I have built the J. Dunn for J. Peacock (1797) open-chanter set from Cocks & Bryan, 1975, and am looking for advice on reeding this pipe and getting it working. I've been quoted a price of 26 pounds for a modern chanter reed that could probably be adjusted to play properly, though I'm on our Social Security retirement income only, and currently have my health status upgraded to Stage 4 terminal, so I don't have 26 pounds to spend on the pipes.
I might be able to cobble up some artificial reeds for the drones, probably from square tubing and plastic or cane tongues, though I'm not completely confident of my abilities here.
The chanter reed is of course the big challenge here. Has anyone else made up, and got working, this old chanter?
I'm currently living in Northern California, USA, but unfortunately our pipers club has no nearby Northumbrian pipers.
I'm also going to try dropping a line to both Sean Folsom and Oliver Seeler and ask their suggestions.
Regards, John