Making Plastic Regulator Reeds
By Michael MacHarg
What is that you say, making plastic reeds for the uilleann pipes cannot be done? A number of people have been experimenting with plastic chanter and regulator reeds for some time now.
MATERIALS NEEDED
Brass tubing for staples. 5/32 “ OD for tenor, 5/32” OD for baritone, and 3/16” OD for bass.
Brass or copper 22 gauge wire for bridles.
Plastic for reed heads. I use 8, 16, or 32 oz. yogurt containers. Recycle 6 is on the bottom. This grade is very important.
Thread for wrapping the reed head to the staple. I use a non-waxed nylon thread, but you may also use waxed nyletex. Be careful not to crush the reed head with whichever type cord you use.
Contact cement for tacking the reed blades to the staple, as the plastic blades are a bit slippery.
TOOLS NEEDED
Electronic tuner, pitch pipe or tuning fork.
Tubing cutter or fine tooth hobby saw for cutting tubing for staples.
Paper cutter, guillotine, or sharp scissors for cutting the plastic reed blades.
Staple mandrel used to help form the staple, as well as hold the staple/reed head while wrapping.
Aluminum oxide paper, 320 or 400 grit for sanding the reed head.
Needle nose pliers for twisting the wire bridle around the reed head.
The basic method of constructing regulator reeds is the same as making chanter reeds out of cane. Happily, we do not have to gouge our slip of plastic, as it already has the correct curvature. Prepare your yogurt pot by carefully cutting off the top rim with a scissors, so as to not crack or split the edge. Cutting of the bottom poses no problem. You may now wish to remove the advertising from the sides of the container. This is done with a fine steel wool, #000 or #0000. You are now left with a clean, white curved, piece of plastic material.
Draw lines for strips of plastic of the correct width for the reed you are making. Take care to cut strips as vertical as possible to avoid a twist or bias in the strip. See above drawing. All containers vary in thickness from top to bottom with the middle the thinnest. Exaggerated view below:
Use the thickest end of the strip, but you can experiment using the other end. Lay out the basic design on the correct width plastic strip. (see below) using a soft lead pencil.
All of the measurements are taken from David Quinn’s book, The Pipers Despair, as well as Pat Sky’s book, A Manual for the Irish Pipes.
Staple sizes for regulator reeds. David Quinn suggests: Tenor: 47mm x 3mm ID, Baritone: 50mm x 3mm ID, Bass: 54mm x 4mm ID.
I now cut the staple from the appropriate sized tubing, flaring the end of the staple with needle nosed pliers as suggested in Tim Britton’s book entitled My Method. Use your mandrel for a correct fit or shape. Having marked the depth of insertion of the staple line and binding limit, apply a small amount of contact cement to the end of the staple that will be inside the reed head as well as the reed head blades.
Stick the staple to one blade at the insertion line, then stick the other blade to the opposite side of the staple parallel to the opposing blade. Bind the blades together with some dry or waxed hemp. Check that the staple and reed blades are correctly aligned.
Now we can bind or tie-up our reed head to the staple in the usual manner using a number of different types of cords. i.e. heavy nylon thread(dry), waxed nylon cord (Nyletex), waxed hemp (linen), or whatever you are comfortable using. Start your winding by pulling fairly hard on the cord, easing up on the tension as you wind up the reed head. If too much tension is used the head will buckle or cave in on one or both sides. Experience will be your best teacher when tying up plastic reeds.
Now the fun begins!
Because of the very nature of plastic, the reed head will be smaller, i.e. shorter and at times more narrow as well. There are but few exceptions to this rule; the reason being that plastic vibrates at different rates than cane, so allowances have to be made. You may want to attach a bridle to the reed now; you can use three wraps of 22 gauge copper or brass wire or an elastic band (orthodontist rubber band) works quite well also.
Scraping or sanding plastic reeds is done in a different manner than cane reeds. Use 320 or 400 aluminum oxide paper and sand on a hard wood block or a piece of plate glass. This sanding operation is done not in the linear back and forth motion, although you can do it this way. The preferred method is to sand the reed head in a narrow ellipse, sanding only the last 10mm of the blades, sanding further back only if required to adjust the response. Your sanding pattern will look like this at first:
Applying more pressure with your index finger in the area of the X will deepen and widen the basic V sanding pattern. Sand until you get an even response, (crow) but still a bit hard.
You can now place the reed in the regulator or, curses on you, blow the reed with your
mouth/gob. This will tell you two things: the approximate blowing strength, and what pitch the regulator is producing.
At this time the pitch will be quite flat, so cutting the reed lips is in order. This is a simple matter with plastic reeds, as they do not split or crack. You can use the same sharp scissors you used to cut the plastic strips when you began constructing your reeds. Simply cut across the reed blades, trying to keep the cut square. Cut off no more that 1mm or 1/32” each time. Test in the regulator to see how much the pitch has risen. You may notice the reed is much harder to blow. That can be adjusted later. Keep cutting the blades back until the regulator is playing a bit sharp. Your tuning rush will flatten all the notes as with a cane reed.
When you are satisfied that the reed is playing at the correct pitch, you will notice that the reed may be a bit hard to blow, so some additional thinning is necessary. Be careful not to sand too much, as this will cause the reed to jump the octave.
If all has gone well you should have a working reed in your regulator which will stay in tune regardless of climatic conditions in your area. They require no special care of maintenance so don’t try to kill your reeds with kindness, and as the old adage says: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Some of the above ideas and techniques may seem a bit elementary to some of you more experienced reed makers, but they have worked pretty well for me using this plastic material.
Plastic reeds, both chanter and drone are not so very new, having been made in Europe for ten years or so. I first heard and saw plastic chanter reeds for the Musette du Centre, which includes quite a number of French bagpipes.
About six or eight years ago the fine English maker Jon Swayne taught me to make chanter reeds for French pipes in general with samples, and through correspondence. I also worked and experimented with two makers from the Seattle area, in the persons of Denny Hall and Casey Burns. The end product of these various experiments has been very good working chanter reeds for Northumbrian and Scottish lowland smallpipes.
Other plastic chanter reeds have been developed from their cane counterparts, For example:
Scottish Highland bagpipe
Breton veuze
Spanish Gaita
French Musette de Cour
French Musette Bechonnet (bellows blown)
Scottish Smallpipes
Scottish Lowland/Border pipe
Breton Biniou Kozh
French Cabrette
French Musette de Champagne (a small oboe)
Scottish Pastoral pipe (early uilleann pipe)
Irish Uilleann pipes (still being developed)
There are more pipes using plastic chanter reeds that could be added to the list.
I want to point out that plastic chanter reeds are not for every of kind of pipes or for all players. There is some trade off as to the quality of sound, but the increased reed life, the reliability, no break-in etc. are things we can live with. Plastic chanter reeds will probably not replace cane reeds, but they are an alternative worthwhile considering.
