The Plastification of Pipes: Synthetic Chanter Reeds!

Technology sweeps up the bagpipe world too, and the old traditional cane chanter reed has competition from new synthetic reeds. We'll look quickly how tech has challenged old fashioned and traditional pipes, starting with practice chanters, moving to small pipes, and then onto a comparison of 5 synthetic reeds for the Great Highland Bagpipe.

0:18 Overview of tech trend and why plastic?
3:13 Practice chanters going electronic....beyond plastic
4:38 Smallpipes, wood versus all plastic, sound comparison
6:28 Five types of synthetic reeds compared
9:40 Blowing strength, how hard to play each reed?
17:38 Frequencies created by cane versus plastic...the hiss test!
19:40 Tuner test, how solid is the chanter against a tuner? Mclaren vs cane
20:24 Cold weather test...starting up with cold pipes outdoors Mclaren vs cane
21:36 Summary and recommendations...spoiler...only the Mclaren advances
23:05 Final sound comparisons between cane and plastic Mclaren reed

Like cane reeds, synthetic reeds aren't all equal. The best of the bunch goes head to head against cane and is a credible choice for easy, reliable outdoors playing.