Pipe Maintenance – Moisture Control
For the last few weeks I have been finding that my base drone gets wet after about an hour and a half of playing. This usually causes the base drone to change pitch requiring the pipes to be re-tuned, lately it has been causing the base to cut off completely.
I checked the Ross Canister system for leaks but it all looked pretty good, I added the split stock tube which is supposed to take 60% of the moisture before it reaches the bag. I also air dried the granules, all with no improvement.
I have been advised by a few people not to dry the granules in the microwave, however I thought that I would give this a go, and it worked. So the the air drying method does not appear to work and seems like it has been a waist of time. Maybe this is just because the air has been quite moist through the winter.
Another thing I noticed is that the canister was quite warm after playing for about an hour and a half, This could be a problem and I have been advised to add some moisture back to the granules before trying to play with the chanter.
I have also been advised that to avoid dust causing issues with the chanter reed, use pantyhose between the chanter tube and the canister to capture most of the dust. This will stop a small grain from going between the blades of the reed and causing problems.
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