Make a Pressure-Stable Artificial Drone Reed for Any Bagpipe 

David, this is fascinating stuff and very generous of you to go to the trouble of editing and uploading all this! I am learning to make reeds with the goal of developing a composite material that can be split, gouged and worked just like cane, and developing new designs for historical and modern pipes. Please give me a shout if you are ever in Seattle!

Thx ! greetings from Polish

That's actually an excellent point and if it were possible to edit RU-vid videos I would revise that segment.I've been making reeds for uilleann pipes for many years but of all the operations that have given me cuts, this particular one never has. I wish I'd caught this before I posted it.

@kurt1698 I use this for Irish uilleann pipes because they play in 2 octaves, which is done by increasing the pressure, so it's more important for them to be stable in changing pressures than for Highland or smallpipes. But the 2-bend method works for any type of drone. It makes reeds with these small plastic tongues strike-in and stabilize just like old fashioned cane reeds with the long tongues.

@pianoman9876 It's ordinary styrene plastic sheet, 0.015" thick, sold at hobby shops for model railroading. The manufacturer is Evergreen Plastics and you can find them on the web. For my Highland pipe artificial drone reeds I use natural cane for the tubes, and the tongues for those pipes I make from 0.20" thick plastic because of the higher pressure of the bagpipe. When you use the 2-bend method, the artificial reeds strike-in exactly like natural cane reeds and are extremely stable.

I'd be interested to see you make highland pipe reeds.

@PuYanHui You know, in 44 years of playing I've never made a GHB reed, never found the need for it. I visited P/M Sandy Hain's reed shop in the Cleveland Ohio area years ago; he had a number of metal dies and jigs so he could make them in a batch process. They were all made of identical dimensions so it was a matter of chance which pieces of cane best suited the process, unlike uilleann reeds which are tailored for each cane piece by hand all the way but cost so much more.

Would you please film yourself making a GHB reed? Awesome vid.

very helpful and informative. im following this design at the moment as well as makng normal cane reeds. but i want to ask you....are there any measurements or specific diemensions to follow for each drone (bass/bari/tenor)??? im currently using normal cane bodies which are the ones for cuting the tongue, but i sand a flat and make a plastic tongue from some leftover X-mas packaging! any help greatly appreciated.

What mill thickness do you use for the drone blades ? Awesome video btw.

Could you use dental bands for the bridle?

What are you using for the plastic tounge?

This is a great guideline, thank you. I'm wondering if you could show methods for making the reeds in different keys?

hi ser, don't know if you'll watch this but i try...... do you know how long are the C Major drones (both bass and tenor), or at least do you know any website where i can find this tecnic tips?

is that only for scottish small pipes

What is this plastic sheet material? Anyone?

I don't want to act like your mother or anything, but you REALLY shouldn't be cutting towards yourself with a razor blade. I have plenty of scars on my hands that can prove that lesson to you.