Norden Sackpipa Association of the Americas (NSAA)

[JP WNC]

Has anyone attempted to use bamboo to make a reed? It too is a giant piece of grass like Arundo Donax. I believe it's even a cousin of Arundo Donax.

[Olle]

The only successful attempt I have seen is by Jim Little, an American piper who I met in Sweden on a festival once. It was a long time ago though (1995 I think), so my memory of that is a little fuzzy. As I recall he said it was very reliable but was very hard to make. Literally - bamboo is a very hard material.
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Info on Swedish bagpipes at http://olle.gallmo.se/sackpipa
More about me at http://olle.gallmo.se

[JP WNC]

It's encouraging that precedent has been set. We here in the USA are very fond of importing and unleashing exotic invasive species. Hence, there's bamboo around in places. Getting it in that certain size for making a standard reed might still be nearly impossible though so a composite using the bamboo as the tongue is probably the way to go.

On the composite reeds you've seen, is the reed seat or reed itself usually given the curvature? If I get around to actually working on this I'll probably put the curve into the seat. I imagine a straight tongue should be more stable as it wouldn't have to be set, and thus wouldn't lose its set.

[Olle]

The bamboo reed I saw was not composite. It was cut the traditional way. I seem to remember that it was downcut, but I'm not sure.
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Info on Swedish bagpipes at http://olle.gallmo.se/sackpipa
More about me at http://olle.gallmo.se

[Yuri]

You probably can make bamboo tongues for composite reeds. I haven't tried that, but have tried it with elder, and that works just fine. You probably have to scrape the bamboo tongue a bit thinner than equivalent cane tongues.