Have you tried Blue Canning drone reeds? Here I test the sound consistency of the Blue Canning reeds and EZ drone reeds to see if either of them fluctuate. I compare and review them.
I like so much this line of videos ! And very useful as well. With the practice with drones without Chanter we are training our sense of hearing…very important.
The difference between newer reeds and older drone reeds would be the stability of the tongues. In this way, the ease and stability of tuning MAY be affected. So yes, it would be easier to compare 2 new sets of reeds instead of older sets , especially if the specific age of the sets is unknown.