Barry > I would like to be able to make drone reeds which give a constant > pitch from 12" to 20" of water gauge.
The masters at this are the people who make union pipes. Robert Reid, of course, make both union pipes and Northumbrian pipes. > With such reeds, the problems beginners have in getting steady > drones would be much reduced. The rest of the world's come to the conclusion that beginners, at least, should use plastic drone reeds. Most Highland pipers (other than the top soloists) now use Ezeedrones: rather than tuning for 20 minutes you just get the pipes out of the box, stick them on your shoulder and play them. It's a no-brainer unless you're a purist. In the border piping world, Nigel Richards and Jon Swayne pipes use plastic reeds. So do Julian Goodacre's. In the uilleann world, plastic is gaining ground - it's just the longevity of the existing reeds that keeps most people playing cane. And now that some Northumbrian pipemakers offer a brass-with-plastic option we may see the same gradual changeover here too. OK, so I spoke heresy. Flame away! Ross To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
