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Alternative reed material - bamboo?

 
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JP WNC



Joined: 21 Dec 2006
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Location: Asheville, NC (USA)

PostPosted: Fri Mar 16, 2012 11:01 am    Post subject: Alternative reed material - bamboo? Reply with quote

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.
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Olle
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Joined: 21 Oct 2006
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Location: Uppsala, Sweden

PostPosted: Fri Mar 16, 2012 12:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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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JP WNC



Joined: 21 Dec 2006
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Location: Asheville, NC (USA)

PostPosted: Tue Mar 20, 2012 11:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

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.
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Olle
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 20, 2012 1:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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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Yuri
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Joined: 16 Dec 2006
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 24, 2012 4:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

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.
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