, the marks are 15/16” (23.85mm) from each end. Mark each end at the centerline with a little dot. This marks the apex of a triangle that is drawn from the edge, at the 1” (15/16” for the tenor) marks to the dot at the end. A straight edge helps to draw the lines. All marks are on the convex side. Yes, it is looking very much like the cane slip that you see in all the reed making methods. Now the outsides of the triangle are cut along the line, with a pair of scissors, leaving the slip to look like figure 1. the slip is now halved by marking across the exact center of the slip and cutting through the mark with scissors, leaving 2 duplicate and opposite matching halves with the concave curves facing one another in the final assembly. The final preparation of the slips, before tying them together (as you would 2 halves of a cane reed), is to rub them vigorously against #400 grit sandpaper, on a flat surface with the concave side down. When the slip is cut out, using the clamp and templates on the table, it leaves a burr that makes it difficult to hold the 2 halves together symmetrically. Sanding them as described flattens the burr out. No further preparation of the head of the reed is necessary. Including shaping the “tail” (as with a cane chanter reed). They are amazingly forgiving.
The staples are fairly straightforward. Any method of making staples is fine for making the synthetic regulator reeds. So I won’t go into much detail. I use the “hobby shop” brass tubing. For the tenor and baritone, I use 5/32” OD, .014” wall tubing. For the bass regulator I use 3/16” OD, .014” wall tubing (which also affords using staples intended for D pitched chanters). The bass regulator staple is 2 1/8” long. The baritone regulator staple is 2 3/16” long. The tenor regulator staple is 1 7/8” long. These measurements, of course, are for my design of regulators. One would have to make determinations for one’s own make of regulators.
The time has come to put the reeds together in their final basic form. Insert the staple up to the point that the eye of the staple is just slightly short of the 1” lines (on the baritone and bass, 15/16” line on the tenor). Make sure it is well centered and straight along the centerlines of the head and the staple. A little drop of thin superglue between the plastic and the brass tube staple is actually a good thing to hold the plastic reed head stable on the staple. It is not necessary to consider re-positioning them on the staple later. Now the reed can be wrapped up to the transverse Sharpie lines, slightly above the eye of the staple, in the manner one prefers. I use black waxed hemp, but whatever you favor in your own reed making method is fine. I also leave the bottom portion of the staple bare, as I use telescopic tuning slides on my regulators. There is lots of freedom here. Do not wrap too tightly or the plastic will collapse. Set the freshly wrapped reed aside for a couple of days to get used to the idea of being a reed.
The next steps will cross over into more of an art than a science, in some ways. After removing the binding that held the head of the reed together for wrapping, you will notice that the sides might open up a little, under the tension of the thread wrap. That’s OK and it will be dealt with later. The first step after unwrapping the head is to trim the lips back to the proper length. If all previous instructions have been followed, they should be longer than they need to be. Trim the lips of the reed back, as you would a typical cane reed. I like to use my modified nippers, but any method you are used to will do. The head of the bass regulator reed should be about 21/32” (17mm) long measured from the top of the wrap. The baritone regulator reed should be about 9/16’ (14mm) and the tenor regulator should be about
½” (13mm) from the wrap. Take a piece of #400 grit sandpaper and insert the corner into the lips of each reed and with a quick motion, move the sandpaper back-and-forth as you withdraw it from the lips. This smoothes out any burrs that are left inside the edges of the lips from clipping.
The thickness of the plastic is sanded out exactly as one would with cane. Lay a piece of #220 grit sandpaper on a flat surface. Hold the head of the reed against it and sand back-and-forth, using the index finger to guide and support it. Sand evenly and give a little emphasis to the lips of the reed with the forefinger. Do this until you can get a “crow” by drawing in on the end of the staple by mouth. You will need to hold the reed along the edges of the head to seal off airflow from any source other than the lips. Trade out the #220 sandpaper with #320 grit, and repeat the sanding process. The plastic will gradually take on an opaque sheen. After each sanding, it will leave a sort-of “swarf” on the lips. It will peel off fairly easily with a pinch of the finger-nails, but make sure it is cleared entirely. At this point, testing the reed should get an easy, almost “quacky” crow. Be careful not to sand so far that you start to lose the lips. And always sand evenly.
To seal along the sides, PTFT “plumber’s tape” is wrapped around the head of the reed down to overlap the thread wrap. Leave about 3/16” of the head of the reed exposed at the lips. Now the reed should crow without it being necessary to hold it along the sides. A bridle is now added. I think a standard copper bridle would be effective, but I have never used one on the synthetic regulator reeds myself. I opt for a wire bridle. Take a piece of 22AWG black annealed iron wire about 3” long and put a tight 180 degree bend in about ¾” from the end. Lay the head of the reed in that bend right above the thread wrap. Pull the wire around as tightly and gently as possible, one wrap over the other,
2 times. Then twist the ends together tightly like a twist-tie and clip off the excess. The bridle is better for opening the reed than closing it. This is why I chose Arundo Dasani, as it has the right inside curvature that if any bridle adjustment is needed, it is usually to open the reed. The finished reed appears as in Figure 2.
Fig. 3
Now the finished reed can be tried in the regulator. The rules for cane reeds, as far as insertion and bridle adjustment generally apply. If the upper notes “sink”, opening the reed may eliminate the sinking. Also, trimming the lips may eliminate sinking upper notes. If it squeaks or it is raspy, closing the reed may eliminate the problem. Further sanding may be necessary, as well. This requires disassembly of the wire bridle and PTFT wrap. That’s not too much of an issue, as long as you have plenty of the plumber’s tape a 22AWG wire.
Synthetic regulator reeds, as in all things piping, have their advantages and drawbacks. The big advantage for them is that, once they are set, they rarely move beyond that setting, and each adjustment is immediately and permanently locked-in until the next adjustment. Sometimes cane reeds will drift and you have to frequently adjust them back-and-forth when they are new. Not so with the synthetic regulator reeds. Since I have been using synthetic drone and regulator reeds, I find that if I pick up my pipes, after a spell of no playing, the regulators and drones are right where I left them. Thus, if anything sounds wrong, I go straight to a chanter reed adjustment. Also, if you find it necessary to remove the bass regulator reed cap to fit a full set into a case, the synthetic reed is much more durable and requires less storage precautions. Lastly, they are more tolerant of being tested in the regulator by mouth blowing (Still, it is not wise to go too far with that). The drawback to the synthetic regulator reeds is that they can be a little louder than cane, especially the F# and G of the tenor regulator and the D of the baritone regulator. It can be adjusted out pretty well or damped a bit with a bore-rush. One rather odd physicality of the synthetic regulator reeds I have found is that, on the lower notes of the baritone and tenor regulators, reducing the tone hole size will, counter-intuitively, raise the pitch!
So, neato! Space age materials make life a little easier for, at least, a small segment of the population! Feel free to contact me, if you try this and have any questions for me on the process. I will try to get out more and teach this method of regulator reed making as well.
For a complete PDF of the original Summer 2009 Pipers Review this article is from, click here.
