• Ezeedrone Reeds

Ezeedrone Reeds Review
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Ezeedrone Reeds are made in Scotland by Pipe Dreams. They are almost a plug and play
reed, but usually need some minor adjustment of the bridle and tuning screw. This is of
course to be expected with most reeds.
The reed body is made of a cellulose compound and they have a very small plastic blade held
in place by a rubber sleeve. Another rubber sleeve acts as a bridle and because of the small
size of the blade; any small movement of the bridle creates a huge change in the reed, for this
reason any adjustment should be made in the fractions of a millimetre.
For best results the rubber sleeve placed on the end of the reed to be seated in the drone
should be removed and replaced with waxed hemp. I often see pipers who have hemped over
the sleeve, or just use the rubber sleeve to seat the reed. These methods are very ineffective
and a much better result can be achieved by seating the reed properly. The end of the reed has
a long tapered section for hemping and they do seat very well in the drone.
There is a tuning screw in the closed end of the reed. These are very effective and I often see
pipers add a little Teflon tape to the thread. Maybe a good idea, however I have never found
one that leaked.
On the down side the blades have a tendency to age and then squeal a little when striking in.
They are also susceptible to instability in very hot conditions, particularly the bass drone.
This appears to be the small blade being affected by heat. They also do not like to get
moisture on the blade, so an effective moisture control system is highly recommended.
These reeds are deceptive. They are actually quite loud when measured on a decibel meter.
However they have quite a refined tone and are used by many soloists. The tenors sound very
cane like. But not bright and vibrant, more the sort of sound cane tenors give at the end of a
long playing session. This gives a real “oneness” to the drone sound. Not many synthetic
reeds can give that result. The bass is full and harmonic, but the earlier ones use a lot of air no
matter how they are set up. For this reason a lot of pipers use a different bass drone reed, I
found a Crozier Carbon reed, Kinnaird, Canning or a Cane Bass were very good
combinations with the tenors for those wanting a refined sound, with a little more bass
vibrancy. This also significantly improves air efficiency.
There are a lot of combinations available:
 Inverted reeds. These seemed to give a bit of a smoother, fuller sound in the drones
that we tested in.
 Longer reeds. These are for shaper drones that tune too high.
 The standard bass reed we found to have a bit more “grunt” than the inverted reed but
were a little harsh in some drones.
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  We did not try the short Ezeedrone bass reed, but obviously that is for a flatter bass
drone that tunes too low.
We were of the impression that these reeds became a little more air efficient with some
playing and they definitely improved over the first week or so. Maybe it was a little refining,
but the impression was that they liked to be “played in” a little.
More reviews can be found at http://www.schoolofpiping.com/reviews.html
Standard Ezeedrone Reeds.
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