Quote Originally Posted by Jack Daw
Cane reeds are a booger to get and keep in tune. I'd rather do 10 tax returns.
Can't count how many times I've heard that before.

For those of us that have the "luxury" of having more than one set of pipes to play, reeding up one set with cane drone reeds is definitely a learning experience. Concerning cane reeds, the "trick" is to play them everyday until broke in and at least blow the drones every other day for 5 minutes or more with chanter stock corked. You'd be surprised how much they can stay in tune. But of course, if you were playing indoors only, the chances of "drone failure" is a lot less. Once you go outside....all bets are off.

However, I do encourage others to try to pop in a cane bass reed with their synthetic tenor reeds. Not as problematic as with all drones with cane. Depending on type and bore size, that particular combo can be very pleasant to hear.