Reedmaking for the Uilleann pipes is not easy, however I firmly believe that it will make you a much better piper. By understanding how a reed behaves you can make the adjustments required as the reed changes due to atmospheric conditions. When you make lots of reeds, you can then choose the ones which most suit your way of playing - light reeds to hide a little in a session when you're conscious of your inabilities, or strong reeds to make a statement. When I reed a set of pipes, they are reeded to play the way I like them & this may not be best for you.

I also encourage all my customers to start learning for my own benefit. Imagine if all previous customers asked me for a new chanter reed every 3 months, I wouldn't have any time left to make pipes. If reedmaking was profitable, then there would be more people making a living out of it. In fact I don't think there is anyone who relies solely on reedmaking for a living.

Beware, there are those who say that they can make great reeds every time & are quite happy to take your money. You may find that their standards of reedmaking are not quite what they claim. What may be a good reed in their eyes is , in reality, only fit for the bin. Another very good reason to make your own. If you are buying a reed from someone else, you must try before you buy - never pay up front.

I wont go into every aspect of reedmaking on this page as there are plenty of good resources on the internet & through the NPU (see links page), however I will try to dispel some myths & provide the basic information.

THE CHANTER

The first myth to note is that there is no such thing as a perfectly tuned chanter. To get each note & its octave perfectly in tune with the "just intonation" scale is quite simply impossible. Much of the tuning is a compromise & any deficiencies are readily corrected by the ability of the player. Try playing someone else's chanter & make it sound as good as them!

One of the golden rules for making a chanter is "for any given tonehole position, the narrover the bore, the wider the octave". So if at the A hole position the bore is too narrow, then the low A will be flat & the high A will be sharp creating a wide octave. The reason I have 5 tapers & 2 flats in the bore is to try to achieve the perfect chanter, however some concessions are still unavoidable.
There are also other factors like wood density which make a chanter very individual ,so when reedmaking don't worry too much about individual notes being slightly out of tune with particular reeds because you should be able to compensate. Some chanters get thrown in the bin at the tuning stage because they just don't produce a good tone. This must be due to adverse wood densities at critical points in the chanter because the dimensions are the same as every other chanter.
The really important thing is to get the A in tune with Low D & back D. I tune both the D's on my chanter to be slightly sharp because each note doesn't have a corresponding octave and can be easily flattened to tune perfectly with the A.
The low D can be flattened by inserting a "rush" in the chanter bottom - I usually use a large paper clip for this purpose which can also help bring out a reluctant "hard D"
The back D can be tuned using a piece of tape to cover some of the hole. This is handy if you make a great reed which has a flat back D in its characteristics, just move the tape a little. The back D is also a very pressure sensitive note so it really helps to have this tuning capability.

CHANTER REED

I follow Cillian O'Briain's method of reedmaking which is shown in great detail on the NPU reedmaking DVD available here: http://store.pipers.ie/store/product/1213/Heart-of-the-Instrument%2C-The--/