The Balance Tone Drone Reeds are manufactured by Highland Reeds. Designed by Major Bruce Hitchings, these drone reeds are played by 1000's of pipers worldwide.
They offer the following:
- Steadiness with exceptional tone
- Easy strike ins every time
- Efficient with minimal amounts of air required
- Moisture resistant and easy set up
Give the reeds a listen:
Check out Major Hitchings discussing his reeds:
6 Reviews Hide Reviews Show Reviews
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Reeds pitch too high
I bought a set of Balance Tone drone reeds on the web site. There seemed to be three alternative kinds offered: one kind called ‘high resonance’ an another called ‘high resonance B flat’. I tried to avoid both those special kinds. The reeds arrive in reasonable time and were well packaged. With them was a document with instruction on the use of the reeds which I though were quite well presented. The reeds were identified ‘BT3 1835’. These instructions said the reeds come ready to play. However they did not say at what pitch they were ready to play. I use a Braw Tuner and so know at what pitch my pipes play expressed in Hertz. I thought my chanter sounds quite good but the low A is 478 Hz. Is that unreasonably low? I have not been able to tune my drones with the new reed. The reeds want to play at a higher pitch. Did I inadvertently buy B flat reeds? What does ‘BT3 1835’ mean? (Company reply: Hi Phillip, please give us a call to discuss).
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good reeds
the tenors are very rich and stable. The bass isn't as stable but still sound great. Very easy to set up and tune. I highly recommend these.
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worked out of the box
Very little setup except for balancing to my chanter reed. What a great improvement over my 25 yr old drone reeds. And these reeds are engineered very well to address common problems of drone reeds, howling, cutting out, tuning to allow drone tuning slides to be positioned evenly with each other and at correct length, bridle not made of electrical tape that deteriorates (!)
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committed to balance tone drone reeds. I bought the set. They’re tight and easy to blow and tune. excellent.
I’m committed to balance tone drone reeds. I bought the set. They’re tight and easy to blow and tune well. It’s an excellent product. Well recommended.
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Balance Tone drone reeds a success
After playing Balance Tone drone reeds in my Gibson pipes for 2 weeks I couldn't be more pleased! The strike-ins are so satisfying from the get go and I had them balanced in no time at all. Reading the enclosed instructions and watching Major Hitchings' video was all I needed. At band practice the other night the piper next to me commented, "What did you do to your base drone? It sounds so ,,, bold!" Thank you, Major Hitchings!
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Excellent drone reeds
These reeds were installed and played. I made one minor adjustment on one of the tenor bridles and that was all that was done. I wasted my money on 2 other types of drone reeds and certainly wish that I'd have gone with these first. The Major has made a great product and I'm certainly thankful for his expertise. Thank you Major Hitchings.
